The Campania is fitted to carry 460 first-class passengers, 280 second-class, and 700 steerage passengers—in all, 1440, besides a crew of 400. She has cargo-space for 1600 tons, which seems a trifle in comparison with her size, but then it is to be remembered that the fuel consumption of those 96 furnaces is enormous, and requires the carrying of a very heavy cargo of coals for internal consumption.
The accommodation for passengers is probably the most perfect that has yet been provided on an ocean steamer, for here the experience of all previous developments has been utilised. The dining-room is an apartment 100 feet long and 64 feet broad, furnished in handsome dark old mahogany, to seat 430 persons. The upholstery is tastefully designed, and the fittings generally are elegant; but the peculiar feature is a splendid dome rising to a height of thirty-three feet from the floor to the upper deck, and designed to light both the dining-room and the drawing-room on the deck above it. The grand staircase which conducts to these apartments is of teak-wood; the drawing-room is in satin-wood relieved with cedar and painted frieze panels. The smoking-room on the promenade deck is as unlike a ship's cabin as can be imagined; it is, in fact, a reproduction of an old baronial hall of the Elizabethan age, with oaken furniture and carvings. The other public apartments, library, boudoir, &c., are all more remarkable for quiet taste and artistic effect than for the gorgeousness of gilded saloons affected on some lines, but the prevailing feeling is one of luxurious comfort. The staterooms for first-class passengers occupy the main, upper, and promenade decks, and they are as much like real bedrooms as the old type of 'berths' are not. Besides the single bedrooms, there are suites of rooms for families or parties, finely appointed with ornamental woods, rich carpets, and with brass bedsteads instead of the old wooden bunks. All the sleeping-rooms are as light, lofty, and well ventilated as the sleeping-rooms on the old liners were the reverse.
The Campania.
The first-class passengers are placed amidships; the second-class are placed aft; and the steerage, forward. The steerage accommodation is superior to anything yet provided in that class; while the second-class accommodation is quite up to the usual first-class, with spacious, beautifully furnished staterooms, a handsome dining-room in oak, an elegant drawing-room in satin-wood, and a cosy smoking-room. Indeed, some of the second-class apartments look as if they were intended to be utilised for first-class passengers in times of extra pressure.
These are details of interest to possible passengers and to those who have already experienced the comforts and discomforts of the Atlantic voyage. But the great interest of the ship, of course, is in her immense size and enormous power. The navigating-bridge from which the officer in charge will direct operations, is no less than sixty feet above the water-level, and from there one obtains a survey unique of its kind. The towering height, the vast expanse of deck, the huge circumference of the funnels, the forest of ventilators indicative of the hives of industry below, the great lighthouse structures which take the place of the old angle-bedded side-lights—everything beneath you speaks of power and speed, of strength and security.
The following table shows at a glance how the Campania compares with her largest predecessors in point of size and power:
| Tonnage. | Length in feet. | Breadth in feet. | Horsepower. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Eastern | 18,900 | 682 | 82 | 7,650 |
| Britannic | 5,000 | 455 | 46 | 5,500 |
| Arizona | 5,150 | 450 | 45 | 6,300 |
| Servia | 8,500 | 515 | 52 | 10,300 |
| Alaska | 6,400 | 500 | 50 | 10,500 |
| City of Rome | 8,000 | 545 | 52 | 11,890 |
| Aurania | 7,270 | 470 | 57 | 8,500 |
| Oregon | 7,375 | 500 | 54 | 7,375 |
| America | 5,528 | 432 | 51 | 7,354 |
| Umbria | 7,700 | 501 | 57 | 14,320 |
| Etruria | 7,800 | 520 | 57 | 14,500 |
| City of Paris | 10,500 | 560 | 63 | 18,500 |
| Teutonic | 9,860 | 582 | 57½ | 18,000 |
| Normannia | —— | 520 | 57¼ | 16,350 |
| Campania Lucania | 12,950 | 620 | 65 | 30,000 |
As to speed, the record of course has been broken. In 1850 the average passage of a Cunarder westward was thirteen days, and eastward twelve days sixteen hours; in 1890, the average was reduced to seven days fifteen hours twenty-three minutes, and seven days four hours and fifty-two minutes, respectively. The fastest individual passages down to 1891 were made by the Etruria, westwards in six days one hour and forty-seven minutes; and by the Umbria, eastwards in six days three hours and seventeen minutes. But these were beaten by the Teutonic, which reduced the homeward record to five days and twenty-one hours; and by the City of Paris, which reduced the outward passage to five days and sixteen hours. Roughly speaking, these new Cunarders are about ten times the size and forty times the power of the pioneers of the fleet, and the Campania will run every twenty minutes almost as many miles as the Britannia could laboriously make in an hour.
Is it possible that within the next fifty years we shall be able to make the voyage to New York in three days? The old Britannia took fourteen days to Boston, and it was not until 1852 that the ten days' record to New York was broken by the 'Collins' Company. If, then, in forty years we reduced the record from ten to five, who can say that the limit of speed has yet been reached?