BLUE RIBAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 228, 27 September 1938, Page 7

BLUE RIBAND.

ATLANTIC SUPREMACY.

SERVICE TO HUMANITY.

smtaups raw ooxnaroEß.

(By R.M.)

There is one thing the Blue Riband ■H done for humanity. The continual Mking after transatlantic supremacy, typified by the launching, to-day on Clydebank of the Queen Elizabeth. Britain's latest contender for the Blue libsnd, has resulted in a wonderful Improvement in the comfort and safety •* travel by steamship. The year 1816 marked the commencetttnt of the first regular sailing packet « i private enterprise. Prior to that the only regular service was a Btate one, run by the British Post Office for mail purposes, and carrying only a '•w passengers. These brigs were so terribly overmasted that they often cap•**»d, and quickly earned the name of "eomn" brigs. Those which remained ••oat often fell victims to French and American ships. The occasional emigrant ship of those , 4*7* was a vessel of some 300 tons, and •Wried as many as 450 passengers. Bedding and food had to be provided by ttopjassenger, while many came aboard *hti there was standing room only, fW won a place to lie down and rest •■'y by the death of some unfortunate who starved through inability to fight " «• way to the one galley, which served •* cookhouse for the passengers. I Restoration of peace in 1815 removed m many of the hazard* of transatlantic travel, and the Black Ball Line (Ameri- !*• *"" began the first regular schedule H with four ships of about 500 tons. - very ; available inch of space was used for t-\. •migrants, who vreie herded like cattle conditions where even elementary ,'dsceney was forgotten.

Then, in 1819, cam© the SavannaL. One could hardly call her a steamship, for she used her paddles only for 80 hours out of the total trip of over 20 days, but she was the forerunner of better things. Then came the Britannia, in 1840, to set the first bine riband record. Cunard had a fleet of sailing vessels already in the trade, but he was quick to investigate the possibilities of the new craft which could sail into the eye of the wind by steam power. Hence, when his first steamship, the Britannia, made her maiden voyage, Cunard himself was one of her passengers.

The trouble with the early steamship was her enormous consumption of coal. The Britannia did the trip in 14 days 8 hours, a rate of 8J knots, and consumed 38 .tons of coal per day. As the engines took up one-third of the vessel's length and the coal supply quite a ' lot more, there was left room for only 115 cabin passengers. Wooden ships were too heavy to be economically driven by steam.

The Persia, built for Cunard in 1855, was their first paddle steamer built of iron. She was about one-third lighter than a wooden ship of her size and, of course, much stronger, but her coal bill remained high and she had no room for other than cabin passengers and fine cargo. Except in the size of ships, the development in the transatlantic sen-ice has been very steady throughout the century. Oily on four occasions has the record been increased by more than one knot. With the careful study that has been made over tbe past four years on the actual performance of the Queen Mary, her designers hope that her new sister ship, so soon to be launched, will be a faster and better boat, capable of holding the riband for some time to cone. Cunard boats were the first to see the possibilities in iron-screw vessels, the innovation which brought the firm into the emigrant traffic at last. The Mauretania's feat in holding the blue riband for 22 years was another triumph for the Cunard Line, which has been mainly responsible for the fact that Britain has held the record for some 70 years out of the first 98, and still holds it. Even when the Mauretania lost tbe riband to the Bremen in 1020, when she was 22 vears old, she did not lose her popularity as the most comfortable and reliable ship on the Atlantic run.

Although the liners had been growing in size and achieving greater speeds, the great strides which have been made in the comfort of passengers are of recent origin, being first altered appreciably a few years before the world war. Where four people would formerly share an inside cabin without running water, and dine at a long table where they were seated without regard to their preferences, nowadays the cabins are as luxurious as in the most select hotels, and from the telephone by his bed the business man can converse with his friends all over the globe. The dining rooms also have changed, and in arrangement and decoration are as lavish as anything ashore. The department which attends to the comfort of the passenger is as efficient as those which look after the safety and propulsion of the vessel.

It is in the consideration of safety, however, that the greatest forward steps have been made. The first great step was the passage of a bill through Parliament in 1875 regulating the depth to which ships might be loaded with safety, and the Plimeoll marks, on the hull of every vessel are a lasting memorial to its originator. Then came the system of bulkheads, dividing a ship into many watertight compartments, and rendering it practically unsinkable although the story of the I Titanic tells us that even they will sometime* fail.

The introduction of radio, less than 40 years ago, wae the foremost safety provision. Not only could a ship in distress summon others to her aid, but she was guarded from possible dangers by frequent weather and iceberg warnings and accurate time signals. In tbe last few years the introduction of radio beacons has provided additional safety in the dangerous task of coming into port in a fog.

It is difficult to believe that the next hundred years of Atlantic travel can possibly contain the interest and excitement that the past century has provided, but perhaps in that time we may see the disappearance of the Blue Riband holder from the seas, for already aerial travel is showing the possibilities of the giant airliner as a speedy means of communication between the two greatest continents.