or piled away in the patent-office apartments, have never attempted this alliance, but a far different one-namely, that of a rectilineal primary, with an unnatural mechanical rotation, (just as unnatural as for a man to expand his muscular effort upon a crank in the same manner and as incorrigibly as the engine does, and not rather produce in the application of his force a muscular rotation by the guidance of his judgment and will, which, if he did not do, would stamp him as stupidly verdant-yet science knows no two laws for the man and the engine,) and such a rotatory force with a curvilineal reciprocation. Or the same question might be answered in the same manner and for the same reasons as we would, prior to every improvement, answer, why has not it been attained, even though its specific necessity or value had not been known until introduced. The subject thus presented is not simply speculative, but it is rationally prophetical, in that the deductions are based upon undisputed data, while those from science are indisputable, and the inductions follow as effect ever follows cause. OBVIOUS ADVANTAGES OF THEIR REFORMATION. The advantages of such a practical alliance would render steam applicable to sail Commerce generally, without its losing its identity at all as a sail marine in its economical relations, though it would lose its present characteristics of uncertain, tediously lengthy, and dangerous passages. In regard to the shipping of the great trans-Atlantic thoroughfare, our reliable statistics show that the average fair winds, when outward bound, equal about 81 per cent, and when homeward bound equal about 62 per cent of all the winds. Now, if we take the average tonnage as given last year for the Liverpool packets, or 1,175 tons, and give to each a small engine, with the supposed improvements, such as tugs them at present in our harbors at from 6 to 8 knots, and consumes about four tons of coal per 24 hours, we shall greatly increase its efficiency. By the National Observatory authority, as laid down by Lieut. Maury, we have to the outward routes for January, February, March, and April, to 10 degrees west of Cape Clear, 2,287 miles of fair winds, 469 miles of slant winds, (or such as drive a ship from her chart course,) and 76 miles dead-ahead winds; and we have 72 vessels for the same months and routes averaging 193 days, which gives a nominal run of 6 knots per hour. Hence her specific sailing may, perhaps, be thus expressed:- Through fair winds, 2,287 miles, at 8 knots... Through slant winds, by chart 469 miles, by sail 606 miles, at 5 knots.. Total...... Their slant and head-winds being run "close hauled," and their distance by sail given without allowance for drift, and since one mile drift requires two and a half miles run on account of the transverse sailing to recover it, the difference between the rates will not be considered too large. It is evident that in making the run of 2,287 miles through the fair winds there will be, under a general average, light breezes and very low runs, so that, perhaps, we might assume to the strongest winds an average of about eight days' sail at 9.7 knots, so that we should give to the balance of the distance of fair but too light winds the aid of steam. From the most accessible facts and deductions, it is probable that, to the assumed tonnage, the addition of steam to the light winds and slant winds would give about 7 knots upon the chart course; and steam alone to the dead head-winds (ship close reefed) would average 4 knots or more. Hence we would have the following results: Strongest fair winds, 1,867 miles by chart route, at 9.7 knots...... Total...... Days. Hours. 2 8 12 2 18 18 Making to the credit of six days' steam 53 days' time. To the same months, and the return passages from 10 degrees west of Cape Clear, we have only 1,664 miles of fair winds, 1,009 miles slant, and 179 miles dead head-winds, and to which we have 110 passages averaging 32 days. The chart distance is 2,851 miles, and the nominal rate 3.7 knots, though the sail-courses, due to the winds, without drift, is 3,406 miles, or at the rate of 4.44 knots. These relations arise from the westerly winds prevailing over the easterly, and their specific runs may, perhaps, properly be given thus: Fair winds, by chart course 1,664 miles, at 64 knots.... Total... Days. Hours. 10 16 15 5 14 18 32 00 If we suppose that to 1,280 miles of the strongest fair winds they could have a run of 8 knots, then, with the rates before assumed to steam and sail, we have, to the Strongest fair winds, 1,280 miles by chart, by sail, at 8 knots Total.. 