SPEED SUPREMACY OF THE ATLANTIC

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

SPEED SUPREMACY OF THE ATLANTIC

'After . their reconl heavy financial 1 losses the two great German shipping companies are more than, ever reconciled to the idea of letting the speed supremacy of the Atlantic rest with their principal 'British rival (writes a London correspondent). The subsidised Ctmctrders lead the world in fast passenger traffic. Vast as their dimensions are, they can outpace any other mercantile vessel on the seas. JFor some years, at any rate, they are now seoure from challenge. In. the immediate future the \Germans will compete with them only in the things which make for comfort "and security in sea travel. The policy of the 'Hamburg- Am erica lino is described by 'Herr 'Ballin, its director. "Large fAivps, with every imaginable luxury and comfort," he says, "is out object. I am still opposed to the introduction, of turbine engines on the big liners ; the system is too costly and •unprofitable." 'He 'believes that before many yea.rs have passed there will be invented some new mode of propulsion, ei€hcr by gas or electricity, which will cause the present rate of steamship speed to be entirely eclipsed. The manager of the Norddeutechcr Lloyd Company agrees with Herr Ballin's view in. regard to turbine engines. The Germans as a whole feel that they can afford to reject tuem, since steaming at ayjeopd-breaking rates is no longer one of their aims. T-heir na.vy department, •however, has given ( the most practical evidence of its approval of the (Parsons turbine. A fuller statement of the accounts of the German steamship companies, now published, shows that the most profitable of the lines running ■from Hamburg are those on the Australian ronte. Tho Atlantic traffic is now rapidly improving, and both the illamburg-limea-ica. a-nd UNTorddeutscher iLloyd Companies will apoarenuly soon •recover their old position in the American -trade.