Two interesting new ships were commissioned in 1909 by the White Star Line, for the Liverpool-Quebec service, named respectively the Laurentic and Megantic. An illustration, showing the former on the stocks at Harland and Wolff’s yard, Belfast, is given [opposite page 210]. The Laurentic and Megantic are, as to hulls, sister ships, and each has a tonnage of 14,900, thus being among the largest steamers in the Canadian trade. But whilst the latter is a twin-screw ship propelled by reciprocating engines, the former has three screws and a combination of reciprocating engines and a low-pressure turbine, being the first large passenger steamship to be designed with this ultra-modern method. Each of the “wing” propellers is driven by four-crank triple balanced engines, the central propeller, however, being driven by the turbine. The object aimed at by this novel hybrid method was to retain the advantages of the carefully balanced reciprocating engines, but at the same time to obtain the benefit of the further expansion of steam in a low-pressure turbine, without having to employ a turbine specially for going astern. The reciprocating engines of the Laurentic are adequate for manœuvring in and out of port, and for going astern, since they develop more than three-quarters of the total combined horse-power. This steamship, single-funnelled and two-masted, measures 565 feet in length, and 67 feet 4 inches in width, and besides having accommodation for 1,690 passengers, carries a large quantity of cargo. Like many other big steamships that we have noted in the course of our story, she has a double cellular-bottom which extends the whole length of the ship, being specially strengthened under the engines. Her nine bulkheads divide her up into ten water-tight compartments. It will be noticed that the rudder has gone back to the ordinary type common before the introduction of the balance method. Notice, too, that the blades of the propeller are each bolted to the shaft, and that the latter terminates in a conical shape now so common on screw-ships. This is called the “boss,” and was invented by Robert Griffiths in 1849. It was introduced in order to reduce the pressure of the water towards the centre. This method was first tried on a steamer in the following year at Bristol and afterwards on H.M.S. Fairy. By reason of its shape, it naturally causes less resistance through the water.
Whilst these lines are being written, there are building at Harland and Wolff’s yard still another couple of ships for the White Star flag, which, if not in speed, will be the most wonderful, and certainly the largest ships in the world. After the Baltics and Mauretanias one feels inclined to ask in amazement: “What next, indeed?” They will measure 850 feet long, 90 feet broad, and be fitted with such luxuries as roller-skating rinks and other novelties. They will each possess a gross register of 45,000 tons. (By way of comparison we might remind the reader that the Mauretania has a gross register of 33,000 tons.) Named respectively the Olympic and Titanic, they will be propelled by three screws, and have a speed of 21 knots, so that besides being leviathans, they will also be greyhounds, and are destined for the Southampton-New York route. The first of these, the Olympic, will take the water in October, 1910, and some idea of her appearance may be gathered from the illustration which forms our [frontispiece]. Like the Laurentic, these ships will be fitted with a combination of the turbine and reciprocating engines, and will thus be the first ships running on the New York route to have this system. Their builders estimate that the displacement of each of these mighty creatures will be about 60,000 tons, which is about half as much again as that of the Baltic. Each ship will cost at least a million and a half of money, and it will be necessary for each of those harbours which they are to visit to be dredged to a depth of 35 feet. It is a complaint put forward by both ship-builders and owners of modern leviathans that the governing bodies of ports have not shown the same spirit of enterprise which the former have exhibited. To handicap the progress of shipping by hesitating to give the harbours a required depth, they say, is neither fair nor conducive to the advance of the prosperity of the ports in question, and on the face of it, it would seem to be but reasonable that if the honour of receiving a mammoth liner means anything at all, it should be appreciated by responding in a practical manner. In New York Harbour this fact is already recognised, for dredging is being undertaken so as to provide a depth of 40 feet.
At the present moment the Cunard Company are also engaged in replenishing their fleet, consequent on the removal from service of the Lucania, the Umbria, the Etruria, and the Slavonia. An 18,000 ton steamship, to be called the Franconia, is being built by Messrs. Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., the firm which turned out the Mauretania, and will be ready some time in 1911. This latest addition will not, it is understood, be a “flyer,” for her speed is believed to be less than 20 knots, and it is therefore probable that she is intended to replace the Slavonia. But it is supposed that another vessel is to be built presently to relieve the Mauretania and Lusitania, or to co-operate with them, and that her speed will be 23 knots, though it must not be forgotten that this ship will not be built with the help of Government money, but will be purely and solely a commercial transaction.
