[Illustration: The Belted Cruiser Orlando, with Twin Screws.]
Collision will and must remain the great and really almost the one danger which the North Atlantic traveller need fear. He can rarely hope to cross in the usual steam route without experiencing a run of some hundreds of miles through fog, especially on leaving or approaching our coast. So long as the Gulf Stream and the cold inlying current from the north move in juxtaposition as they do, so long will the fog be almost always present upon the border-land dividing them. How easy it is for a great ship to be sunk was shown in the case of the Oregon. A blow from a pygmy schooner not more than one-tenth her size, and a hole was opened through her side which unfortunate circumstances combined to make fatal, and the great vessel, a triumph of human skill in hull and machinery, is lying in a few hours upon the bottom of the sea, with a million days of skilled labor, as represented by ship and cargo, in this moment made valueless. Who can over estimate the care and responsibility upon the man who commands such a ship? In what other calling are they found as such a constant part of daily life?
The only remedy for such an accident as that which befell the unluckly Oregon seems to be a subdivision such as is carried out in all the greater ships of late years; and that this has been carried to a degree which has made the finer passenger ships practically unsinkable, unless under most exceptional circumstances, would seem quite sure.[6]
How wonderful has been the scale upon which this great industry of carriage by steam vessels has grown can only be shown by tables of statistics.
The steam tonnage in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany, beginning with 1840, was as follows:
------+-------------------------------+---------+---------+---------- | United States. | | | +----------+----------+---------+ | | Years.|Registered| Enrolled | | | | | for | and | Total. | United | France. | German | oversea. | licensed.| | Kingdom.| | Empire. ------+----------+----------+---------+---------+---------+---------- | Gross | Gross | Gross | | | | tons. | tons. | tons. |Net tons.|Net tons.| Net tons. 1840 | 4,155 | 198,184 | 202,339| 87,539| 9,535 | ... 1850 | 44,942 | 481,005 | 525,947| 167,698| 13,925 | ... 1860 | 97,296 | 770,641 | 867,937| 452,352| 68,025 | ... 1870 | 192,544 | 882,551 |1,075,095|1,111,375| 154,415 | 81,994 1875 | 191,689 | 976,979 |1,168,668|1,943,197| 205,420 | 183,569 1880 | 146,604 |1,064,964 |1,211,558|2,720,551| 277,759 | 215,758 | | | | | (1884) | (1884) 1885 | 186,406 |1,308,511 |1,494,917|3,969,728| 511,072 | 413,943 { | 197,630 |1,661,458 |1,859,088|5,112,683| 503,791 | 722,521 1890 { | | | | Gross | Gross | Gross { | | | | tons. | tons. | tons. { | | | |8,167,762| 848,522 |1,054,899 ------+----------+----------+---------+---------+---------+----------