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MARINE DISASTERS ON THE WESTERN WATERS IN 1852.

The annual statements of marine disasters on the western rivers and lakes, during the year ending December 31, 1852, exhibit serious results. On the rivers, 78 steamers have been lost: 48 of which were snagged, 16 destroyed by explosions, 4 by fire, and the remaining 10 by various other mishaps, such as collisions, wrecks, &c.

By these disasters 454 lives were lost.

In addition to the above losses to the steam-marine on the rivers, there were lost 4 barges, 73 coal boats, 32 salt boats, and 4 flat-boats. The aggregate loss of property attending these casualties is not ascertained.

On the lake or northern frontier, the annual statement of Captain G. W. Rounds exhibits the loss of life for 1852 at 296, and of property at $992,659. He recapitulates the losses as follows: Amount of loss by collisions

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$261,950

730,709

638,620

359,039

907,487

by British do.....do.

65,172

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on Lake Ontario by steam
.... do.....by sail

$49,350

29,589

78,939

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Of the 229 disasters here detailed, 7 occurred in the month of April, 19 in May, 24 in June, 15 in July, 16 in August, 21 in September, 27 in October, 85 in November, (55 in one gale of the 11th and 12th,) and 15 in December. Six steamers, 7 propellers, and 35 sail vessels have gone out of existence entirely. In many instances the amount of losses, as above stated, have been matters of estimate, as many must necessarily be; but much pains and care have been taken to procure, in each case, the opinion of competent men who were most familiar with the circumstances.

These statements show the whole number of lives lost on the western waters in 1852 to have been:

On the rivers...

On the lakes

...454 ..296

Total....

.750

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

The city of New Orleans is situated on the left bank of the Mississippi river, about 100 miles from its mouth, in latitude 29° 57′ 30′′ north, and longitude 90° 8' west. It is 953 miles below the mouth of the Ohio; 1,149 below the mouth of the Missouri, by the course of the river; 1,397 miles, in a direct line, southwest from New York; 1,612 from Boston; and 1,172 from Washington, by post-route. The population of the city, in 1800, was about 8,000; in 1810, 17,242; in 1820, 27,176; in 1830, 46,310; in 1840, 102,193; and in 1850, with its suburbs, 125,000; showing a duplication of inhabitants during the last half century, on the average, once in twelve years. This, considering the character of the climate, and the fact that only about six months of each year are devoted to active business, is very extraordinary. The business population has always been somewhat migratory; many persons going there for the transaction of business during the winter sea son, and returning north to spend the summer months.

For commercial purposes, New Orleans occupies a very superior and commanding situation. It is the natural entrepot for supplies destined to all parts of the Mississippi valley, as well as the depot for those products of that salubrious region which seek a market seaward. By means of the Mississippi river and its tributaries, an inland trade is opened to her grasp, the magnitude of which has never been equalled. Steamers may leave her wharves and proceed on voyages of several thousand miles without breaking bulk. The Mississippi and its affluents are flanked on either side by extensive territories, unsurpassed in richness of soil, which readily yield a harvest to the labors of the agriculturist, whether it be of cane, corn, or cotton. These are the principal staples of the valley, and the receipts of each or their products at New Orleans are rapidly increasing. Heretofore, the river has been the only channel depended upon for their transportation. Several lines of railway are in process of construction now, however, to facilitate the transportation of cotton and sugar, produced at a distance from the river, to market, and thus enlarge the area of production. These bulky products will not bear an extensive land carriage by the old mode, and result in wealth to the producer; but the construction of railways for their cheap transit to the river, even, will not only change the prospects of the interior planters for the better, but will add greatly to the wealth and commerce of New Orleans, which is eminently a place of exchange and distribution. It is the great depot of the southwestern plantations, where cotton and sugar crops are bought and sold while still in the field, or "advanced" upon prospectively if necessary. It has also an extensive trade with Texas, Mexico, and the Gulf ports, as well as a very heavy foreign export trade. These facts will be fully illustrated by the accompanying tables. She has, besides, a large coasting trade with Atlantic ports, the value of which can only be known generally by its

results.

Since the acquisition of California by the United States, and the discovery of its mineral wealth, and the consequent opening of important trade to the Pacific, the relative importance of New Orleans to New York and other Atlantic cities has not been as well maintained as it was

before. The Atlantic cities, but particularly New York, have received most of the California trade and commerce, owing to the establishment of lines of extensive ocean-steamers via Panama and Nicaragua, and the many steamers, and clipper and other ships, engaged in such trade from those ports, sent around Cape Horn. Sanguine expectations are entertained in New Orleans of the favorable results to that city, in respect to the Pacific trade, when the Gulf or Tehuantepec route is opened, either as a route of passage for ships by canal or a route of transit by railway. Doubtless, these anticipations would be realized; but, at the same time, the advantages of such route, it is believed, would accrue in an equally favorable degree to the Atlantic ports. The capital, shipping, and seamen, supplied by those cities to the whaling, Pacific, China, and East India trade, could not readily be transferred to New Orleans, even with the great advantages such route would afford that city. As the recipient, however, of the vast and inestimable resources of the Mississippi valley-which natural advantage can never be destroyed by artificial communications from that valley to the Atlantic-New Orleans will maintain its rank as one of the largest commercial cities of the world.

