Richmond and Liverpool line.
The ship
Virginia Dare, built in
Baltimore for the
Richmond and
Liverpool line of packets, is expected here to-day.
This is the first vessel built under the auspices of the company chartered by the last Legislature.--Upon the spur of the occasion, to begin operation without the delay of building, the ship
Placer was employed by the company, soon after its organization, to make a voyage to
Liverpool.
Now, the company have one first-class ship finished, and another in course of construction opposite
Rocketts.
These will be followed by a third, and possibly a fourth.
This is a beginning, which, if sustained with any sort of favor by our merchants and the
Virginia public, will expand into a great and thriving commerce.
The first vessel is a beauty; as remarkable for her admirable arrangement with reference to the transportation of freight, as for the symmetry of her proportions.
She is one of the very best models of Baltimore clipper-built ships, worthy of the reputation of
Capt. Abrahams, who built her.
The Virginia Dare has her freight already engaged, ‘"and will have dispatch."’ She is commanded by
Capt. J. M.
Cole, a sailor of experience and a man of energy and spirit; a very fitting officer to take charge of the first of our packets, having in a large amount that kind of vim necessary to push ahead and successfully maintain new enterprises.
His ship has already been described in our columns.
She has a capacity of 850 tons, and, in the language of the Baltimore
Exchange, ‘"her model and finish throughout combine utility, beauty and strength. "’
The organization of this
Richmond and
Liverpool company arose out of the excitement produced by the
John Brown raid and the widespread sympathy enlisted for him at the
North.
Certainly, there has been no subsequent demonstration of fraternal affections and kind sentiments among the great body of Northern people for us of the
South, and therefore there has been no reason to relax our exertions to promote our independent commerce on that score.
Nevertheless, were there no incentives like this, of sectional outrages by the
North upon the
South, to stimulate our enterprises, we would be unworthy of consideration in the commercial world, if we were so wanting in energy as to rely entirely upon others to conduct our commerce for us. Let our people show that they have some of those characteristics which are indispensable to the building up of commerce and of great cities — that we have a spirit of adventure and perseverance, guided by community of interest, liberality, intelligence, and skill.
With these we may venture and achieve — and when we
dare, we will triumph!
Let us unfurl the flag of the "Virginia Dare" as the signal of a new era for
Richmond and
Virginia, and let us never falter or turn back from our determination to build up a great city and great commerce in
Virginia — a determination laudable at any time; but which not to sustain, under the circumstances of the days in which we live, would prove us unworthy sons of a Glorious Mother.
