These required that the steamers be built under
the inspection of naval constructors and be acceptable to the Navy
Department; that each ship carry four passed midshipmen of the navy to
serve as watch-officers, and a mail agent approved by the
postmaster-general. Mr. Sloo's ships for his West India service were to
be commanded by officers of the navy not below the grade of lieutenant.
The secretary was further directed to contract for mail-carriage beyond
the Isthmus,--from Panama up the Pacific coast to some point in the
Territory of Oregon, once a month each way; but this service could be
performed in either steam or sailing ships, as should be deemed more
expedient.[FZ]
All the contracts thus provided for were concluded the same year. Each
was to run for ten years. The first executed was that with Mr. Sloo. It
called for five steamships of not less than 1500 tons, and a
semi-monthly service. The line was to touch at Charleston, if
practicable, and at Savannah. The ships were to have engines by direct
action; and each ship was to be sheathed with copper. The subsidy was
fixed at two hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year, a rate of
$1.83-1/2 per mile, the distance to be sailed out and back being 158,000
miles.
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