Of the more recent commanders, Captain W. H. P. Haines, late of the Campania and Commodore of the Cunard fleet, may be instanced as a good specimen. A born sailor he may be called, inasmuch as he is a native of Plymouth, whose father and grandfather before him followed the sea and who himself has been sailing for nearly fifty years and counts 592 voyages across the Atlantic. Captain Haines has always been as noted for caution as for skill. It is said of him that “whatever temptation there might be to make a fast passage, he would never neglect to take soundings, nor rely on any patent apparatus, without repeatedly fortifying its results by stopping his ship to get up and down casts with the ordinary lead.”
To guard against the risks of collision with other vessels, the Cunard steamers follow prescribed routes laid out for them, by which the ships, both outward and homeward bound, are kept at a respectable distance. In estimating the runs of the Atlantic liners from Liverpool to New York and return, Daunt’s Rock, off Queenstown, and the Sandy Hook lightship, twenty-six knots from New York, are regarded as the points of departure and arrival; but as Daunt’s Rock is about 244 knots from Liverpool, it follows that, to complete the voyage, a full half day’s run must be added to the record as usually announced. It is also to be remembered that the day at sea is longer or shorter according to the speed of the ship. On a twenty-knot vessel going east the average length of day is about 23 hours and 10 minutes; going westward it is about 24 hours and 50 minutes. The difference of time between Greenwich and New York is about five hours.
CUNARD TRACK CHART.
The “express steamers,” as the fast ships are now called, of the Cunard Line at present are the Campania, Lucania, Etruria and Umbria. These four constitute the weekly mail service, sailing every Saturday from Liverpool and New York. The Aurania, Servia and other vessels perform a fortnightly service from the same ports, sailing on Tuesdays. Five steamers are employed in maintaining a weekly service between Liverpool and Boston, and about a dozen more are required for the service between Liverpool, France and the Mediterranean.
The story of the Cunard Company would be incomplete without at least a brief reference to its three founders, Messrs. Cunard, Burns and MacIver, and Mr. Napier, the engineer, who was so closely identified with them.
THE FOUNDERS OF THE CUNARD LINE.