White Star Line.—Though perhaps chiefly known in the New York trade, the White Star flag was first hoisted in the middle of last century over a fleet of clippers which sailed to Australia. In 1867 Mr Thomas Henry Ismay took it over, and two years later the great revolution in the constitution of the company took place. It was in 1869 that Mr Ismay formed the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company to run a line of steamers between Liverpool and New York. Immediately on its formation the company entered into arrangements with Messrs Harland & Wolff of Belfast for the construction of a fleet of high-class passenger ships, and it is worthy of notice that the terms upon which Messrs Harland & Wolff built the White Star ships were peculiar. No definite price was agreed upon, but the actual cost plus a percentage for builders’ profit was charged.
Fleets of Various Important Steamship Companies in 1891, 1901 and 1910.[1]
Company. | No. of Vess- els. |
Gross Tonnage. |
Flag. | 1910. | 1901. | 1891. | ||||||
Numer- ical Order. |
Gross Tonnage. |
No. of Vess- els. |
Numer- ical Order. |
No. of Vess- els. |
Gross Tonnage. |
Numer- ical Order. |
No. of Vess- els. |
Gross Tonnage. | ||||
International Mercantile Marine Co. | ||||||||||||
White Star Line | 31 | 372,045 | British | — | — | — | 10 | 25 | 212,403 | 17 | 16 | 84,902 |
Leyland Line[2] | 42 | 253,803 | British | — | — | — | 7 | 55 | 242,781 | 23 | 23 | 60,511 |
American Line and Red[3] Star Line | 16 | 164,213 | Mixed | — | — | — | 15 | 25 | 167,105 | — | — | — |
Atlantic Transport Co. . | 14 | 107,650 | British | — | — | — | 26 | 17 | 123,593 | 32 | 6 | 18,111 |
Dominion and British & North Atlantic Co. |
13 | 86,655 | British | — | — | — | 27 | 13 | 105,430 | 29 | 8 | 28,696 |
Vessels owned jointly with Shaw, Savill & Albion |
7 | 51,053 | British | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
National S.S. Co. | 2 | 16,005 | British | — | — | — | — | 3 | 18,464 | — | 12 | 53,522 |
Training Ship | 1 | 1,814 | British | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
126 | 1,053,238 | 1 | 1,053,238 | 126 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Hamburg-American Line | — | — | German | 2 | 979,217 | 168 | 1 | 202 | 541,085 | 9 | 42 | 126,795 |
Norddeutscher Lloyd | — | — | German | 3 | 752,037 | 176 | 2 | 111 | 454,936 | 4 | 70 | 198,723 |
P. & O. Company | — | — | British | 4 | 458,037 | 64 | 5 | 58 | 313,343 | 3 | 49 | 199,911 |
British India S.N. Co. | — | — | British | 5 | 423,063 | 104 | 4 | 120 | 378,770 | 1 | 100 | 234,654 |
Royal Mail S.P. Co. | 45 | 194,663 | British | 6 | 377,897 | 85 | 32 | 28 | 88,205 | 19 | 25 | 73,384 |
Pacific Steam Navigation Co. | 40 | 183,234 | British | 22 | 42 | 138,754 | 15 | 36 | 97,793 | |||
Alfred Holt & Co.—Ocean S.S. Co. | 39 | 234,808 | British | 7 | 340,559 | 57 | 16 | 41 | 165,143 | 11 | 44 | 109,000 |
China Mutual Steam Navigation Co. | 18 | 105,751 | British | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
Furness, Withy & Co. | — | — | British | 8 | 340,537 | 116 | — | 12 | 40,994 | — | 20 | 44,528 |
Elder, Dempster & Co.[4] | — | — | British | 9 | 331,533 | 108 | 3 | 120 | 382,560 | 25 | 48 | 55,256 |
Union-Castle Co.[5] | — | — | British | 10 | 295,360 | 41 | 8 | 41 | 222,613 | — | — | — |
Messageries Maritimes | — | — | French | 11 | 293,669 | 65 | 6 | 62 | 246,277 | 2 | 63 | 202,801 |
Nippon Yusen Kaisha. . | — | — | Japanese | 12 | 289,787 | 73 | 9 | 69 | 218,361 | 28 | 52 | 42,058 |
Ellerman Lines | — | — | British | 13 | 283,234 | 78 | ||||||
Lamport & Holt . | — | — | British | 14 | 281,412 | 44 | 20 | 47 | 149,712 | 12 | 54 | 106,648 |
Nav. Gen. Italiana[6] | — | — | Italian | 15 | 274,952 | 106 | 11 | 102 | 205,104 | 6 | 106 | 164,052 |
