Voice from America.
Many of the largest of these rivers are at present running through deserts—others possess but a scanty population on their banks; but, as the west fills up, they will be teeming with life, and the harvest of industry will freight many more hundreds of vessels than those which at present disturb their waters.
The Americans have an idea that they are very far ahead of us in steam navigation, a great error which I could not persuade them of. In the first place, their machinery is not by any means equal to ours; in the next, they have no sea-going steam vessels, which after all is the great desideratum of steam navigation. Even in the number and tonnage of their mercantile steam vessels they are not equal to us, as I shall presently show, nor have they yet arrived to that security in steam navigation which we have.
The return of vessels belonging to the Mercantile Steam Marine of Great Britain, made by the Commissioners on the Report of steam-vessel accidents in 1839, is, number of vessels, 810; tonnage, 157,840; horse power, 63,250.
Mr. Levi Woodbury’s Report to Congress in December, 1838, states the number of American steam vessels to be 800, and the tonnage to be 155,473; horse power, 57,019.
It is but fair to state, that the Americans have the credit of having sent the first steam vessel across the Atlantic. In 1819, a steam vessel, built at New York, crossed from Savannah to Liverpool in twenty-six days.
The number of sea-going steam vessels in England is two hundred and eighty-two, while in the United States they have not more than ten at the outside calculation. In the size of our vessels also we are far superior to them. I here insert a table, shewing the dimensions of our largest vessels, as given in the Report to the House of Commons, and another of the largest American vessels collected from the Report of Mr. Levi Woodbury to Congress.
Table shewing some of the Dimensions of the Hull and Machinery of the five largest ships yet built or building.
(Table to be added in a later edition.)
But the point on which we are so vastly superior to the Americans, is in our steam vessels of war. They have but one in the United States, named the Fulton the Second. The following is a list of those belonging to the Government of Great Britain, with their tonnage:—
| Tons. | Tons. | Tons. | |||
| Acheron | 722 | Fearless | 165 | Myrtle | 116 |
| Adder | 237 | Firebrand | 495 | Otter | 237 |
| Advice | 475 | Fire Fly | 550 | Phoenix | 809 |
| African | 295 | Flamer | 496 | Pigmy | 230 |
| Alban | 294 | Fury | 166 | Pike | 112 |
| Ariel | 149 | Gleaner | 306 | Pluto | 365 |
| Asp | 112 | Gorgon | 1111 | Prospero | 244 |
| Avon | 361 | Hecate | 815 | Redwing | 139 |
| Beaver | 128 | Hecla | 815 | Radamanthus | 813 |
| Blazer | 527 | Hermes | 716 | Salamander | 818 |
| Boxer | 159 | Hydra | 818 | Shearwater | 343 |
| Carron | 294 | Jasper |
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