This magnificent specimen of a merchant-steamer surpassed in all respects any vessel which had hitherto crossed the Atlantic, having made the passage (allowing for difference in time, but including the detention of landing mails and passengers at Queenstown) in eight days, twenty-two hours, from New York to Liverpool.
Though the Collins Company had collapsed, the Cunard Company were not left in undisputed possession of the intercourse they had established, except so far as regards any further competition from steam-vessels subsidised by the Governments of Great Britain or of the United States. But as no mean rivals in the trade had arisen from among their own countrymen, they found it necessary to add vessel after vessel to their fleet, each new one of a still more improved description, and therefore wisely turned their attention to the screw as a means of propulsion.
Russia, first Cunard screw-steamer, 1862.
In 1862 they sent forth the China, in 1864 the Cuba, in 1865 the Java, and in 1867 the Russia, all built of iron in the Clyde, but fitted with the screw instead of paddle-wheels, and embodying various improvements upon even the Scotia. The Russia is 2960 gross register, and, though her engines are only 492 horse-power,[214] her speed equalled that of either the Persia or Scotia, she having made the passage from New York to Queenstown in eight days and twenty-eight minutes, and from Queenstown to New York in eight days, five hours, and fifty-two minutes mean time, thus affording another instance (if, indeed, any more were required) of the superiority of the screw over the paddle-wheels.
Bothnia and Scythia, 1874.
Their construction.
But as the trade increased the Cunard Company found it necessary to direct their attention to the adoption of every improvement, however minute, which their experience, combined with the knowledge and science of the age suggested, so as to increase considerably the capacity of their vessels, without lessening their speed. Since they launched the Russia they have added to their fleet five vessels, the Calabria, Algeria, and Abyssinia, each of 3300 tons, and the Bothnia and Scythia, each of 4535 tons, all built of iron and fitted with the screw. The Bothnia and Scythia, (built by Messrs. James and George Thomson, of Glasgow,) are in all respects similar. They are each 455 feet in length over all, with a breadth of 42½ feet, and a depth of 36 feet. In each, accommodation has been afforded for 300 first-class and 800 third-class passengers. They are barque-rigged, and have four decks—the upper or promenade deck, the spar deck, the main deck, and the lower or orlop deck; their engines are on the compound principle.[215] Their engines are 507 nominal horse-power, of the massive description common to the Cunard liners, so essential for safety on an Atlantic voyage. They have each two jacketed cylinders, the small cylinder being 60 inches and the large one 104 inches, with eight tubular boilers and twenty-four furnaces.
“BOTHNIA.”
The coal bunkers of the Bothnia are capable of holding 1200 tons of coals. Steam winches of extra size are attached to all the hatches, and the weighing of the anchor is secured by the use of Harfield’s[216] steam windlass. Her steam steering gear is amidships, besides which she has powerful screw gearing, and, in further supplement of the guiding resources of the vessel, she can be directed, from a wheel-house aft, in the event of the steam gearing getting out of order while at sea.