Ballin held the view that, just as the shipbuilding expert had to watch the progress of naval architecture and to make practical application of its results, and just as the merchant had to exploit this progress for the benefit of his business, the shipowner—especially the one who maintains a service of passenger boats—has the special task of making every step in the direction of further advance serviceable to the needs of the passengers. Being himself, as has been pointed out elsewhere, gifted with a strong faculty for appreciating things beautiful, and raising no less high demands as regards the beauty and the comfort of all his surroundings, Ballin constantly endeavoured to make use of all the results of his own observations and of his own experience for the greater comfort of the passengers. Those who saw the finished products of his imagination, the beautifully appointed “floating hotels,” hardly realized how many apparently insignificant details—which, after all, in their entirety make what we call comfort—owe their origin to his own personal suggestions. Each time he made a sea voyage on board a steamer of his own, or of some other company, he brought home with him a number of new ideas, chiefly such as affected technicalities, and matters dealing with the personal comfort of the passengers. Numerous entries in the notebooks which he carried on such occasions are there to serve as illustrations; the following items, for instance, are selected from those which he jotted down, roughly, on a voyage to New York some time in the ’nineties. They speak for themselves, in spite of their sketchiness:
“List of Moselle purveyors wants revision—notices on board to be restricted as much as possible, those which are necessary to be tastefully framed—sailing lists and general regulations to be included in passengers’ lists—state cabin on board Kaiser Friedrich: key, latch, drawer; no room for portmanteaux and trunks; towels too small—Deutschland: soiled linen cupboard too small—stewards Oceanic white jackets—celery glasses—butter dishes too small—large bed pillows—consommé cups—playing cards: Packetfahrt complete name of firm—Packetfahrt complete name on Wehber’s wine bottles—toast to be served in a serviette (hot).”
Rough notes such as these were used to serve Ballin as the material underlying the detailed reports and instructions to the company’s servants which he composed during the voyage, so that not even a long sea voyage gave him the unbroken spell of leisure he so badly needed. Indeed, the longer it lasted the more chances did it provide for thoroughly inspecting the practical working of the steamer. Many other reports are in my possession, but the one given will serve to emphasize the meticulous quality of observation he possessed, and how practical was his mind in regard to details of comfort and convenience, and the special climatic needs of different routes.
Even where the peculiar conditions obtaining in tropical climates were concerned—conditions with which he was personally quite unacquainted—he unfailingly discovered any defects that might exist, and also the means by which they could be remedied.
Ballin’s connexion with the Packetfahrt practically coincides with the whole of that period during which the immense progress of modern steamship building from humble beginnings to its present stage of development took place; with the only exception that the North German Lloyd had already, before Ballin joined the Packetfahrt, established its services of fast steamers which were far ahead of those maintained by other shipping companies owing to their punctuality and reliability, and which Ballin then set himself to improve upon and to excel. Apart from this one type of vessel, the science of steamship construction, as seen from our modern point of view, was still in its infancy.
In 1886 the steamships owned by the Hamburg-Amerika Linie were mainly of two different types, viz., those used in the North Atlantic service (principally on the New York route), and those used in the Mexico-West Indies service.
The expansion of the Packetfahrt’s business after Ballin had joined the company, and especially the addition of new services together with the increase in the number of ports of departure and of destination, made it necessary constantly to increase the size and the carrying capacity of the cargo boats, and the size and the speed of the passenger steamers, as well as to improve and to modernize the passenger accommodation on board the latter. All this, of course, considerably added to the cost price of the vessels, so that, as a further consequence, the facilities for loading and discharging them had to be improved and extended. Four principal types of steamers may be distinguished in the development of the company’s fleet, especially of that part of it which was engaged on the North Atlantic route, where the main development took place.
Type One: Fast steamers—twin screws, 18 knots, 8,500 G.R.T.—possessing accommodation for passengers of all classes and provided with comparatively little cargo space, but comfortably and luxuriously appointed throughout. The three leading ideas governing their construction were safety, speed, and comfort; and progress was made to keep abreast of competing lines, until it culminated in the vessels of the “Imperator” class. The Imperator was built in 1913. They were quadruple screw turbine steamers, possessing no fewer than 42 multitubular boilers each, and, as they were of a capacity of 52,000 gross register tons, they were nearly three times the size of the Deutschland.
Type Two: Ships of medium speed and of considerable size, and therefore providing a high standard of comfort for passengers combined with ample facilities for cargo accommodation.
Type Three: Chiefly built as cargo boats, but in such a way that a part of their space could be utilized for the accommodation of a large number of steerage passengers.