THE LARGEST LINER AFLOAT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 242, 11 October 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LARGEST LINER AFLOAT.

JS T 18SS, when Mr E. J. H.rlan.l (a"t r.vard S E. J. Harland, Bart), started the now famous firm of l-.irland and Wolff, it modestly employed 100 men. To-day it employs 10,000. Whence it is evident that upon the pay-sheet of this giant company a whole city of 50,000 inhabitants in_s_rt depend. The history of shipbuilding- in Belfast reads like a romance. The first record of the work in the city occurs in 1636, when a vessel of 150 tons reg-ister was constructed there and launched—oddly enough—by a clergyman. Between the cockleshell of 1636 and the White Star palace Cedric of 1902 there is an amazing- contrast. The _edric (now the mightiest craft in the world) is 21,000 tons

The Bibby Line (Liverpool) had the honour of being the first to employ the then embryonic firm of Harland and Wolff. In those early days (as Mr. A M. Carlisle, the shipyard manager, can recall) there existed only four "slips" for the accommodation of new vessels. Now there are nine, holding more than twice the tonnage. This increase has taken place since 1870, and is.mainly owing to the untiring energy of the Eight Hon. W. J. Pirrie, who joined the company in 1874. Mr. Pirrie is now principal of the firm, and may justly be proud of the fact that it turns out a bigger annual tonnage to-day than any other shipbuilders in the world. The tonnage issued by Messrs. Harland and Wolff in 1901 (OVER 92,000 TONS) has never been even so much as approached by an 3' single firm or company of shipbuilders.

bridge she is therefore taller than mosft oig houses in London. Away down in her depths are her watertanko—those indispensable adjuncts to a modera ship's management. These tanks hold 6062 tons of water ballast. The object of the water ballast, needless to rema.rk, is for the "trimming" of the ship. Tons of water can be pumped fore or ait or from side to side, to keep the floating city on a horizontal keel, and thus aid the swiftness of the passage through the ocean. The Cedric is a triumph both for Messrs Harland and Wolff and its owners, the White Star Company, whose fleet now actually includes THIRTEEN STEAMERS OF OVER 10,000 TONS EACH and their average in point of fact is 13,840 tons. These figures do not include the Teutonic and Majestic (both slightly under 10,000 tons), which

visitor is deafened by the din of mighty engines, which axe «al__ly punching-—not boring or cutting, but punching-—holes iv a fi* thick oold •steel plate. He turns into an adjoining building, and peace greets hi--. This is a cabinet-making department, full of the smell of shavings and French polish. Here and there odd pipes like the tentacles of an octopus dangle down from the roof, and THE VISITOR WATCHES WITH SURPRISE

shavings and sawdust being snatched off the floor and. disappearing into the mouth of this weird contrivance. It is merely a suction draught device for keeping the room clean. The particles of wood-waste speed through pipes to another department of the works, where they are cannily utilised as fuel for boilers. This is only one of a myriad time and labour and money-saving ideas. The hydraulic