It was the same at Southampton at one time between the officers of the Royal Mail and the P. & O. Lines, who would not foregather on any account, owing to their mutual jealousies. But those were the days when ship-love and pride of service were more accentuated than to-day. And yet in even some of the contemporary crack steamships there was plenty to find fault with, and Crutchley, who served in the Union liner _Roman_, which ran to South Africa, complains that even in that ocean steamship there was neither engine-room telegraph nor standard compass; for orders were shouted down the engine-room skylight, and the ship was steered from right on the poop, with a binnacle on either side, that on the starboard being the one used for navigating. [Illustration: [_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._ S.S. “NORTHUMBERLAND.” 2,180 tons, 500 horse-power. Henry Skinner, Commander. About 1871. She was one of Money Wigram & Sons’ Australian steamships. The famous house flag will be seen at the main.] We have digressed from our main theme in order to show the spirit which actuated the Mercantile Marine at that important period which followed the abolition of the monopoly and saw the numbers of shipyards, ships and mariners rapidly increasing, thanks to freedom and competition. It is now time for us to watch this progress in detail. If we compare the _Seringapatam_ with one of the East India Company’s ships of say 1826, we can see indeed more points of resemblance than of difference. Both are frigates, each has a bluff bow and heavy stern that remind us of the Stuart ships, yet in the new type inaugurated by _Seringapatam_ it meant a daring advance to omit the heavy double stern and quarter galleries. She still retained her ship rig, her white ribbon, her square ports and her high-steeved bowsprit, but in her was the first break, architecturally, with the olden times. The sailing ship was now in a new era.