HUGE STEAMERS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 304, 17 September 1908, Page 7

HUGE STEAMERS.

■ - —4 : — . THE WHITE STAR LEVIATHANS. (BX JXIJtGBAPB—PBESS ASSOCIATION—COPYEIQHT.) (Reo. September 17, 0.15 a.m.) London, September 16. The two now mammoth steamers which are being built for the White Star Company, the Olympic and the Titanic, will each have a tonnage of about 60,000, and will cost together'three and a-half millions. , MEN AND PLANT REQUIRED. The ships, which will bo 880 ft. long (or 73ft. longer".than the Cunarders), and which will have a speed of 19 to 20 knots, will be built at Belfast. Referring to the Olympic, a writer in;.a London paper says:— Three. largo building slips, eaoh capable of accommodating a 25,000-ton liner, have had to be. converted into two, so as to give the necessary space; a large floating orane, capable of raising at one lift a load of 200 tons, and a gigantic; American crane of the very latest design, built on six pillars, each 175 ft. high, are at.the moment in course of construction. : In the latter there will be combined a mammoth "travelling crane on the cantilever principle for lifting and carrying heavy plates and girders,, and a hydraulic apparatus for riveting afid "otlldr purpos'es. The magnitude of this latter undertaking may ba judged from the fact that Messrs. Arrol's contract alone is ,£140,000. "At first the number of men employed in its construction- will be comparatively small, but as>the work proceeds tho number will be increased, until just before completion fully 3500 hands, each at his own specially allotted task, will, be .engaged, in the finishing processes, an foreman being in charge of each squad, while a sub-manager in turn supervises each department of the work. As a general rule a vessel" of such magnitude takes about twenty months to complete, but by" putting on additional men the new leviathan will be completed by the lata autumn of 1910, being a trifle over two years in build' ing. '

•/It .is just likely the Olympic—if it is decided to givo.the giant ljner that nain'e—will be pro? pelled by four screws, two driven by high-pres-sure quadruple expansion reciprocating engines and two by low-pressure turbines; but it is not intended'that tho speed shall exceed 21 knots per hour.'