Ever since they first came out the Mauretania and Lusitania have been improving on their speeds. Their most recent remarkable performances have been caused by important alterations to their propellers. These were preceded by experiments made by the Mauretania’s builders with their specially constructed electrically-driven model launch. Since these two liners commenced running, over twenty-four different sets of three-bladed, and seventeen sets of four-bladed propellers have been tested, in addition to further frequent experiments with models of the three-bladed propellers originally supplied to the Mauretania. By modifying the bosses and the blades, and adopting four blades instead of three, a very extensive saving in horse-power was effected in experiments. Finally, the Mauretania was fitted with four-bladed propellers on the wing shafts, while three-bladed propellers were retained on the inside shafts. The result has been a substantial raising of her average speed, while the coal consumption has been about the same or rather less, but this latter is thought to be due probably to the improvements in stokehold organisation. Sir William H. White has expressed himself as of the opinion that the recently much increased speed of these two monsters is due much more to the greater knowledge of the turbines, as well as the better stokehold management, than to the propeller alterations. Up to May of the year 1908 the best average speed of the Mauretania on her westward trip was 24·86 knots, but during the year 1909 it was raised to 26·6 knots. It was officially stated, on March 24th, 1910, that the Lusitania made a new record on her westward trip by steaming at 26·69 knots for a whole day, that is at the rate of 30·7 land miles. Leaving Queenstown on the Sunday, she had up till noon of the following Wednesday covered 2,022 knots, at an average of 25·97 sea miles. A fortnight previous to this the Mauretania, for the last part of her eastward voyage to Fishguard, steamed at an average speed of 27·47 knots per hour, or 31·59 land miles. The Lusitania is now fitted with the Mauretania’s first propellers, and the chairman of the Cunard Company has remarked that he has been informed that the Mauretania would be glad to have them back again. The following tables will give some idea of the comparative passages which these ships have made. They are interesting as being reckoned not from Queenstown, but from Liverpool landing-stage and the Cunard pier, New York:—
| Outward Voyages | Days. | H. | M. | |
| Lusitania | Quickest passage | 5 | 7 | 0 |
| Mauretania | Quickest passage | 5 | 1 | 30 |
| Lusitania | Longest passage | 6 | 18 | 0 |
| Mauretania | Longest passage | 5 | 21 | 0 |
| Lusitania | Average passage | 5 | 21 | 35 |
| Mauretania | Average passage | 5 | 16 | 48 |
| Homeward Voyages. | ||||
| Lusitania | Quickest passage | 5 | 15 | 30 |
| Mauretania | Quickest passage | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Lusitania | Longest passage | 5 | 22 | 0 |
| Mauretania | Longest passage | 5 | 17 | 0 |
| Lusitania | Average passage | 5 | 19 | 22 |
| Mauretania | Average passage | 5 | 12 | 14 |
But in spite of their bold dimensions and their efforts to prove their superior prowess in contending with the mighty ocean, both the Mauretania and the Lusitania have shown that after all they are still yet ships, and are subject to those same laws which govern the rusty old tramp, the square-yarded sailing ship, and the massive modern liner. We may take but two recent instances, one as happening to each of these two great vessels during the winter of 1910. In the month of January, the Lusitania made the slowest passage in her history, having encountered adverse winds and mountainous waves ever since leaving Daunt’s Rock. On Monday, the 10th of January, she ran into what was thought to be a tidal wave. Immediately an avalanche of water broke on the promenade deck. The officers on duty at the time calculated the liquid weight that came aboard at 2,000 tons, and 100 feet high. At the time of the occurrence the captain and the passengers were below at dinner, and it was fortunate that no one was on deck. The wave wrecked the pilot house, which is 84 feet above the water-line; four lifeboats were smashed, as well as eleven windows in the wheel-house. Companion ladders were carried away, while the captain’s, officers’ and their stewards’ quarters below the bridge were so badly damaged that they could not be used. The chief officer was on the bridge at the time, and he found himself in water up to his armpits. The quartermaster was swept off his feet, and struck against the chart-room bulkhead, with the fragments of the steering wheel in his hands, and the chart-room was flooded everywhere with water. As if that were not bad enough, the masthead lights and sidelights were extinguished by the wave. Happily, the chief officer kept his head above all this excitement, and finding that the engine-room telegraph gear was undamaged, signalled down to the engineer to reverse the turbines. The captain, who had only left the bridge a few minutes earlier, rushed back, and in less than half an hour the big ship was on her course again, heading for New York, where she arrived twenty-six hours late.
It was during the following month that the Mauretania also suffered her worst passage on record. The weather was so bad from the first that she was unable to land her pilot at Queenstown, who had to go all the way to New York. During the first day or two the sea became worse and worse. On the night of Sunday, February 20th, the Mauretania was in the thick of a heavy gale and meeting seas of rare magnitude. Some idea may be gathered of the conditions, when it is mentioned that the speed of this colossal liner had to be reduced to seven knots, and kept at that for the next five hours. It may be remembered that the Astronomer Royal reported that the wind-pressure at Greenwich that night showed a velocity of 100 miles an hour. When full steam was again resumed, the Mauretania received some punishing blows, and the upper works were subjected to a series of continuous batterings from heavy head seas. The glass of the bridge-house was shattered, several of the lifeboats were shifted, the water got below and flooded the forecastle, and finally an anchor, weighing 10,000 lbs., and 50 fathoms of cable were swept into the sea. Reading all this whilst having in mind the magnitude of these two steamships, truly we can say that the sea is no respecter of persons, nor even of the most marvellous products of naval architecture.
THE “ADRIATIC.”
From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. Ismay, Imrie & Co.
The four-masted steamship here illustrated is the White Star Adriatic, which was built in 1906. This mighty vessel is of 25,000 tons, and though smaller than the two Cunarders with which we have just dealt, is superior in size and speed to the White Star Baltic, and until the advent of the Olympic and Titanic, was the biggest production which the White Star Line has conceived. Like the Baltic, the second Oceanic, and the Cedric, this Adriatic follows out the modern White Star practice of giving mammoth size, moderate speed, and considerable luxury. She steams at 17½ knots with an indicated horse-power of 16,000. Unlike the more modern ships, the Adriatic is propelled not by triple or even quadruple screws, but by twin-screws, and is employed on the Southampton-Cherbourg-Queenstown-New York route. Although not provided with turbines, the Adriatic exhibits a minimum of vibration owing to the careful regard which is now paid to ensure the balancing of the moving parts of the reciprocating engine. She has two three-bladed screws, which are made of manganese bronze, driven by twin engines, and her dimensions are: length, 725·9 feet; beam, 77·6; depth, 54 feet. It will be seen, therefore, that the old ten-beams to length rule is yet again broken in the modern White Star leviathans.
In 1905, the German Hamburg-American Line became possessed of the Amerika, which with the length of 670½ feet, beam 74·6, and a tonnage of 22,225, and a moderate speed, makes her rather a rival of the White Star Baltic and Adriatic, than of the Cunard ships or the Norddeutscher Lloyd Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and Kaiser Wilhelm II., and the Hamburg Company’s own fast steamship, the Deutschland. Although sailing under a foreign flag, she is to all intents and purposes a British ship, for she was built at Harland and Wolff’s famous Belfast yard, where the White Star ships have come into being. Her speed is 18 knots, so that she is rather faster than the latest White Star ships, although inferior to the fastest contemporary liners. Carrying a total of 4,000 passengers and crew, the Amerika is one of the finest vessels, not merely in the German fleet, but in the whole world.
