The singularly impressive picture [facing page 198] shows the Mauretania whilst she was still lying on the Tyne at Wallsend before being quite ready for service. It is by a happy coincidence that the same picture shows a delightful contrast between this last word of modern invention and the old-fashioned type of steam tug-boat in the river, to the right. There is, in fact, so mighty a divergence in character that it is not easy to catalogue both under the very elastic and comprehensive title of steamship. Only by comparison with existing ships can one gain any idea of the Mauretania’s colossal qualities. The present writer was one of those who watched the Mauretania docked for the first time at Liverpool immediately after she had come round to the Mersey from the Tyne. By her was lying another steamship, by no means out of date, whose appearance at one time called forth some of the expressions of amazement and wonder that these two Cunarders have brought about. For size and speed this older “greyhound” was properly and legitimately famous, but yet within the comparatively small dimensions of the dock-space one was able to obtain a more accurate idea as to the exact proportions of the Mauretania than when lying outside in the river, where space brings with it deception; and it was amazing to remark how utterly and unconditionally the new steamship overshadowed the old. Even in such close proximity as one stood, everything else looked small by comparison. The captain on the Mauretania’s bridge resembled a small, black dot, the funnels looked like four great, red caverns. A brand new thick rope warp was brought to the shore to stop the Mauretania’s way. It was so heavy that a score of men were needed to move it about. And yet although she seemed scarcely to be moving the liner broke it in two just as a toy model breaks a piece of cotton. Or, again, one may look at this same ship lying at her mooring buoy on the Cheshire side of the Mersey and be lost in wonder at her graceful curves. With such sweet lines you could not doubt that she was also speedy. But it is not until one sees a good-sized steam-tug go shooting by the buoy that one obtains any idea as to measurements. The buoy is as big and bigger than the tug, and, therefore, how many more times must the liner herself be bigger than the tug? You see another steamer alongside this mountain of steel and the steamer is nothing remarkable. But presently as she comes down by the landing-stage, past a smaller liner brought up to her anchor in the middle of the river, you find that that little steamer is several sizes bigger than a moderate coaster. It would have been so easy to make this finest ship in the world look also the largest; it is a much finer achievement to have made her look, what she is, the handsomest.
STERN OF THE “MAURETANIA.”
From a Photograph. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co.
Passing then to some of the details of these leviathans, we find that they measure 790 feet long, 88 feet broad, whilst the depth from the topmost deck to the bottom is 80 feet. Choose out some high building or cliff 150 feet high, and it will still be 5 feet less than the height of these ships from the bottom to the top of their funnels. Their displacement at load draught is 40,000 tons; they each develop 68,000 horse-power, and draw, when fully loaded, 37½ feet of water. When crew and passengers are on board each ship represents a community of 3,200 persons. They are fitted with bilge keels, double bottoms, water-tight doors, and there are eight decks in all. To hold such massive weights as these ships exceptionally powerful ground tackle is necessitated. The main cable alone weighs about 100 tons, and there are about 2,000 feet of this, or 333 fathoms. The double bottom of the Mauretania averages in depth 5 to 6 feet, and she has five stokeholds containing twenty-three double-ended and two single-ended boilers; the coal bunkers are arranged along the ship’s sides in such a manner as to be handy and as a protection to the hull in case of collision. Three hundred and twenty-four firemen and trimmers are engaged in three watches of four hours in the stokehold.
The striking illustration [facing page 200] shows the stern of the Mauretania out of water, the photograph having been taken whilst the vessel was being built at Wallsend-on-Tyne by Messrs. Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson. It will be noticed that there are two propellers on either side of the rudder. The two outermost are driven by the high-pressure and the inside two by the low-pressure turbines. The two inner propellers are also used for going astern, and since the turbine can only turn in one direction these two are each fitted with a high-pressure turbine, and when the ship is steaming ahead these astern-turbines are simply revolving idly. When we examined the interior of a turbine on page 186, we noted that the steam is allowed to expand in stages therein. The turbines of the Mauretania are arranged with eight stages of steam expansion, while the blades vary in length from 2½ to 12 inches.
THE “LUSITANIA.”
From a Photograph. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co.
We would call attention once more to the modern custom introduced by Harland and Wolff of cutting a hole, or “port,” in the deadwood of the ship. On referring to [the illustration facing page 200], it will be seen that the Mauretania possesses this feature in a remarkable degree, so that the flow of water to the screws is very free indeed. It will be noticed also that the rudder is of the balanced type, so that part of it projects forward of its axis, whilst the whole of it is some distance below the water-line. It will also be remarked that the two “wing,” or outermost, propellers are placed a good deal forward of the two inner screws, the object aimed at being to give these forward screws plenty of clear water to work in without either pair of propellers having to revolve in water disturbed by the other pair. In examining this picture the reader will readily be able to obtain the scale by remembering that the draught up to the water-line shown is 37½ feet. [The illustration facing this page] shows the appearance these sister ships possess at the bows. The present photograph shows the Lusitania under way. The navigating bridge, which will be discerned at a great height, has been necessarily placed comparatively much nearer to the bows of the ship than is customary in many liners. Here the binnacle, the engine-room telegraph instruments, and other apparatus employed in the controlling of the ship, are stationed, whilst immediately abaft of this bridge, but in a connecting room, is the wheel-house. Into this small space is concentrated the exceptionally serious responsibility of ruling the ship, a responsibility which, though it now lasts but a short time, thanks to the shorter passages of the steamship, is far heavier than it was when steamships were less complicated and less huge. It is a responsibility which covers not merely the ship herself, the crew, the mails, and the passengers’ lives, but sometimes a very precious cargo. Only whilst these pages are being written the Mauretania steamed into Liverpool a veritable treasure ship, far surpassing in this respect a whole fleet of some of those old Spanish treasure-frigates. Stored in the strong-rooms of the Cunarder were precious metals of the aggregate value of over a million pounds sterling, consisting of 6½ tons of gold coin and 36 tons of bullion in the shape of 1,100 bars of silver. Add all this to the value of the ship, her furniture and her passengers’ belongings, and we get something between three and four millions of money. The mere thought of it is enough to make Sir Henry Morgan and other buccaneers and pirates turn restlessly in their prison-graves.