Two other of these “Intermediates” were added to the White Star Line in 1901 and 1903 respectively. These are the Celtic and Cedric, and a photograph of the latter will be seen [opposite page 176]. Only in regard to speed have these handsome vessels the slightest right to be designated “intermediate.” They both possess a tonnage about twice that of the City of Paris, for the Celtic is 20,880, and the Cedric 21,034 tons, and the speed of each is 16 knots. Speed is not the main consideration to those who have the slightest affection for ships and the sea. The beautiful motion of the Cedric, for instance, in a winter’s Atlantic gale, rolling and pitching in a manner just enough to show she is a living ship and not a dull, lifeless steel box, pursuing her way with boldness and dignity, caring little for the great waves mounting up astern, is a delight that lives long in one’s memory. She has no need to break her neck hurrying and scurrying, trying to become a large-sized submarine; she prefers to go over the sea rather than through it, and this with a movement that is comparable to that of a well-bred lady gliding along smoothly and with dignity.
From the owners’ point of view these are economical ships to run, for with 16 knots the coal consumption is very moderate, whilst at the same time their size enables them to carry large numbers of passengers and considerable quantities of cargo. As evidence of the remarkable evolution in type, I would ask the reader to compare [the accompanying illustration of the Cedric] with [that of the Great Eastern]. Both are of about the same length, although the latter was about 8 feet wider, and at the time of her launch the Cedric was the largest ship of any kind that had hitherto been constructed. Another “intermediate,” the Arabic, followed in the same year, possessing the same speed of 16 knots, but a tonnage only of 15,801. This is one of the vessels employed on the Liverpool-New York route, the Southampton-New York White Star service being supplied by the Adriatic (to which I shall refer presently), together with the Oceanic, the Majestic and the Teutonic.
The German success in the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was now to be followed up by a still more wonderful achievement in the Kaiser Wilhelm II., a photograph of which is [here reproduced]. Her coming in 1903 caused a sensation in the shipping world, for she represented not merely the extraordinary capabilities which the German shipbuilders had already attained, but was superior in speed not only to all the British steamships, but to her own sister, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. Two and a half feet longer than the Oceanic, about 4 feet wider, but with 5 feet less depth, she was, like the Ivernia, fitted with two sets of quadruple-expansion engines to drive her twin-screws. Her gross tonnage exceeded that of the Oceanic and the Great Eastern as well, and with a speed of 23½ knots was a knot faster than the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. This vessel and the Hamburg-American liner Deutschland were able to give to Germany the proud possession of the fastest liners in the world until the Lusitania arrived on the scene. The Kaiser Wilhelm II.’s best day’s run is 583 knots, and she has maintained an average speed from New York to Plymouth of 23·58 knots. To obtain this the phenomenal amount of 45,000 horse-power has to be developed by means of a double set of quadruple-expansion engines—two for each propeller shaft—necessitating sixteen cylinders, steam being generated from nineteen boilers fired by no fewer than 124 furnaces. But no one could assert that such a ship as this is economical to run, for although her speed is only one knot faster than the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, yet each day she burns about another 200 tons of coal in doing it, and supposing we were to take the cost of fuel at 20s. a ton, we can easily see that each Atlantic voyage means an extra expense of much more than £1,000.
THE “KAISER WILHELM II.”
From a Photograph by West & Son, Southsea.
Now, since the steamship is run for the purpose of making money, it is essential that over-seas trade should not show any signs of lagging; otherwise it becomes commercially impossible to run these fast ships from one continent to the other. The craze for speed is one that may go on and on for just such a time as the financial support continues; but as soon as a diminution in trade sets in, and with it a falling-off in revenue, this wild, reckless race for speed-supremacy must automatically cease. At present it is but a reflection of the restless activity on shore. May the time not come when rest and simplicity will again replace excessive strenuousness and restore to the Atlantic something of its plain expansiveness, and take back the character which it has now developed as being merely a race-track for ocean greyhounds? However much designers, shipbuilders and engineers may conspire together; whatever inventions man in his brilliant efforts may succeed in bringing about, the solid fact remains that Nature is superior in force to all these. The winds will blow and the great seas will roll up against all the mighty ships man may build. Among the gifts to humanity there is not included that of taming the sea. She is tyrannical in her strength, untamable, dominant; and when you launch into her bosom heavy masses of iron or steel, and deceive yourself with high-sounding names—call them Great Easterns, Majestics, Indomitables, Titanics, and the rest—the Sea only laughs at you, for she knows perfectly well that a blow or two from her mighty arm will end their days and settle their fate for all time. To fight against Nature is to contend against heavy odds, to engage in a contest whose result is known long beforehand; and the most that man can ever do is make a truce with his superior foe, so that he may be able to rush across her expanse much as he would hurry past the open cage of a tigress. For that reason speed is appreciated by some as the greatest weapon which was ever given to the ship, but even then it cannot terrify a much mightier power. In spite of wireless gear, submarine bells, navigational science, expert seamanship, perfect ship-building and design, well-found ships still put to sea and disappear presently never to be seen again. The case of the Waratah is not an isolated incident, but an example of the universal law that human achievement in comparison with the eternal sovereignty of the Sea must take only a second place, and learn to obey, when bidden, a power of far older, far superior strength.
CHAPTER VII
THE MODERN MAMMOTH STEAMSHIP
In the history of the steamship during the short space of time that she has been employed, the changes in connection with her have followed with singular celerity. We have, during the previous pages, witnessed in the material of which she is built the gradual transition from wood to iron and steel; we have seen how steam pressures became greater, and the ensuing introduction of the compound system, the triple-expansion and the quadruple. We have also watched the change from paddle-wheels to a single screw, and thence to twin-screws. Each change has seemed to be so excellent in its nature, so beneficial in results, that almost on each occasion we might have thought that finality had been reached. At times our minds have been wearied with the constant reiteration of the latest wonders, and our imaginations have found some difficulty in responding to the demands which one invention after another has put forward. It has all happened within so short a time, and on a scale of such unheard-of magnitude, that scarcely have we been able to find expressions adequate to our subject.
But now we enter upon what is the most wonderful of any period since the steamship came into the world, and for this we have to thank the introduction of the turbine, merely the beginnings of which we are now watching; whose influence, not merely in the engineering world generally, but in the domain of the steamship particularly, is already marking, in the most certain manner, a distinct cleavage between the things of yesterday and those of to-morrow. The turbine is only in its infancy, yet since its infantile influence has caused already so great a revolution, one hesitates to reckon what it will do before it is as old as the old-fashioned reciprocating engine, whose history we have outlined. Its modern practical invention is due to two men, one an Englishman, the other a Swede, who during the early ’eighties made their systems public. The latter is Dr. Gustav de Laval; the former the Hon. Charles Algernon Parsons, son of the Earl of Rosse, who after a distinguished career at Cambridge, where he graduated as eleventh Wrangler, brought out this new method in 1884. Five years later Dr. de Laval, working at the same problem, developed a somewhat similar engine. We have spoken of the modern invention advisedly, for there is nothing new under the sun, and we shall see that the bare principle is hundreds of years old. In its simplest form, the turbine is similar to a water-wheel, a jet of steam taking the place of water. As far back as 1629, Giovanni Branca, an Italian engineer, had suggested much the same thing, and if the reader will now refer to [the illustration opposite] he will be able to gain some idea of the form in which his idea took shape.