The final phrase had a reminiscent ring as if it harked back to a time when three ample meals were a mirage of the imagination.

"Well, I am glad to hear you have done justice to them and encouraged the cook," was Mr. Tolman's jocular reply. "Now while you stay here you must cheer on our cook in the same fashion. If you don't we shall think you like New Haven better."

"I guess there is no danger of that," put in Mr. Ackerman. "d.i.c.k seems hollow down to his ankles. There is no filling him up; is there, boy?"

"I couldn't eat that third ice-cream you offered me yesterday," was the humorous retort.

"I hope you've saved some room for to-morrow's dinner," Mrs. Tolman interrupted, "for there will be mince pie and plum pudding and I don't know what not. And then there is the turkey--we ordered an extra large one on purpose."

d.i.c.k and Steve exchanged a sheepish grin.

"Well, it is jolly to see you good people," Mr. Tolman declared, as he ushered the visitors into the living room, where a bright fire burned on the hearth. "Our boys have done well, haven't they, Ackerman? I don't know which is to win the scholarship race--the steamboats or the railroads."

"We could compare marks," Stephen suggested.

"That would hardly be fair," Mr. Ackerman objected quickly, "for the steamboats did not start even with the railroads in this contest. d.i.c.k has had to put in a lot of hours with a tutor to make up for the work he missed at the beginning of the year. He has been compelled to bone down like a beaver to go ahead with his cla.s.s; but he has succeeded, haven't you, sonny?"

"I hope I have," was the modest retort.

"Furthermore," went on Mr. Ackerman, "there are other things beside scholarship to be considered in this bargain. We want fine, manly boys as well as wise ones. Conduct counts for a great deal, you know."

Stephen felt himself coloring.

"There have been no black marks on d.i.c.k's record thus far. How about yours, Steve?" asked the New York man.

"I--er--no. I haven't had any black marks, either," responded Stephen, with a gulp of shame.

"That is splendid, isn't it!" commented Mr. Ackerman. "I wasn't looking for them. You have too fine a father to be anything but a square boy."

Once more Stephen knew himself to be blushing. If they would only talk about something else!

"Are you going to finish your steamboat story for us while you are here?" inquired he with sudden inspiration.

"Why, I had not thought of doing any steamboating down here," laughed the capitalist. "Rather I came to help the Pilgrims celebrate their first harvest."

"But even they had to come to America by boat," suggested Doris mischievously.

"I admit that," owned the New Yorker. "And what is more, they probably would have come in a steamboat if one had been running at the time."

"What was the first American steamship to cross the Atlantic, Ackerman?"

questioned Mr. Tolman when they were all seated before the library fire.

"I suppose the _Savannah_ had that distinction," was the reply. "She was built in New York in 1818 to be used as a sailing packet; but she had side wheels and an auxiliary engine, and although she did not make the entire trans-Atlantic distance by steam she did cover a part of it under steam power. Her paddle wheels, it is interesting to note, were so constructed that they could be unshipped and taken aboard when they were not in use, or when the weather was rough. I believe it took her twenty-seven days to make the trip from Savannah to Liverpool and eighty hours of that time she was using her engine. Although she made several trips in safety it was quite a while before the American public was sufficiently convinced of the value of steam to build other steamships.

A few small ones appeared in our harbors, it is true, but they came from Norway or England; they made much better records, too, than anything previously known, the _Sirius_ crossing in 1838 in nineteen days, and the _Great Western_ in fifteen. In the meantime shipbuilders on both sides of the Atlantic were studying the steamboat problem and busy brains in Nova Scotia and on the Clyde were working out an answer to the puzzle. One of the most alert of these brains belonged to Samuel Cunard, the founder of the steamship line that has since become world famous. In May, 1840, through his instrumentality, the _Unicorn_ set out from England for Boston arriving in the harbor June third after a voyage of sixteen days. When we reflect that she was a wooden side-wheeler, not much larger than one of our tugboats, we marvel that she ever put in her appearance. Tidings of her proposed trip had already preceded her, and when after much anxious watching she was sighted there was the greatest enthusiasm along the water front, the over-zealous populace who wished to give her a royal welcome setting off a six-pounder in her honor that shattered to atoms most of her stained gla.s.s as she tied up at the dock."

His audience laughed.

"You see," continued the capitalist, "the ship came in answer to a circular sent out by our government to various shipbuilders asking bids from swift and reliable boats to carry our mails to England. Cunard immediately saw the commercial advantages of such an opportunity, and not having money enough to back the venture himself the Halifax man went to Scotland where he met Robert Napier, a person who like himself had had wide experience in shipping affairs. Both men were enthusiastic over the project; before long the money necessary for the undertaking was raised, and the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, with a line of four ships, was awarded the United States Government contract. These ships were very significantly named: the _Britannia_ in honor of England, the _Arcadia_ as a compliment to Mr.

Cunard's Nova Scotia home, the _Caledonia_ in memory of Napier's Scotch ancestry, and the _Columbia_ out of regard to America. And in pa.s.sing it is rather interesting to recall that in homage to these pioneer ships it has become a tradition of the Cunard Line to use names that terminate in the letter _a_ for all the ships that have followed them. For, you must remember, it was this modest group of steam packets that were the ancestors of such magnificent boats as the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_."

