Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/118



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. bounty, and is now of no consequence, it came as a well-timed aid, at the date when that Act passed, because almost all Steam Vessels were then navigated at a loss, they were so imperfect (like Steam Coaches at the present day,) that their Engines were continually getting out of order, whereby they failed to make their passages, and required expensive reparations, their consumption of fuel was great, and the wear of boiler excessive; on the other hand, few passengers would go by them at first, and some terrible accidents which happened in a few vessels caused them all to be avoided by passengers for a long time; it was only by persisting in keeping them going as well as they could, and thereby gaining experience in their management, that the numerous defects of their construction were remedied; most of the earliest Steam Boats had two or three successive editions of engines and machinery before they were rendered so perfect as to become profitable; and in addition to the expences of such alterations and improvements in the machinery, they were obliged to make their passages regularly for some time after they were rendered tolerably effective before they acquired sufficient confidence with the public as to their safety and punctuality, to enable them to obtain as many passengers as would pay the expences of navigating the vessels. For all these reasons, any increase of their expences was severely felt, at that losing period; many were abandoned, and the difference in the expences occasioned by the rates to which vessels are liable, being calculated according to the breadth across the paddle wheels, or according to the Act passed for measuring them short by all the space taken up by the Engines, would have occasioned others which have been brought to bear to have been given up, before they had attained so much perfection as to enable them to earn their expences. In the same manner the tolls levied upon Steam Coaches at present are to be regarded, not as payments out of the profits of a gainful trade, but as an increase of loss upon that which is yet, and which must inevitably continue to be for some time, a losing business. The ultimate success to which I