England trading to the East Indies”; although its influence upon the merchant marine of Great Britain continued for many years. With the opening of the China and India trade to all British ships, there came the long-wished for competition--one of the hinges upon which commerce swings--and a number of British ship-owners, hardly known before, now came into prominence. Among them were Green, Wigram, Dunbar, and Somes, of London, and the Smiths, of Newcastle. So strongly was the example of the East India Company impressed upon their minds that they still continued to construct frigate-built ships, though with some slight effort toward economy and speed. Many of the former captains, officers, and seamen of the East India Company sailed for the private firms, and so the personnel of the British merchant marine was much benefited. The private ships, of course, were not permitted to fly the naval pennant, but in other respects the service remained pretty nearly the same. Much of the wasteful extravagance was naturally eliminated, and the “indulgences” were substantially reduced, but the time-honored practice of “making snug for the night” was too ancient and comfortable a custom to be very speedily abolished. Joseph Somes, one of the promoters of Lloyd’s Register, bought a number of the Company’s old ships, as we have seen, and in addition he built the _Maria Somes_, _Princess Royal_, _Sir George Seymour_, and _Castle Eden_. Thomas and William Smith, of Newcastle, were an old ship-building firm, who had in 1808, at their yard in St. Peter’s, constructed the frigate _Bucephalus_, 970 tons, 52 guns, for the Royal Navy, while in later years they built many merchant vessels. The finest of their new ships were the _Marlborough_ and the _Blenheim_, of 1350 tons each, built under special government survey and granted certificates as frigates equipped for naval service. This firm also built the _Gloriana_, 1057 tons, _Hotspur_, 1142 tons, and _St. Lawrence_, 1049 tons, all of the frigate type, though employed as merchantmen. Duncan Dunbar owned a number of fine ships and eventually became the largest ship-owner of his time in Great Britain. Many of his vessels were built in India. The _Marion_, 684 tons, built in Calcutta in 1834, was in active service until 1877, when she was wrecked on the Newfoundland coast. The _David Malcolm_ was built in 1839, and the _Cressy_, 720 tons, and the _Hyderabad_, 804 tons, in 1843, at Sunderland. Robert Wigram and Richard Green, at one time partners, built and owned their own ships, known as the “Blackwall frigates.” In 1834-35, they brought out the _Malabar_, _Monarch_, and _Windsor Castle_, and subsequently the _Carnatic_, _Prince of Wales_, _Agamemnon_, _Alfred_, and others, from 1200 to 1400 tons each. As late as 1849 the _Alfred_, of [Illustration: The “Marlborough” and “Blenheim”]