MAMMOTH LINERS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13098, 24 April 1908, Page 7

MAMMOTH LINERS.

THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received April 23rd, 11.26 p.m.) LONDON, April 23. Tho Star Line has ordered at Belfast two steamers of a speed of 21 knots, the biggest in the world. They will be 40 feet longer than tho Lusitania.

The length of the- now vessels will bo 825 feet. A writer in tho "Daily Mail." discussing last year the question of ships larger than the Lusitania, said that for carrying passengers, every increase in dimensions, other things being equal, meant a steadier and more comfortable ship at soa, and, provided that_ there were plenty of passengers obtainable to fill tho "ship, every increase in size, within certain limits, would tend to economy in working. " Much larger steamships are, of course, quite possible. A Belfast shipbuilder is said to have talked of the possibility of building ships a quarter of a mdo long and 30 knots speed. It would be just as easy for other shipbuilders to speak of steamships half a mile long and 35 knots speed'. Nothing is impossible, provided there is money enough to pay for it. But it would be necessary also to spend enormous sums iu providing deeper harbours and larger docks—or the larger ships would have to remain out at 6ea. Such great extensions will not be made for very many years to come. The Liverpool docks are hardly big enough for the Lusitania and Maurctania. If ships are designed and built longer and broader, they must also bo made deeper —unless some novel and as yet un-thought-of method of providing the necessary strength can be devised. As it is, there are very few ]x>rts in the workl that_ can take in vessels as large as the Lusitania. They cannot enter tho Suez Canal or tbe port of London even at their light draught, with no cargo or fuel on board. No German port can accommodate vessels larger —or so large. And there is no trado in th© world in which ther oould live and make a profit except the Atlantic passenger trade to and from Now York."

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