The contest, therefore, between the two White Stars and the two Inmans has been very close, the record time resting now with the one and then with the other.
But the Cunard Company, not to be beaten, put on the Campania in 1893, and in April of that year she made the fastest maiden trip then on record, one day indeed compassing 545 knots in the 24 hours.
The Campania is 625 feet long by 65¼ feet broad, and 43 feet deep from the upper deck. Her gross tonnage is 12,950. She is fitted with a cellular double bottom extending fore and aft, and also with sixteen bulkheads, so arranged that the vessel would float even if two, or in some cases three, compartments were open to the ocean.
She is a twin-screw vessel, fitted with two sets of very powerful triple-expansion engines. They are seated in two separate engine-rooms with a dividing bulkhead and water-tight doors.
Each set of engines has five inverted cylinders—viz., two high-pressure, one intermediate, and two low-pressure—all arranged to work on three cranks set at an angle of 120 degrees to each other. Her indicated horse-power is 30,000. The boiler-rooms are doubly cased, the space between being fitted with nonconducting material for sound and heat.
HIGH AND LOW PRESSURE CYLINDERS OF THE “CAMPANIA’S” ENGINES.
In this huge vessel four decks rise tier above tier, beside erections on the upper deck, known as promenade and shade decks. These four principal decks are the orlop, the lowest of all, used for cargo, stores, and machinery; the lower, the main, and the upper decks, the last three being devoted entirely to passengers.
Imagine yourself on the upper deck. Before you stretches the long vista of its length, like some far-reaching walk ashore; a circuit of the vessel four times makes a mile. Above rises the shade deck with the navigating apparatus, and surrounded by the twenty lifeboats of the vessel; above again is the captain’s bridge, where are placed the telegraph and wheel house, while higher still is perched the crow’s nest or look-out box, on the foremast, and about 100 feet from the water-level. Give a glance, too, at the huge funnels, 120 feet high, and so large that when in the builder’s yard a coach full of passengers was driven with four horses through one of them.
Descending then, the grand staircase, which is sufficiently wide for six persons to walk down abreast, and admiring the polished panelling, the rich Japanese paper, and the lounges on the landings, we enter the superb dining-saloon 100 feet long by 62 feet broad. Four huge tables run almost along its length, with smaller tables in the corners, while the wood-carving, carpeting, gold decorated roof, costly mirrors, and upholstering in rich red velvet are of the most sumptuous description.