SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 9, 10 July 1909, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

NEW ORIENT LINERS. The Orsova, the first of the five new liners built by the Orient Company in connection with the Commonwealth mail contiact, arrived in the Thames a few weeks ago, thus adding one more to the' group of fine modern mail and passenger steamships which have recently made Tilbury their home. The Otway, the second of the steamers, was expected in the Thames a few days after, and the Osterley was to follow somewhat later. These three are all Clyde-built ships. Two more — the Otranto and the Orvieto — are completing at Belfast. All are of about 12,000 tons register, and some Ssoffc in length. The Orsova, on her official steam trials, did just over 18 knots, so that she is well assured of a service speed of something under 17. Captain Ruthven, commodore of the Orient fleet, is to take charge of the Orsova, which is sure to receive a cordial welcome in Australian ports, since she is to some extent the outcome of Commonwealth enterprise. Before the end of the year all five ships will be running in the mail service, so that, what with the new boats of the Peninsular and Oriental Company and those of the Orient Line, the Australian mail and passenger service will be provided for in a fashion entirely unprecedented. A point rightly insisted on at the meeting of the Orient shareholders, who for the eighth consecutive year get a dividend of 5 per cent, on their deferred shares, is that these new boats are capable of earning large revenues on an expenditure which will be relatively small in comparison with that of vessels of an older type. The economy which new steamers bring with them is, needless to say, an inducement to shipbuilding, whatever the condition of the market. But the Orient Line has been singularly fortunate. As matters turned out, it required to place its orders at a time when shinbuildin" was very depressed, and this naturally means that in the books of the company the new liners will stand at exceptionally low figures. ATLANTIC TRAFFIC OUTLOOK. New York advices speak somewhat gloomily of the outlook as regards passenger traffic to Euiope. The season proves to be later than was expected, and it is considered that the question of traffic adjustment will detain a good many people who would otherwise have crossed the Atlantic this summer. The idea, too, that the lines are rather overstocked with ships seems to find acceptance in New York, where it is also suggested that minimum rates are too high. These rates, it will be remembered, were arrived at at a conference held in London in the early part of last year, and so far there has been no complaint in reference to them. It is said, however, that some of the older boats hold themselves to be handicapped as compared with the newer and larger liners, and that they are disposed to demand the reopening of the subject. Since the minimum rates were fixed, considerable additions have, of course, been made to the fleets of some of the leading lines, and the new vessels possess many attractions to which the older boats cannot pretend. Another line which has a new boat .in prospect is the French Transatlantic Company, whose annual report suggests that the action of other companies has to some extent compelled it to make this further addition to its list of steamers. It is a question, it is said, of the company mantaining its position. The new steamer is to be called the France. She is to be bigger than the Provence, while she will accord with modern ideas so far as the luxury of her equipment is concerned. The Transatlantic Company has, however, no need to apologise for its new venture, for it is one of the few lines which has been able to maintain its dividend in face of the circumstances which have adversely affected so many of its competitors. It is interesting to note that the growth of this company of late years has been chiefly 6utside its subventioned mail services, and that it expresses its intenton^ in future to dispense with State, assistance except as regards the minimum rendered necessary by postal work. COLLISION WITH ICEBERG. Reports from St. John's, Newfound-, land, state that the steamer Almerian arrived there recently in a damaged condition from collision with ice, which is still thick in the Atlantic. The vessel, in avoiding some great floes, collided with an enormous iceberg. The impact was so sudden that the vessel ran up on the berg, and several of the passengers, who were in their berths at the time, were thrown to the floor of their cabin. Many of them ran, half-clothed as they were, to the deck, but the stewards went among them, calming them and allaying any panic. When the vessel backed off the ice, the water rushed through the holes made in the bow plates. The captain, however, had ordered the watertight compartments to be closed, and the inrush was confined to the forecastle, which was flooded. The crew say that in daylight they could count one hundred icebergs in a radius of forty miles. THE QUEENSTOWN CALL. It is pretty certain, states a London paper, that before long some alteration must be made in the arrangement where, by the Lusitania and the Mauretania call at Queenstown for the outward American mails. Nothing could jbe more irritating than the recent experience of the lasU mentioned ship, whicU reached the quarantine station at New York at eleven p.m. on a Thursday Her passengers, of course, had to bpend UA night on board, while the mails coufnnot be delivered in New York until next morning. In all human probability the Mauretania would have arrived at New York in good time in the afternoon but for the delay involved by the Queenstown call Certainly, by leaving Liverpool a, little earlier on the previous Saturday, that result might have been assured. As things are arranged at present it aoes not seem as if the punlic get the best possible return for large subsidies paid to the two Cunarders. A call at Queenstown may be a perfectly defensible thing for slower boats, but in the case of two crack Hners, built expressly with a view of reducing the Atlantic voyage, it seems a strange thing to handicap them in this way. Probably a change would have been made long ago but for the deference which is paid to Irish susceptibiities, but the force of the agitation in favour of the abandonment of the Queenstown call will, it is believed, eventually force the hand of the Postmaster-General. OLYMPIC AND TITANIC. The two leviathans, Olympic and Titanic, are intended by the White Star line to be used in tho Southampton-New York service. The vessels, which will have four funnels and one mast each, will cost about two millions each, and are to be ready early in 1912. The two gantry.s, which had to be specially built at the shipyard, cost two hundred thousand pounds. The passenger accommodation will be enormous — sufficient, probably, for at least two thousand five hundred — and the crew will number nearly one thousand. The gross tonnage will be 45,000, as against the 32,000 of the Lusitania. The funnels of the Uoats will be so large that two double-decked tram, way cars could easily pass through each.