218 17 00 ... Making, to the credit of 10 days' steam, 15 days' time. In uniting the passages for the same months, the actual average to both ways is 51 days, and the supposed passages by sail and steam jointly equal 31 days, so that we have due to 16 days' steam, at low rates and consumption of fuel, 20 days' time, or a saving of nearly two-fifths the present time. If we deduct from the average tonnage the freight of engine, machinery, coal, &c., by the saving in her running time she would increase her aggregate available freight by an addition equal to one-half of all her present freight, and also increase her passenger capacity by two-fifths of her present lists. This is, to be sure, an extraordinary economy; and in these considerations, while some things are reliably taken-such as the chart distances which would be followed by sail and steam, the relations of the winds, which are based upon thousands of recorded observations by a large num ber of mariners, the time of the average actual passages, and the consumption of coal to such an engine-other points are only supposed nearly correct, as the specific rates of sailing given to the relative winds and given to sails and steam, and the rate given to steam under the average head-winds, the appropriate machinery, &c., being supposed attainable; hence the given difference is, to a certain degree, problematical; yet it is not doubtful, from the nature of the case, but that with such an engine and appropriate and efficient machinery, nearly these runs may be produced, and with great certainty and regularity. It is an important consideration that, as we shorten the passages, we not only lessen the risks by dangers and disasters in the same proportion, but at the same time increase the ability to withstand and avoid dangers, and prevent delays. During the same months of 1852 we have the arrival of 135 vessels from Liverpool, London, and Havre, which averaged 35 days' passages. In the account of these passages, from the single port of Liverpool, we read thus of one vessel: "12 days west of Georges Banks "—(a little over three hundred miles from New York;) one 28 days between long. 30 deg. west and 40 deg. west," (or 28 days between the meridians of 10 degrees of longitude in the broad Atlantic;) another, " 16 days from Nantucket to the Hook;" another, " 7 days making 3 degrees of longitude west;" another, "6 days with pilot aboard;" one "7 days within 60 miles of the Hook;" one "20 days without making any longitude west;" another, "20 days in reaching Cape Clear from her port;" another, "25 days making 600 miles from Liverpool, and 14 days making the last 600 miles into New York;" another, "20 days from the Grand Banks;" and many other lesser, yet very embarrassing delays from the same port. If we take simply the arrivals for the month of March of the same year, we have a peculiar illustration of the uncertainties attending sail voyages, and, too, under the well known abilities of the Liverpool masters. Thus, the shortest passage was 17 days, and the longest passage nearly four times the shortest, or 66 days; the next shortest was 18 days, and the next longest three and one-fourth times the longer, or 59 days. We have also two ships that were a longer time without making any longitude west (that is without crossing a meridian which they had reached at an earlier day,) than either of these shortest runs. And another instance of a packet ship which was longer reaching Cape Clear from Liverpool (not far from 300 miles,) than either of these shortest passages; and another ship that was a longer time making 1,200 miles (a little over one-third of her chart route, and it being the first 600 and last 600 miles of her route,) than twice that of either of the two shortest passages. To fourteen passages of ships arriving within three months from one port, there is an aggregate of extreme delays equal to 7 months or 217 days, (and delays not included in the list of disasters,) and the distance covered by this sum of delays with a six-knot steam-power, would have been run in thirty-seven days, showing a net saving of six months time, or 180 days. Nearly two-thirds of this sum of delays is west of the Grand Banks, (off Newfoundland,) hence a greater coastwise exposure, greater risks of life, of shipping, of merchandise, and of disasters. But from the other English and European ports we have a similar tale of embarrassments, and to all an addition of a large portion of the too lengthy daily lists of disasters, many of which would be directly avoided. by such an available steam-power. A commentary upon these facts, to speak their pressing demands upon commercial men, to speak the economy of a remedial alliance with steam, (which cannot be effected under the present system,) and to speak the humanity of such an alliance, to preserve the lives of those now swept by hundreds to a watery grave during a single prevailing storm; where the ship is without a single hope from its inherent resources, and what is worse, without the least preparation for relief by posessing a contending power to the winds, or steam fixtures for the emergencies, is useless; they speak more forcibly than words of eloquence, than rhetorical appeals, and they speak financially as well as to the understanding and the heart. ADVANTAGES IN THE SOUTHERLY, EASTERN, AND WESTERN COMMERCE. In the ship's great highway to the Pacific's eastern and western Commerce, southerly by the capes, we find still more extraordinary circumstances showing the necessities for an alliance of canvas and the winds with steam. The common and almost universal dread of the calms of the "Horse Latitudes" and the "Doldrums," of both the Atlantic and the Pacific, have led, by their embarrassments, to the most careful and philosophical investigations, and nautical instructions therefrom; and their profitable development by most perfect ships and able commanders-all of which we cannot too highly appreciate as one of the great modern improvements. But when the winds and currents cease their motion, the ship's locomotion ceases; and when they are adverse she is greatly restrained from her destined course. Whatever the destination