To present some of the advantages enjoyed by New Orleans as a commercial city, the following extracts are made from an article published in De Bow's Review in 1846, prepared by the present Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, William L. Hodge, esq. Mr. Hodge having been for many years a resident of New Orleans, intimately and personally connected with the business interests of the city, was fully competent to do justice to the subject which he has discussed.

Mr. Hodge says:

"No city of the world has ever advanced as a mart of commerce with such gigantic and rapid strides as New Orleans.

"Her commercial life may be said to date after the cession of Louisiana to the United States, in 1803, as, previous to that her commerce was insignificant; and yet, in this short period of about forty years, she already ranks as the fourth city of the world for the magnitude and value of her commerce, being exceeded only by London, Liverpool, and New York. The foreign importations of New York greatly exceed those of New Orleans; but if the whole of the foreign and coasting trade of both ports are taken into view, it might be a matter of doubt whether the bulk, and possibly the value of merchandise that enters and leaves the mouth of the Mississippi, is not fully equal to that which enters and leaves Sandy Hook. At any rate, if it is not now, it will in a very few years not only equal but exceed it, and place New Orleans the third in rank of the commercial cities of the world.

"The facilities and convenience of transacting business at New Orleans are fully equal to, and in many respects superior to those of any other place. It is the centre of immense exchange operations, and any amount of funds can at all times be obtained at the shortest notice under good letters of credit, and bills negotiated with great readiness and facility on any prominent point in the United States, or any of the commercial cities of western Europe; and the banking institutions afford all reasonable accommodations to the local wants and trade of the city.

"Some European cities can show more splendid quays or magnificent docks for the accommodation of shipping, and the landing and loading of cargoes, far exceeding in appearance and durability anything of the kind in New Orleans, but in no way superior in point of actual convenience to the unpretending wharves of the city.

"As is generally known, the surface of the alluvial soil of Louisiana, including, of course, the site of the city, is considerably below the river in ordinary stages of high-water, and the country is protected from inundation by a raised and solid embankment called the Levee,' extending on both sides of the river below, and a great distance above the city. Outside of the levee the bank of the river is called the 'Batture,' which in many places is increasing from the continual alluvial deposites, while in other places the river has what is called 'a falling bank,' and the water gradually encroaches on the land. In the former case the levee is advanced as the batture increases, and this has been the case in a large portion of the front of New Orleans, where in some parts the levee has, in the last 25 years, advanced full 1,000 feet; and the front warehouses now stand for a long extent that distance from the water, affording a splendid space for the vast bulk of produce that is annually landed and shipped. The wharves are constructed outside the levee on massive piles, driven with a heavy iron ram into the mud, and extending over the river into the water sufficiently deep to admit the heaviest steamboats and ships to lie up against them; heavy sleepers connect the piles at their tops, and on these piles the platform is laid, of thick planking, the edges of which are separated about one inch, to prevent the accumulation of dirt which falls through these interstices into the river flowing below, and in five minutes after the heaviest storm the whole surface is in perfect condition to receive any description of merchandise. These wharves are thus planked back until they join the crown of the levee, in some places 150 to 200 feet, which is made firm and solid by a constant coating of shells, and always kept in good order. One of these wharves presents an unbroken front on the river of 1,500 feet, and others 600 to 800 feet, and in the business season it is usual to see these fronts entirely occupied with steamboats lying bow on, and each with her stage rigged out to the wharf, actively engaged in loading or unloading. The wharves intended for sea-going vessels are detached from each other with an intervening dock, and each wharf accommodates a tier of vessels, which, unlike the steamboats, are moored up and down the river, one outside the other, three, four, and five tiers deep, with a broad common stage communicating with the levee, and extending on the bulwarks of the vessels to the outside one; the timber, plank, and all the conveniences for this staging, being furnished by the city, who even also supply tarpaulins to protect the goods in case of rain.

"These details are given to show to those who are familiar to shipping, the very great facilities and convenience that are afforded here, and without which it would be impracticable to get through the vast amount of business that is transacted in the city, except with great inconvenience and enormous expense."

Having thus sketched the commercial position of the city, as it then was, and the advantages and facilities which it possessed for a rapid

continued advancement, Mr. Hodge proceeds to predict the future greatness of this depot of the commerce of the Mississippi valley and the Gulf of Mexico. He alludes to the despatch given to the discharge of steamers and other vessels, and then passes to the question whether New Orleans will probably retain her immense trade, and how she will be affected by the constant augmentation of population, and the inevitable development of the resources of the mighty West. But as these speculations with respect to the future of New Orleans have been for some time past in a rapid course of realization, it is considered unnecessary to reproduce them here.

The tables herewith exhibited, presenting, somewhat in detail, the commerce of New Orleans at different periods, will show that Mr. Hodge, in his most sanguine predictions, did not over-estimate the effect which time would produce, through the facilities he then enumerated. ' The following table will show the value of some of the principal articles imported into New Orleans from the interior, at several periods, during the last ten years:

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