"There was some difference!" interrupted Stephen.

"Well, rather! Had you, however, told Samuel Cunard then that such mammoth floating hotels were possible he would probably not have believed you. He had task enough on his hands to carry the mails; transport the few venturesome souls that dared to cross the sea; and compete with the many rival steamship lines that sprang up on both sides of the ocean as soon as some one had demonstrated that trans-Atlantic travel was practical. For after Cunard had blazed the path there were plenty of less daring persons ready to steal from him the fruits of his vision and courage. From 1847 to 1857 the Ocean Steamship Company carried mails between New York and Bremen, and there was a very popular line that ran from New York to Havre, up to the period of the Civil War.

Among the individual ships none, perhaps, was more celebrated than the _Great Eastern_, a vessel of tremendous length, and one that more nearly approached our present-day liners as to size. Then there was the Collins Line that openly competed with the Cunard Line; and to further increase trans-Atlantic travel, in 1855 Cornelius Vanderbilt, ever at the fore in novel projects, began operating lines of steamships not only to England and France but to Bremen."

Mr. Ackerman paused a moment.

"By 1871 there was an American line between Philadelphia and Liverpool.

In the meantime, ever since 1861, there had been a slow but steady advance in ocean shipbuilding. Although iron ships had gradually replaced wooden ones the side-wheeler was still in vogue, no better method of locomotion having been discovered. When the change from this primitive device to the screw propeller came it was a veritable leap in naval architecture. Now revolutions in any direction seldom receive a welcome and just as the conservatives had at first hooted down the idea of iron ships, a.s.serting they would never float, so they now decried the use of the screw propeller. Indeed there was no denying that this innovation presented to shipbuilders a mult.i.tude of new and balking problems. While the clipper ships had greatly improved the designs of vessels the stern was still their weakest point and now, in addition to this already existing difficulty, came the new conundrums presented by the pitch, or full turn of the thread, in the screw propeller; also the churning of the current produced by the rapidly whirling wheel, which was found to r.e.t.a.r.d the speed of the ship very materially. Valiantly engineers wrestled with one after another of these enigmas until they conquered them and put shipbuilding on the upward path where it has been ever since. In time steel ships replaced the cruder vessels of iron; finer types of engines were worked out; the wireless and the many electrical devices which herald approaching foes and announce the presence of icebergs have been invented; until now the ocean liner is practically safe from all perils except fogs, icebergs and submarines."

He stopped a moment with eyes fixed on the glowing logs that crackled on the hearth.

"Meanwhile," he went on, "comfort aboard ship has progressed to luxury.

Better systems of ventilation, more roomy sleeping quarters, more windows and improved lighting facilities have been installed. The general arrangement of the ship has also been vastly improved since the days when the high bulwark and long deckhouse were in use. Now iron railings allow the sea to wash back and forth in time of storm, and in consequence there is less danger of vessels being swamped by the waves.

Then there are watertight doors and bulkheads, double bottoms to the hulls, and along with these more practical advances have come others of a more healthful and artistic trend. The furniture is better; the decoration of the cabins and saloons prettier and more harmonious; there has been more hygienic sanitation. When the _Oceanic_ of the White Star Line was built in 1870 she had a second deck, and this novel feature was adopted broadcast and eventually ushered in the many-deck liners now in use. The _Servia_, built in 1881, was the first steel ship and the advantage of its greater elasticity was instantly seen. Builders were wise enough to grasp the fact that with the increasing length of vessels steel ships would be able to stand a greater strain. Little by little the gain went on in every direction. Nevertheless, in spite of the intelligence of the shipbuilders, it was long before trans-Atlantic navigators had the courage to trust themselves entirely to their engines and discard masts; although they shifted to steel ones instead of those of iron or wood, they still persisted in carrying them."

He smiled as he spoke.

"When the twin-screw propeller made its appearance it brought with it greater speed and there was a revival of the old racing spirit. Between the various shipping lines of all nations the contest for size and swiftness has raged ever since. Before the Great War, Germany had a very extensive collection of large and rapid liners, many of them built on the Clyde, that fought to surpa.s.s the Cunard ships. The White Star Line also took a hand in the game and built others. In the contest, alas, America has been far behind until gradually she has let other countries slip in and usurp the major proportion of ocean commerce. It is a pitiful thing that we should not have applied our skill and wealth of material to building fine American steamship lines of our own instead of letting so many of our tourists turn their patronage to ships of foreign nations. Perhaps if the public were not so eager for novelty, and so constantly in search for the newest, the largest and the fastest boats, we should be content to make our crossings in the older and less gaudy ships, which after all are quite as seaworthy. But we Americans must always have the superlative, and therefore many a steamer has had to be sc.r.a.pped simply because it had no palm gardens, no swimming pools, no sh.o.r.e luxuries. We have not, however, wholly neglected naval construction for we have many fine steamships, a praiseworthy lot of battleships and cruisers and some very fine submarines. I hope and believe that the time will come when our merchant marine will once again stand at the front as it did in the days of the clipper ships. Our commerce reaches out to every corner of the earth and why should we rely on other countries to transport our goods?"

