From a Photograph. By permission of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co.
LAUNCH OF A TURRET-SHIP.
From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. Doxford & Sons, Sunderland.
But it is not merely in ship-building, but in ship-repairing that the genius of those responsible is fully shown. Some of the achievements which have been wrought in this way are scarcely less remarkable than the work of building the ship from the beginning. It would be impossible here to go through all the historic occasions when the ship-builder’s art has been so exceptionally manifested, but it is pertinent to our inquiry to mention some of the most interesting. One of the most recent was the repairing of the P. & O. China, after she had been on the rocks at Perim for several months. The damage was so serious that Harland and Wolff had to reconstruct her entire bottom, and the docking of her for repairs was supposed to have been a notable engineering feat. The American liner now called the Philadelphia, of which we gave [an illustration on another page], some years ago caused consternation by getting so far out of her course whilst proceeding down channel that she ran on to the dreaded Manacles, south of Falmouth. Eventually she was got off, but her damage was very great, and she had to be taken round to Belfast, where she was practically rebuilt with an improved stern, and entirely new engines and boilers. Since then she has continued to ply her voyages across the Atlantic without let or hindrance. Most readers will also remember the Scot, the famous South African liner, which had a marvellous career for record breaking. She was owned by the old Union Line before they amalgamated with the Donald Currie Company. This same vessel was taken to Belfast, placed in dock, cut in two, and lengthened by building over 50 feet into her midship body, and a like operation was performed on the Hamburg-American liner, Auguste Victoria, at the same yard. The Germans themselves in a similar way lengthened the steamship Wittekind, which was taken into dock at Geestemünde. But without doubt the most notable case of all was that of the White Star liner Suevic. This was a comparatively new ship, and was on her way home from Australia via the Cape of Good Hope, and with her tonnage of 12,531, is the largest vessel steaming from the United Kingdom in the Australian trade. She had entered the English Channel, but being out of her reckoning, had the bad luck to run on to some of the dangerous rocks off the Lizard, as many of my readers will doubtless recollect. [The illustration facing page 296], which is taken from a photograph made at the time, shows this fine ship in her sad predicament. Happily, it was found that only her fore part was ashore, and after strenuous and brilliant work, quite two-thirds of her were cut off by means of blasting, and, not without grave peril, towed all the way up Channel to Southampton, where this greater portion was docked, and the present writer remembers the sad and sorrowful sight she presented lying alongside the quay. But the firm of Harland and Wolff, who had made her, at once set to work to build a replica of the bow portion which had been left on the Lizard rocks, and this, also after a perilous passage from Belfast to Southampton, was towed round to the dock, where the other two-thirds were awaiting. The [illustrations here] given show the stern portion of the Suevic lying in dock at Southampton, with all the breakage cleared ready for the new bow, and the replica of the forward portion just arrived from Belfast and being warped into the dock to be joined on. The two parts were effectively joined together—a wonderfully clever shipbuilding achievement—and the Suevic partly modern and partly old, has long since been restored to her original route as a perfectly sound and satisfactory ship.
THE “SUEVIC” ASHORE OFF THE LIZARD.
From a Photograph by Gibson & Son, Penzance.
THE STERN PART OF THE “SUEVIC” AWAITING THE NEW BOW AT SOUTHAMPTON.