supply some large steamers. The British Empire,
of 3361 gross tonnage, was the same class of vessel as those of the
White Star line, but fuller, being intended for cargo. Though
originally intended for the Eastern trade, this vessel was eventually
placed on the Liverpool and Philadelphia line; and her working proved
so satisfactory that five more vessels were ordered like her, which
were chartered to the American Company.

The Liverpool agents, Messrs. Richardson, Spence, and Co., having
purchased the Cunard steamer Russia, sent her over to us to be
lengthened 70 feet, and entirely refitted--another proof of the rapid
change which owners of merchant ships now found it necessary to adopt
in view of the requirements of modern traffic.

Another Liverpool firm, the Messrs. T. and J. Brocklebank, of
world-wide repute for their fine East Indiamen, having given up
building for themselves at their yard at Whitehaven, commissioned us to
build for them the Alexandria, and Baroda, which were shortly followed
by the Candahar and Tenasserim. And continuing to have a faith in the
future of big iron sailing ships, they further employed us to build for
them two of yet greater tonnage, the Belfast and the Majestic.

Indeed, there is a future for sailing ships, notwithstanding the recent
development of steam power. Sailing ships can still hold their own,
especially in the transport of heavy merchandise for great distances.
They can be built more cheaply than steamers; they can be worked more
economically, because they require no expenditure on coal, nor on wages
of engineers; besides, the space occupied in steamers by machinery is
entirely occupied by merchandise, all of which pays its quota of
freight. Another thing may be mentioned: the telegraph enables the
fact of the sailing of a vessel, with its cargo on board, to be
communicated from Calcutta or San Francisco to Liverpool, and from that
moment the cargo becomes as marketable as if it were on the spot.
There are cases, indeed, where the freight by sailing ship is even
greater than by steamer, as the charge for warehousing at home is
saved, and in the meantime the cargo while at sea is negotiable.

We have accordingly, during the last few years, built some of the
largest iron and steel sailing ships that have ever gone to sea. The
aim has been to give them great carrying capacity and fair speed, with
economy of working; and the use of steel, both in the hull and the
rigging