“CITY OF PARIS”—DINING ROOM UNDER THE DOME.
The Inman Line was the first to introduce the twin-screw in the Atlantic service. It was also the first to place the comforts and conveniences of steam navigation within the reach of emigrant steerage passengers, and by so doing made a distinct advance in the cause of humanity. In 1856-57 they carried no less than 85,000 emigrants.
The Inman Line passed from its founders in 1875, and became a private limited company, which, in 1886, entered into negotiations with the American International Navigation Company, better known as the Red Star Line. At that time the fleet consisted of the City of Berlin, City of Chester, City of Chicago, City of Richmond and City of Montreal. The New York and Paris hoisted the American flag in 1893, but the change consequent on their new registration and their re-christening made no change in the name of the company.
In 1892 the company secured a contract for carrying the United States mails, weekly, from New York to Southampton, in consideration of a subsidy, amounting to about $750,000 a year. Southampton was preferred to Liverpool as being much nearer London and as having exceptionally good harbour facilities. The sea voyage, however, is about 200 miles longer than from New York to Queenstown. In terms of their contract, two magnificent twin-screw steamers have recently been added to the fleet,—the St. Louis and St. Paul, built on the Delaware by Messrs. Cramp and Sons, of Philadelphia. They are claimed to be the embodiment of the finest American skill and workmanship. Over 6,000 tons of steel were used in the construction of the hull of each ship; their length over all is 554 feet, breadth 63 feet, depth 42 feet; their gross tonnage is 11,000 tons and their engines are of 20,000 horse-power. They are designed to carry 320 first-class, 200 second, and 800 steerage passengers, and the arrangements for each class are unsurpassed. The main saloon is 110 feet long by 50 feet wide, with seats for all her cabin passengers at one sitting. It is handsomely decorated and finished in white mahogany, and is well lighted from the sides and a lofty dome overhead. The drawing-room is in white and gold and luxuriously furnished. The staterooms are roomy, well ventilated and fitted up with every convenience necessary to comfort; there are also suites of rooms, comprising bedroom, bath-room and sitting-room, all elegantly furnished. These ships can carry enough coal, cargo being excluded, to cross the Atlantic and return at their highest speed; and at the ordinary cruiser’s speed of 10 to 12 knots, they can steam for 66 days without recoaling a distance of 19,000 knots.
“ST LOUIS.”
Now (1898) a U. S. armed cruiser.
Although these fine ships have already suffered several vexatious accidents, none of them have been attended with serious results. They have not yet taken the laurels from the Campania and Lucania, and are not likely to do so, but they have made very good time on the Atlantic. The St. Louis made the voyage from New York to Southampton in August, 1895, in 6 days, 13 hours, 12 minutes. The St. Paul[17] made the run from Southampton to Sandy Hook, in August, 1896, in 6 days, 57 minutes. Their estimated speed in ordinary weather is 21 knots an hour.
The entire Inman fleet consists of twenty-two ships—all of a high class. They retained the graceful overhanging bow and ship-shape bowsprit with its belongings to the last, but the new steamers of the American Line conform in this respect to the prevailing fashion of the straight stem, first introduced by the Collins Line as being economical of space and every way handier in port. The use of sails in full-powered steamships has been gradually declining for years, and they will soon be a thing of the past. Heavy masts and yard-arms seriously interfere with the motion of a twenty knot steamship, and except in the case of a breakdown of machinery are seldom of any use, and that contingency has been reduced to a minimum by the introduction of the twin-screw.