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, facilitates the attainment of these
objects. In 1882 and 1883, we built and launched four of these
steel and iron sailing ships--the Waiter H. Wilson, the W. J.
Pirrie, the Fingal, and the Lord Wolseley--each of nearly 3000
tons register, with four masts,--the owners being Mr. Lawther, of
Belfast; Mr. Martin, of Dublin; and the Irish Shipowners Company.
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