[92] Shipping World, January 2, 1907.
Alterations have been made in the propellers of both these steamers with a view to finding the size, pitch, number of blades, material, weight, and number of revolutions per minute and the other details upon which efficiency depends, but the result is carefully guarded. Such tests are expensive.
In 1889 the White Star Company built the Teutonic of 10,000 tons, which, like her sister ship the Majestic, was intended to be an armed mercantile cruiser. These two vessels, which each took nearly three years in building, were at that time the finest the world had seen, and the speediest, and were regarded with such wonder that at the naval review in 1889, one of them was visited by the German Emperor and the late King Edward (then Prince of Wales) and many distinguished officers of the Navy. The Majestic soon brought the record from Queenstown to New York down to 5 days 18 hours 18 minutes, but this was reduced by the Teutonic to 5 days 16¹⁄₂ hours.
The second Oceanic, also of steel and a twin-screw boat, was placed in the Liverpool and New York service in 1899. She was 704 feet in length and was the first vessel to be built longer than the Great Eastern, but in other respects she was smaller, her beam being 68·3 feet, her gross tonnage 16,900 and her displacement tonnage 26,100. The indicated horse-power of the Oceanic was 29,000 as against the 11,000 of the Great Eastern, and her speed was 21¹⁄₂ knots as compared with 13. In equipment, too, she was regarded as the last possible word in luxury and magnificence. Her promenade deck was 400 feet long, and the saloon was 80 by 64 feet, the latter surmounted by a glass dome 21 feet square.
Two enormous steamers, the Celtic in 1901 and the Cedric in 1902, of 20,904 tons gross, again established a record for size; the latter is slightly the larger vessel, but in other respects they are sisters. These were the last vessels built for the White Star Line as an independent organisation, as in the following year the line became a part of the great Morgan Combine though still retaining its individuality of management.
The Republic, a White Star steamer which had just left New York for England, was rammed off Nantucket in January 1909 by the Italian Lloyd steamer Florida inward bound. The White Star liner Baltic took off from the Florida all the passengers that had been saved from the Republic. The latter vessel was kept afloat all night by her water-tight compartments. All the while she was afloat she signalled by wireless telegraphy for assistance and this brought the Baltic and other vessels on the scene. The Republic was built in 1903 for the Boston-Liverpool trade of the Dominion Line and was named the Columbus, and was afterwards taken over by the White Star. She was a twin-screw steel steamer of 15,378 tons gross, and the largest vessel which has yet been lost at sea.
The “Teutonic” and “Majestic” (White Star Line, 1889).
The “Olympic” (White Star Line, 1910). From the Painting by Charles Dixon.