south of the equator, all take the same thoroughfares, according to the season of the year, best to clear the South American Cape; (St. Rouque, a little south of the line,) hence, the routes to the equator are highly important. The facts and data of these routes are in contrast with the European routes, in that the common and extreme delays in the former, proceed from the absence of winds chiefly; while in the European trade they proceed, chiefly, from adverse winds, except in the milder months; but they are similar in their uncertainties-in their irregularities-good ships having lain longer in the "doldrums" than others have taken from the New England ports to California-in their long average of passages, compared to the shortest when the ships pass the "dreaded" latitudes and equinoctial "horrors," as the exceptions to nature's common laws-and in that the relations of winds to the equator, agree very nearly with those to Europe; while yet the passages to the equator agree more nearly with the passages from Europe, distances considered; hence they both agree in their pressing necessities for relief, through their only possible resource, that is, by a suitable alliance with steam. Nothing more forcibly than the simple, careful examination of the ship's "logs" to these passages can be deduced to show their embarrassments, and the great relief they would sustain from a small steam power appropriate to canvas ships. By such an examination of the log of the FlyingFish, in her celebrated run of nineteen days to the line, it shows plainly that three days' steam, partly in the "horse latitudes" and partly near the equator, would have saved her two days' time; and in the Flying-Cloud's celebrated run to California, three-and-a-half days' steam would have saved her four-and-a-half days' time to the equator; while several days' steam would shorten many a passage more than one-half of their actual time. In certain months the average time ships have occupied in crossing the "belt" of equatorial calms exceeds the average steamship run to Europe; while by a little steam-tug, (with a twenty-eight inch cylinder and six-foot stroke, to a 1,200 ton ship,) such as ply in our own harbors, would have crossed them in two-and-a-half days, and saved the time of the shortest steam runs to Europe. Although the average runs to the line have been remarkably shortened under the so useful instructions of Lieutenant Maury, yet, from their peculiarities, it is evident that steam used about one-fourth of the time of the present average would lessen that average to about two-thirds its present time, giving very uniform runs the dull-sailing ships requiring more steam than the fast-sailers. The runs to California have been very greatly reduced in two ways, one by having better ships and better rigging, and the other by better knowledge of the best routes, and better sailing instructions; but neither of these reaches the great desideratum of Sail Commerce, namely, motive force towards her destined port, when the winds cease entirely, when they are but faint breezes, and when they oppose such progress. These embarrassments are such, that to the Flying-Cloud's short run, had she had a six-knot steam power, by twenty-two days' steam, she would have saved eighteen days' time, and 1,457 miles of her actual run. By her log her position at noon, each day, is given, hence we can tell accurately how much she would have saved in distance, from these positions, by steam, (that is, she could not have saved less,) and yet have kept her same general route; and her forty-nine days, when she would not have used steam, would have been unvaried, and in which she ran 10,940 miles, or at an average rate of 9.3 knots per hour. To her other forty days she ran 5,011 miles, or at an average of five-and-a-quarter knots, nearly; but by steam's enabling her to keep her chart routes, although its use is at different parts of her passage, her forty days are reduced to twenty-two days, steam and sail, and her 5,011 miles to 3,554 miles, and which is run at an average of six-and-three-quarter knots nearly per hour. Hence we see how it is that so little steam does so great good; for, just like homeopathic medicine, it reaches the disease directly-yet the little medicinal store is hardly noticed in the great nursery chambers. In the partial log of the Sovereign of the Seas, (in which the commander gives to the National Department, only fifty-three days out of his eightytwo days' run from the Sandwich Islands,) in one of her celebrated runs, we observe, that for thirty-five days out of the fifty-three days, she averaged 10 knots, running 8,552 miles; the other eighteen days in which she ran 1,993 miles at 43 knots, would have been run in ten days, and have saved four hundred miles of the distance, or averaging nearly 63 knots. But this part of the log was evidently given chiefly to show his best sailing; to the other twenty-nine days of his run steam would probably have been much more observably essential. But since these are among the best runs ever made, they are those least likely to require steam, or least likely to show its necessities, though we see its great advantages very forcibly. The average of all American vessels that arrived at San Francisco during 1850 is 187 days. Of course some of these made intermediate ports, some were dull sailers, and some had extravagant delays. And |