"I suppose there are no pirates now, are there, Mr. Ackerman?" asked d.i.c.k, raising his eyes expectantly to the capitalist's face.

"I am afraid there are very few, d.i.c.k boy," returned the elder man kindly. "I suppose that is somewhat of a disappointment to you. You would have preferred to sail the seas in the days when every small liner carried her guns as a defence against raiders and was often forced to use them, too. But when international law began to regulate traffic on the high seas and the ocean thoroughfare ceased to be such a deserted one pirates went out of fashion, and every nation was granted equal rights to sail the seas unmolested. It was because this freedom was menaced by German submarines in the late war and our privilege to travel by water threatened that our nation refused to tolerate such conditions. A code of humane laws that had been established for the universal good was being broken and we could not permit it. For you must remember that now there are almost as many laws on the ocean as on the land. There are rules for all kinds of vessels, of which there are a far greater variety than perhaps you realize. Not only have we steamships, cruisers, and battleships but we have schooners, barques, brigs, tugboats, dredgers, oil-tankers, turret ships for freight, cargo boats, steam tramps, coalers, produce ships, ice-breakers, train ferries, steam trawlers, fire boats, river boats, harbor excursion boats, coasters, whalebacks, steam yachts, launches and lake steamers. Each of these is carefully cla.s.sified and has its particular traffic rules, and in addition to these is obliged to obey certain other general marine laws to which all of them are subject, in order that travel by water may be made safe."

"Don't all ships have to be inspected, too?" asked Stephen.

"Yes; and not only are they inspected but to protect the lives of their pa.s.sengers and crew, as well as preserve their cargo, they must adhere to specified conditions. The number of pa.s.sengers and crew is regulated by law, as is the amount of the cargo. Ocean liners, for example, must have aboard a certain number of lifeboats, rafts, belts, life preservers, fire extinguishers, lines of hose; and the size of all these is carefully designated. There must be frequent drills in manning the boats; the fire hose must be tested to see that it works and is in proper condition; and in thick weather the foghorns must be sounded at regular intervals. There is no such thing now as going to sea in haphazard fashion and trusting to luck. Everything that can be done for the safety of those who travel the ocean must be done."

He paused a moment, then added:

"And in the meanwhile, that every protection possible shall be offered to ships, we have been as busy on the land as on the water and have established a code of laws to govern our coasts, harbors and rivers.

Government surveys have charted the sh.o.r.es of all countries so that now there are complete maps that give not only the coast line but also the outlying islands, rocks and shoals that might be a menace to ships. It is no longer possible for a State bordering on the sea to put up a low building at the water's edge and set a few candles in the windows as was done back in the year eighteen hundred."

Both the boys laughed.

"We can laugh now," a.s.sented Mr. Ackerman with a smile, "but in those days I fancy it was no laughing matter. Even with all our up-to-date devices there are wrecks; and think of the ships that must have gone down before charts were available, lighthouses and bell buoys in vogue, wireless signals invented and the coast patrol in operation. I shudder to picture it. Sailing the seas was a perilous undertaking then, I a.s.sure you. Even the first devices for safety were primitive. The Argand lamp of 1812 was not at all powerful and the lenses used were far from perfect. Foghorns were operated by hand or by horse power and were not strong enough to be heard at any great distance. Bell buoys were unknown although there were such things as bell-boats which were anch.o.r.ed in dangerous spots and rung by the wash of the waves. There were lightships, too, but more often than not their feeble light was obscured or unnoticed and they were run down by the ships they sought to protect. Altogether there was room for improvement at every point and slowly but surely it came. After the Daboll trumpet, whistle and siren had been tried finer horns operated by steam or power engines supplanted them until now all along our coasts and inland streams signals of specified strength have been installed, a commission deciding just what size signals shall be used and where they shall be placed. There are lighthouses of prescribed candle power; automatic flashlights and whistling buoys; coastguard stations with carefully drilled crews; all regulated by law and matters of compulsion. If men and ships are lost now it is because it is beyond human power to help it."

"There are facts about the water that are impossible to modify,"

interrupted Mr. Tolman, "and I suppose we shall never be able wholly to eliminate the dangers growing out of them. There are for example silence zones where, because of the nature of air currents or atmospheric conditions, no sounds can be heard. Often a foghorn comparatively near at hand will belch forth its warning and its voice be swallowed up in this strange stillness. Many a calamity has occurred that could only be accounted for in this way. Man is ingenious, it is true, but he is not omniscient and in the face of some of the caprices of nature he is powerless."

Mr. Ackerman rose and stood with his back to the fire.

"And now," went on Mr. Tolman, addressing Stephen and d.i.c.k, "I should say you two had had quite a lecture on steamboating and should move that you both go to bed."

Quickly Mr. Ackerman interrupted him.

"I should amend the motion by suggesting that we all go to bed," laughed he. "I am quite as tired as the boys are."

The amendment was pa.s.sed, the motion carried, and soon the entire Tolman family was wrapped in sleep.