Hansa Line | — | — | German | 16 | 247,691 | 53 | 18 | 57 | 157,037 | 26 | 26 | 50,413 |
Compagnie Generale Trans-atlantique | — | — | French | 17 | 245,353 | 62 | 13 | 59 | 183,343 | 5 | 66 | 174,600 |
Harrison Line of Liverpool. . | — | — | British | 18 | 217,085 | 43 | 21 | 31 | 146,625 | 22 | 27 | 61,643 |
Austrian Lloyd. | Austrian | 19 | 216,414 | 66 | 14 | 68 | 169,436 | 10 | 76 | 124,435 | ||
I Cunard Line | — | — | British | 20 | 209,231 | 19 | 25 | 26 | 126,332 | 16 | 22 | 85,104 |
Clan Line | — | — | British | 21 | 202,463 | 49 | 17 | 46 | 164,487 | 18 | 29 | 76,300 |
Canadian Pacific Railway . | — | — | British | 22 | 198,310 | 65 | — | 12 | 38,089 | — | 7 | 24,373 |
Hamburg South American Line | — | — | German | 23 | 197,703 | 49 | — | 32 | 125,597 | — | 26 | 56,938 |
Wilson Line | — | — | British | 24 | 190,278 | 87 | 12 | 89 | 189,818 | 7 | 73 | 132,889 |
Kosmos Line | — | — | German | 25 | 177,704 | 36 | — | 29 | 110,251 | — | 15 | 32,963 |
Allan Line | — | — | British | 26 | 160,570 | 28 | 19 | 36 | 152,367 | 13 | 31 | 106,346 |
Ropner’s | — | — | British | 27 | 155,440 | 50 | 29 | 36 | 100,426 | 21 | 34 | 62,717 |
Maclay & Macintyre | — | — | British | 28 | 144,500 | 45 | 24 | 51 | 126,917 | 30 | 19 | 26,928 |
Chargeurs Reunis | — | — | French | 29 | 144,441 | 25 | 34 | 26 | 81,149 | 20 | 30 | 70,173 |
Booth Line | — | — | British | 30 | 128,200 | 37 | — | 27 | 64,456 | — | 10 | 13,951 |
Holland-American Line. . | — | — | Dutch | 31 | 124,136 | 15 | — | 9 | 55,413 | — | 11 | 37,891 |
Prince Line | — | — | British | 32 | 123,909 | 41 | — | 33 | 79,001 | — | 32 | 59,221 |
Bucknall Line | — | — | British | 33 | 122,388 | 29 | 33 | 23 | 83,207 | 33 | — | — |
Anchor Line | — | — | British | 34 | 110,588 | 19 | 23 | 41 | 132,540 | 8 | 44 | 127,065 |
Westoll Line | — | — | British | 35 | 90,174 | 35 | 31 | 38 | 88,306 | 27 | 31 | 48,298 |
Volunteer Fleet | — | — | Russian | 36 | 84,500 | 18 | 35 | 16 | 80,424 | 31 | 8 | 23,845 |
Johnston Line of Liverpool . | — | — | British | 37 | 81,000 | 20 | 28 | 24 | 100,460 | 24 | 22 | 58,621 |
Compañia Transatlantica | — | — | Spanish | 38 | 79,767 | 22 | 30 | 23 | 88,453 | 14 | 36 | 101,214 |
The first “Oceanic,” pioneer steamship of the line, was launched on the 27th of August 1870, and sailed for New York on the 2nd of March 1871. Her advent opened a new era in Atlantic travel. She introduced the midship saloon, which extended the whole width of the ship, thus giving increased light and improved ventilation, and reducing to a minimum the sensation of the vessel's motion. The arrangement thus introduced is now almost universally adopted in the construction of ocean liners.
The “Oceanic” was also narrower in proportion to her length than the vessels previously designed for the transatlantic mail service. In 1877 the “Britannic” reduced the passage to 7 days 10 hours and- ↑ This table is based on that contained in a paper on “Shipping Subsidies,” by B. W. Ginsburg, published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (September 1901).
- ↑ The Leyland Line was formerly the Leyland Line and West India & Pacific Steam Navigation Company.
- ↑ In 1891 the old American Line had 3 steamers of 10,166 tons; the Inman Line 6 steamers of 41,276 tons; the International Line 4 steamers of 12,112 tons; and the Red Star Line 9 steamers of 39,609 tons.
- ↑ Messrs Elder, Dempster & Co. now control the fleets of the African, British & African, and Imperial Direct Steamship companies.
- ↑ Formerly the Union Line and the Castle Line. In 1891 the Union Line had 23 steamers of 55,576 tons, and the Castle Line 1 steamers of 57,934 tons.
- ↑ Formerly known as the FIorio-Rubattino Line.