When these new ships were first seen at Liverpool, the "old salts" held up their hands. They were too long! they were too sharp! they would break their backs! They might, indeed, get out of the Mersey, but they would never get back! The ships, however, sailed; and they made rapid and prosperous voyages to and from the Mediterranean. They fulfilled all the promises which had been made. They proved the advantages of our new build of ships; and the owners were perfectly satisfied with their superior strength, speed, and accommodation. The Bibbys were wise men in their day and generation. They did not stop, but went on ordering more ships. After the Grecian and the Italian had made two or three voyages to Alexandria, they sent us an order for three more vessels. By our advice, they were made twenty feet longer than the previous ones, though of no greater beam; in other respects, they were almost identical. This was too much for "Jack." "What!" he exclaimed, "more Bibby's coffins?" Yes, more and more; and in the course of time, most shipowners followed our example.
To a young firm, a repetition of orders like these was a great advantage,—not only because of the novel design of the ships, but also because of their constructive details. We did our best to fit up the Egyptian, Dalmatian, and Arabian, as first-rate vessels. Those engaged in the Mediterranean trade finding them to be serious rivals, partly because of the great cargos which they carried, but principally from the regularity with which they made their voyages with such surprisingly small consumption of coal. They were not, however, what "Jack" had been accustomed to consider "dry ships." The ship built Dutchman fashion, with her bluff ends, is the driest of all ships, but the least steady, because she rises to every sea. But the new ships, because of their length and sharpness, precluded this; for, though they rose sufficiently to an approaching wave for all purposes of safety, they often went through the crest of it, and, though shipping a little water, it was not only easier for the vessel, but the shortest road.
Nature seems to have furnished us with the finest design for a vessel in the form of the fish: it presents such fine lines—is so clean, so true, and so rapid in its movements. The ship, however, must float; and to hit upon the happy medium of velocity and stability seems to me the art and mystery of shipbuilding. In order to give large carrying capacity, we gave flatness of bottom and squareness of bilge. This became known in Liverpool as the "Belfast bottom;" and it has been generally adopted. This form not only serves to give stability, but also increases the carrying power without lessening the speed.
While Sailor Jack and our many commercial rivals stood aghast and wondered, our friends gave us yet another order for a still longer ship, with still the same beam and power. The vessel was named the Persian; she was 360 feet long, 34 feet beam, 24 feet 9 inches hold. More cargo was thus carried, at higher speed. It was only a further development of the fish form of structure. Venice was an important port to call at. The channel was difficult to navigate, and the Venetian class (270 feet long) was supposed to be the extreme length that could be handled here. But what with the straight stem,—by cutting the forefoot away, and by the introduction of powerful steering-gear, worked amidships,—the captain was able to navigate the Persian, 90 feet longer than the Venetian, with much less anxiety and inconvenience.
Until the building of the Persian, we had taken great pride in the modelling and finish of the old style of cutwater and figurehead, with bowsprit and jib-boom; but in urging the advantages of greater length of hull, we were met by the fact of its being simply impossible in certain docks to swing vessels of any greater length than those already constructed. Not to be beaten, we proposed to do away with all these overhanging encumbrances, and to adopt a perpendicular stem. In this way the hull might be made so much longer; and this was, I believe, the first occasion of its being adopted in this country in the case of an ocean steamer; though the once celebrated Collins Line of paddle steamers had, I believe, such stems. The iron decks, iron bulwarks, and iron rails, were all found very serviceable in our later vessels, there being no leaking, no caulking of deck-planks or waterways, nor any consequent damaging of cargo. Having found it impossible to combine satisfactorily wood with iron, each being so differently affected by temperature and moisture, I secured some of these novelties of construction in a patent, by which filling in the spaces between frames, &c., with Portland cement, instead of chocks of wood, and covering the iron plates with cement and tiles, came into practice, and this has since come into very general use.
The Tiber, already referred to, was 235 feet in length when first constructed by Read, of Glasgow, and was then thought too long; but she was now placed in our hands to be lengthened 39 feet, as well as to have an iron deck added, both of which greatly improved her. We also lengthened the Messrs. Bibby's Calpe—also built by Messrs. Thomson while I was there—by no less than 93 feet. The advantage of lengthening ships, retaining the same beam and power, having become generally recognised, we were in trusted by the Cunard Company to lengthen the Hecla, Olympus, Atlas, and Marathon, each by 63 feet. The Royal Consort P.S., which had been lengthened first at Liverpool, was again lengthened by us at Belfast.
The success of all this heavy work, executed for successful owners, put a sort of backbone into the Belfast shipbuilding yard. While other concerns were slack, we were either lengthening or building steamers as well as sailing-ships for firms in Liverpool, London, and Belfast. Many acres of ground were added to the works. The Harbour Commissioners had now made a fine new graving-dock, and connected the Queen's Island with the mainland. The yard, thus improved and extended, was surveyed by the Admiralty, and placed on the first-class list. We afterwards built for the Government the gun vessels Lynx and Algerine, as well as the store and torpedo ship Hecla, of 3360 tons.
The Suez Canal being now open, our friends the Messrs. Bibby gave us an order for three steamers of very large tonnage, capable of being adapted for trade with the antipodes if necessary. In these new vessels there was no retrograde step as regards length, for they were 390 feet keel by 37 feet beam, square-rigged on three of the masts, with the yards for the first time fitted on travellers, as to enable them to be readily sent down; thus forming a unique combination of big fore-and-aft sails, with handy square sails. These ships were named the Istrian, Iberian, and Illyrian, and in 1868 they went to sea; soon after to be followed by three more ships—the Bavarian, Bohemian, and Bulgarian—in most respects the same, though ten feet longer, with the same beam. They were first placed in the Mediterranean trade, but were afterwards transferred to the Liverpool and Boston trade, for cattle and emigrants. These, with three smaller steamers for the Spanish cattle trade, and two larger steamers for other trades, made together twenty steam-vessels constructed for the Messrs. John Bibby, Sons, & Co.; and it was a matter of congratulation that, after a great deal of heavy and constant work, not one of them had exhibited the slightest indication of weakness,—all continuing in first-rate working order.
The speedy and economic working of the Belfast steamers, compared with those of the ordinary type, having now become well known, a scheme was set on foot in 1869 for employing similar vessels, though of larger size, for passenger and goods accommodation between England and America. Mr. T. H. Ismay, of Liverpool, the spirited shipowner, then formed, in conjunction with the late Mr. G. H. Fletcher, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited; and we were commissioned by them to build six large Transatlantic steamers, capable of carrying a heavy cargo of goods, as well as a full complement of cabin and steerage passengers, between Liverpool and New York, at a speed equal, if not superior, to that of the Cunard and Inman lines. The vessels were to be longer than any we had yet constructed, being 420 feet keel and 41 feet beam, with 32 feet hold.
This was a great opportunity, and we eagerly embraced it. The works were now up to the mark in point of extent and appliances. The men in our employment were mostly of our own training: the foremen had been promoted from the ranks; the manager, Mr. W. H. Wilson, and the head draughtsman, Mr. W. J. Pirrie (since become partners), having, as pupils, worked up through all the departments, and ultimately won their honourable and responsible positions by dint of merit only—by character, perseverance, and ability. We were therefore in a position to take up an important contract of this kind, and to work it out with heart and soul.