Going down channel at an easy fifteen knots, it was immediately noticeable how remarkably steady the great ship was in the choppy sea. There was an entire absence of vibration, partly attributable to the metal of which she was constructed, and to the perfect balancing of her machinery and nice adjustment of weight throughout her holds. Even in the Bay of Biscay, which was wavelessly heavy in long, sullen rollers after a mighty storm from the west had died away, the Princess behaved like a real sea-lady, yielding slowly, but steadily, to the force majeur of the Atlantic; and no one dreamt of being sea-sick except one very bilious-looking gentleman, a heavy eater, hailing from Brazil.
In short, she proved herself to be a splendid sea-boat. Not a drop of water could reach her upper decks; pitch she hardly could, as her great length enabled her to ride quietly across the valleys between oncoming waves.
A few hours’ detention at beautiful Madeira, and shortly afterwards Teneriffe was reached, where it began to be warm; but the ship was so spacious, and was kept so cool by means of refrigerators, electric fans, and—when necessary—punkahs, that no one felt in the least inconvenienced by the heat. There were no smuts, no smoke, and, better still, no smell of oil or paint (neither of these being used on the ship), no cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies, or rats!
FIG. 35. ELECTRIC LAUNCH ON THE THAMES
By permission of the Immisch Electric Launch Co., Ltd., London
Here she began to put on speed, working up to eighteen knots an hour, her maximum (very great speed being no special consideration), and it was then observed that so smooth and tapering were her lines, that she slipped through the water raising but little bow wave, and almost as frictionless as a swift ocean-fish.
An hour or so at lonely Ascension, and the same at St. Helena—in each case to deliver and receive mails, and to keep up telegraphic communication with London—a voyage altogether of wondrous beauty and enjoyment, nights of solemn loveliness, and days that broke in perfect splendour, cloudless, save for little patches of white here and there, and the ocean a dazzling radiance of deep blue.
Cape Town—six thousand miles in sixteen days out from Tilbury—and, greeted by thousands who had flocked from far and near to witness the sight, the Princess Ida glided to her berth inside the great breakwater.