nd many others which
were built during the war in the Crimea for the transport of troops.
These ships were never prosperous anywhere, and are in nearly all
cases at the present found in second hands; the original proprietors
having lost a large share of their investment. Thus, purchased
cheaply, and running with simply an auxiliary steam power, and making
the passages but little shorter than the sailing vessels, and not even
so short as their best passages, they have but little more daily
expense than the sailing vessels, with all of the deceptive advantages
of being called steamers. They thus get these better freights and a
large number of immigrants, which with small interest on prime cost
enables them to live.

Paradoxical as it may seem, there are yet some cases, even upon the
ocean, in which steam can transport freight cheaper than the winds of
heaven. And this species of trade constitutes one of the best
capabilities of steam power applied to navigation. It is not in the
long voyage between Europe and America, or between the East and
California, or yet in the far-off trade among the calms and pacific
seas of the East-Indies and the Pacific Islands; it is not in the
smooth, lake-like seas of the West-Indies, where there is no freight
whose transport price will pay for putting it on and taking it off the
steamer; nor in the trade of Brazil whence a bag of coffee can be
transported five thousand miles to New-York nearly as cheaply as it
can from New-York to Baltimore or to Charleston; but it is in the
coasting trade of almost every country, where the voyage is short. In
the trade between New-York and Baltimore, between Charleston and
Savannah, between Boston and Portland, or between New-Orleans and Key
West, or New-Orleans and Galveston, the small sailing vessels spend
one half of their time in working in and out of the harbors. Sometimes
they are two days awaiting winds, to get out of a harbor, two days in
sailing, and two days again in making and entering their port of
destination; whereas a steamer would make the whole passage in one day
to a day and a half. Now, the distance actually to be run, and for
which the steamer will be compelled to burn coal is not very great;
but the trouble of working the vessel in and out, against adverse
winds and currents, and amid storms and calms, is sometimes excessive,
while the delay and cost are disheartening. They have also the trouble
of warping into and out of the docks, w