A notable event in the trade with Canada was the introduction of the White Star liners Megantic and Laurentic, which are run as White Star-Dominion Line steamers to save possible complications with other lines in the Canadian trade. They are important, not only on account of their size, but also because of the engineering experiments they embody, the Megantic standing for the highest perfection of the twin-screw balanced reciprocating engine, while the Laurentic is remarkable for the introduction of reciprocating engines and low-pressure turbines. In other respects they are sister ships. They are the largest vessels yet placed in the Canadian trade. The Laurentic was launched in September 1908 at Belfast by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, and the Megantic left the slips the following December. They are each 565 feet long by 67 feet 4 inches beam, and about 15,000 tons gross. Each carries 260 first-class passengers, 420 second-class, and over 1000 in the third class. Their cargo capacity is also very great. They are singled-funnelled, two-masted steamers. Like all the other vessels of the White Star Line they have been constructed throughout on the most approved principles, nothing that long experience and practical knowledge could suggest being wanting to make them as perfect as possible in all particulars.
The last three or four years have seen the advent of the largest steamers afloat, and before the end of 1910 they will be eclipsed by one of the two steamers, the Olympic and the Titanic, now building for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolff at Belfast, which are to be of about 45,000 tons each. At present the largest White Star vessel is the Adriatic, launched in September 1906 and placed upon the service to New York in the spring of 1908. This gigantic ship is 709 feet 2 inches in length, 75 feet 6 inches beam, and 52 feet deep, and her displacement is over 40,000 tons. Besides the usual luxurious fittings of the vessel, which are all in accordance with the traditions of the White Star Line—she is in this respect an improved version of all her great predecessors—she has an electric passenger lift giving communication between the various decks, a gymnasium, and a full set of turkish baths besides plunge bath, massage couches, and electric baths. The hull is divided into twelve water-tight compartments, the bulkheads being fitted with doors which can all be closed instantaneously from the bridge if desired, and there are no fewer than nine steel decks.
The Inman and International liners City of New York and City of Paris, steel twin-screw steamers, were launched in 1888 and 1889. These two steamers marked one of those epochs of complete transformation in type of vessel necessitated by the public demands and rendered possible by the advance of engineering science.[93] They had considerable beam and their subdivision into water-tight compartments was more thorough than in any vessel hitherto built. Another innovation in their construction was the arrangement of fore and aft bulkheads in addition to the transverse bulkheads. Both these ships were of the Inman type with clipper bows and the usual long graceful lines, but they spread less sail than any of their predecessors, being fitted simply with three pole masts carrying fore and aft schooner rig only. The funnels of each boat, which were three in number, were placed between the fore and main masts. Each vessel carried two separate engines built on the three-crank system, and the boilers were constructed to work at the then unusual pressure of 150 lb. to the inch. The rudder was in many respects different from that usually constructed for merchant steamers, and more nearly approximated to the type adopted in the Navy, in which, as a protection against hostile projectiles, the rudder is wholly submerged. This form of rudder was introduced in these two steamships as they were intended to be used as auxiliary cruisers. The rudder itself was constructed on a modification of the balanced system, in which a portion of the rudder is placed forward of the stock. Both these steam-ships made some very rapid passages, the City of Paris in May 1889 bringing down the time of the transatlantic journey to less than six days. These were the last vessels added to the Inman and International Line. In March 1893 the line was reorganised and became the American Line. This company launched the St. Louis and St. Paul built at Cramp’s yard at Philadelphia. The two American-built ships were each 554 feet in length and of 11,600 tons gross register. They held the record for the New York-Southampton service for some years. During the Spanish-American War they were used as auxiliary cruisers.
[93] “The Atlantic Ferry.”
The “Olympic” building, October 18, 1909 (White Star Line).
The increase in the size of steam-ships is not confined to the Atlantic alone, but is a feature of all the great lines whatever part of the world they may serve. The Peninsular and Oriental, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the Ellerman Lines, all the passenger lines trading to North America, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the Orient Line and the principal lines trading to the Far East, are all the possessors of steamers of 12,000 tons or over, though in the case of those that use the Suez Canal the size is limited by the fact that if they were made any larger they might have difficulty in getting through the canal at all. The heavy canal dues, which are already a serious item to the owners of all steamers using the canal, would be more onerous still if the vessels were of greater size, and as it is, some of the lines trading to Australia deliberately take the Cape route so as to avoid this expense.
Lloyd’s Register’s Annual Summary issued in January 1910 contains the following on the production of large steamers since 1893:
“The number of large steamers launched in the United Kingdom during 1909 has been less than during any of the previous four years. During the years 1893-6, on an average, ten vessels of 6000 tons and upwards were launched per annum in the United Kingdom; in the following four years, 1897-1900, the average rose to 32, at which figure it stood for the four years 1901-4, and at 30 for the four years 1905-8. During 1909 only 19 such vessels were launched. Of vessels of 10,000 tons and upwards only three were launched in the four years 1893-6; 24 were launched during the four years 1897-1900; 27 were launched during the four years 1901-4, and a similar number during the four years 1905-8.
“During 1909 six vessels of 10,000 tons and above were launched, the names of which are as follows: