Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/211

Rh Not content with the results attained on the Pacific, the Company, in more recent years, decided to extend their ramifications to the Atlantic, and acquired a fleet of steamers for the purpose, thereby enabling them to link up Great Britain and the Continent with the Dominion of Canada, and, with their Pacific Line, form a through service with the Far East. Two magnificent and fast steamers, the Empress of Britain and the Empress of Ireland, of 15,000 tons each, were built by the Company in 1905, for the Atlantic mail and passenger service, and it was not long before they became first favourites with the travelling public. The advent of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Atlantic Line placed the Company in a position to carry passengers and mails through from England to Hongkong, or intervening points, under their own flag. With the regular Pacific service, a special "Overseas Mail" train across Canada, and the fast Atlantic Empresses, the through period of transit is only 29½ days from Hongkong to London, and 22½ days from Yokohama. This, in itself, is an achievement to be proud of, but it is anticipated that in the near future even this may be improved upon. The increasing popularity of the Canadian Pacific Railway as a through route to England is evidenced by the continued growth in the number of passengers using the line.

The Company's lines run through the temperate zone throughout, a very great consideration to residents in the Tropics proceeding home on leave. No route offers a more varied description of scenery, and the traveller, for pleasure or instruction, or both, has every opportunity of getting what he wants when travelling over this system. Glimpses of China and Japan are obtained, even by those passing through on a continuous journey, while any desirous of becoming more intimately acquainted with any place or places can easily arrange their passage in a way to meet their wishes. Those seeking for health derive the greatest benefit from the invigorating air of the Pacific and the mountain ranges of Canada.

Mr. D. W. Craddock, who has been in the Company's service for over sixteen years, is the general traffic agent for China, the Straits Settlements, India, &amp;c. His headquarters are at Hongkong. Mr. J. Rankin, is agent at Shanghai, and Messrs. Jardine, Matheson &amp; Co., represent the Company at the various coast and river ports in China.









Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded in 1848, and in those early days ran a line of steamers from New York to San Francisco, viâ the Straits of Magellan. On the completion of the Panama Railroad between Aspinwall (Colon) on the Atlantic, and Panama on the Pacific, in 1860, the steamers ran only from San Francisco to Panama, connecting with the Vanderbilt Line from Aspinwall to New York. In 1865 the Company purchased the Vanderbilt Line, and in the following year commenced to send boats between Shanghai and Yokohama, viâ the Inland Sea. On January 1, 1867, the Colorado left San Francisco for Hongkong. She was the first of a regular line of steamers to cross the Pacific, and was followed a month later by the Great Republic. The old paddle steamers were replaced by modern screw steamships, as the demands of the traffic required, until, in 1902, the building of the liners Korea and Siberia marked an epoch in trans-Pacific shipping trade. These magnificent steamers have each a displacement of 18,000 tons, are 551 feet long, and have an indicated horse-power of 18,000. In 1903–4 the Pacific Mail acquired the still larger steamers Mongolia and Manchuria, each with a displacement of 27,000 tons. These vessels are 615 feet long. These four ships, in conjunction with the China, a vessel capable of steaming 18 knots and having excellent passenger accommodation, maintain a schedule of weekly sailings from Hongkong to San Francisco, calling at Shanghai, Nagasaki, Kobe, Yokohama, and Honolulu. This route, viâ the "Paradise of the Pacific" immortalised by Mark Twain and other famous writers, is exceedingly popular among travellers.

The Company's agency at Hongkong was established in 1866, Captain E. A. Harris being their first representative in the Colony.





being an island empire, her communications with foreign countries are entirely maritime, and her commercial prosperity consequently depends largely upon the enterprise which characterises the organisation of her merchant service. The art of navigation has been practised by the people since remote