In the meantime German enterprise shows but little signs of lagging. The Hamburg-American Line are understood to have ordered from the Vulcan Yards at Hamburg a new passenger liner of more than 800 feet in length and a displacement of between 45,000 and 50,000 tons. Her speed is to be 21 knots. Herr Ballin a couple of years ago had a similar project in view, and entered into a contract with Harland and Wolff for building the largest ship in the world, to be called the Europa. But the condition of the Atlantic passenger trade became unfavourable for the enterprise, and the contract was annulled. The contract now goes, not to Belfast, but to Hamburg, for the Belfast yard has no slip vacant for several months to come. It will mean, therefore, that this Europa, which is destined to excel the big Cunarders in size though not in speed, will be the largest undertaking that German ship-building yards have yet had to face, for the biggest merchant ship which up till now they have turned out is the George Washington, of 26,000 tons. Since the Deutschland lost the honour of holding the “blue ribbon,” the Hamburg-American Line have not worried much about recapturing the first position in speed. Economy plus a first-class service would seem to be the modern combination of influence that is dominating the great steamship lines. Speed is a great deal, but it is not everything in a passenger steamship, and whether the limits have not already been surpassed, and the Mauretania and Lusitania with their high speeds and enormous cost of running will presently be regarded rather as belonging to the category of white elephants than of practical commercial steamships, time alone can show.
After all, the Atlantic and the other oceans were made by the Great Designer as barriers between separate continents, and although we speak of them casually as rather of the nature of a herring-pond, and build our big ships to act as ferries, yet are we not flying in the face of Nature, and asking for trouble? In the fight between Man and Nature, it is fairly plain on which side victory will eventually come, in spite of a series of clever dodges which throughout history man has conceived and put into practice for outwitting her. You can fool her very well in many ways for part of the time; but you cannot do this for ever in every sphere. When we read of fine, handsome, well-found modern liners going astray in the broad ocean, or of excellent, capable little cross-channel steamships foundering between port and port, without any living witnesses to tell how it all happened, we have a reminder that the ways of man are clever beyond all words, but that Nature is cleverer still. What the future of the steamship will be no one can tell. Already ship-builders profess themselves capable of turning out a monster up to 1,000 feet in length. But whether this will come about depends on the courage of the great steamship lines, the state of the financial barometer, and any improvements and inventions which the marine engineer may introduce in the meantime. Perhaps the future rests not with the steam, but the gas engine: we cannot say. It is sufficient that we have endeavoured to show what a century and but little longer has done in that short time for the steamship. Sufficient for the century is the progress thereof.
CHAPTER VIII
SMALLER OCEAN CARRIERS AND CROSS-CHANNEL STEAMERS
Although it is true, as I have already pointed out, that the North Atlantic has been the cockpit wherein the great steamship competition has been fought out, yet it is not to that ocean alone that all the activity has been confined. Because of the limitations which the Suez Canal imposes it is not possible to build steamships for the Eastern routes of such enormous tonnage as are customary for the North American passages.
In the course of our story we have seen the beginnings of the principal steamship companies trading not merely to the west, but in many other spheres. In tracing the history of steamship companies as distinct from that of the steamship herself, we are immediately confronted with difficulties, for the company may be older than steamships of any sort; or, again, the company may be of comparatively modern origin, yet from the first possessed of the finest steamships, of a character surpassing their contemporaries. For instance, one of the very oldest lines is the Bibby Line to Rangoon. This was founded as far back as 1807, yet it was not until 1851 that it adopted steam. The White Star Line, as we have seen, was previously composed of sailing vessels, and its first steamship, the Oceanic, did not appear until 1870, but when she did make her appearance, she surpassed anything else afloat by her superior virtues. To take, therefore, a chronological survey of the establishment of the steamship organisations would be to convey nothing satisfactory to us in our study of the evolution of the steamship, but nevertheless, we may pertinently set forth some of the more venerable but no less active steamship lines of the present day.
THE “MOOLTAN.”