“KAISER WILHELM DER GROSSE,” NORTH GERMAN LLOYD LINE.
The largest passenger steamer afloat; holds the Blue Ribbon for the fastest
voyage from Southampton to New York, the highest average speed,
and the greatest day’s run.
Eight gigantic steamships are being added to the already numerous fleet. Some of these have already been launched at Stettin, Germany. The largest of these leviathans is the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which arrived in New York on September 26th, 1897, having made her maiden voyage from Southampton in 5 days, 22 hours, 45 minutes, the fastest on record. Her average speed was over twenty-one knots an hour, and her daily runs as follows: 208, 531, 495, 512, 554, 564, 186; the total distance run was 3,050 knots. Not only has the biggest ship beaten the Southampton record, but on her maiden trip she has made the fastest single day’s run. This she did on the nautical day ending at noon on the 26th, when she reeled off 564 knots. At times she developed twenty-two knots. Her coal consumption, however, was heavy, being nearly five hundred tons a day. She was commanded by Captain H. Englebart. Her return voyage to Plymouth was made in 5 days, 15 hours, 10 minutes; her average speed was about 21.40 knots, and her daily runs were 367, 504, 500, 507, 510, 519, 55; total, 2,962 knots.[24]
The Kaiser der Grosse is 649 feet in length, 66 feet in width, and 43 feet in depth. She is rated at 14,000 tons burthen and 30,000 horse-power. She has quadruple expansion engines, working at a steam pressure of 213 lbs., and turning her mammoth twin screws at the rate of seventy-seven revolutions per minute, and is otherwise conspicuous by her four funnels. Even the Pennsylvania is thrown into the shade by this new-comer. She is designed to carry 20,000 tons of cargo, and from 1,500 to 2,300 passengers. She is the largest steamship afloat at the present time, having larger carrying capacity than the famous Great Eastern; but her supremacy will be short-lived, for the new Oceanic, of the White Star Line, is still larger, and may prove faster. To load this great ship entirely with wheat would require the produce of a field of 40,000 acres, at sixteen bushels to the acre; and to supply her full complement of passengers would depopulate a good-sized town. The Kaiser is essentially a new type of ocean steamship—a magnificent experiment, which will be watched with great interest in shipping circles everywhere, and one that is not unlikely to set the fashion for ships of the next decade.
The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique,
commonly known as the French Line, entered the lists of competition in 1862, and has developed into a first-class marine service. The early ships of this company were iron paddle-wheel steamers, which were built by Scott & Company, of Greenock, but, owing to the prohibitory duty imposed on foreign-built vessels, it was found to be more advantageous to have them built in France, the more so as the Government had introduced the system of giving large “construction bounties.” This French company has now a magnificent fleet, comprising upwards of sixty steamships. The Atlantic service employs six very fine express steamers, La Touraine, La Bourgogne,[25] La Bretagne, La Champagne, La Gascogne, La Normandie, all of them built in France except the last named, which was built at Barrow-in-Furness, in 1882. The Touraine was built at the company’s building yard, at St. Nazaire, in 1890. She is a steel twin-screw ship of 10,000 tons net, and 14,000 horse-power. Her length is 520 feet, breadth 56 feet, and depth 34½ feet. She has triple expansion engines, and is classed as a nineteen-knot boat. She has made the voyage from Havre to Sandy Hook (in July, 1892) in 6 days, 17 hours, 30 minutes, the fastest on record between these ports, the average speed being 19.63 knots, and the best day’s run, 501 knots. The company’s capital is said to be $8,000,000, and its credit is good. The line is largely subsidized by the French Government, and receives compensation from the United States for carrying the mails from New York to Havre, the amount thus received in 1896 being $32,806.86. Until the loss of the Bourgogne, the most serious disaster that had overtaken the line was the wreck of the Ville de Havre, in November, 1873, from collision with an iron sailing ship, the Lochearn, which involved the loss of 226 lives, eighty-seven being rescued. Besides the American business, which is very large, the company has extensive trade connections with the Mediterranean and the West Indies.
The Netherlands Line,
officially styled the “Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvart Maatschappig,” of Rotterdam, has a fleet of thirteen steamers, most of them from the shipyard of Harland & Wolff, Belfast, and ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 tons each. They are very fine boats of their class, and have attracted a fair share of the passenger traffic between New York and Amsterdam and Rotterdam, sailing alternately for these ports every week, calling at Boulogne-sur-mere. They carry the United States mails, which do not seem to be very weighty, as the pay only amounted to $165.03 in 1896. The latest addition to the fleet is the Spaarndam, formerly of the White Star Line (the Arabic), a fifteen-knot ship, of 4,368 tons and 3,000 horse-power. The company, which commenced this business in 1872, has a capital of $1,680,000.