SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 134, 3 December 1910, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

» . STEAMER WITHOUT MASTS. CYCLOPS AT BRISBANE. An interesting steamer is Holt's Blue Funnel liner Cyclops, which arrived at Brisbane from Glasgow on Tuesday of last week, and berthed afc the Mercantile Wharf. Built by Messrs. David and William Henderson, the Cyclops is a. twinscrew steamer of 8998 tons gross. At first sight she attracts attention, for the cus tomary masts are dispensed with, and in lieu thereof there are four tall powerful posts, which serve the purpose of derrick posts. These posts are placed two abreast forward and aft. On the foro deck one of the posts has a crossbeam, the whole being used for lifting heavy articles, such as oylindors. In addition to the four derrick posts mentioned, there are 26 powerful steam winches. The ordinary geai is oapable of lifting 22 tonß, and the heavy gear will lift 45 tons. U/ne vessel's holds are divided into seven large compartments, all of which are void of the usual pillars,, and consequently are free from obslruntion, the decks being amply supported by strong girders of a special construction, thus enabling oargo of a bulky character to be shipped. The vessel is capable of carrying from JB.OOO to 20,000 tons dead weight. The captain, officers, and engineers are berthed in steel deck houses amidship, the rooms being of exceptional size, and comfortably fitted. Seamen's and firemen's quarters are aft, 1 while aocommodation is provided in the forecastle and in the upper 'tween decks aft for emigrants, for whom every necessary convenience has been provided. A complete installation of electrio light has been fitted throughout the vessel, which ib 485 ft long, with a beam of 58ft 2in. The Cyclops, which has a speed of 14£ knots, usually trades between British ports, China, Japan, and Vancouver, and is one of the five vessels constructed for the special purpose of quick despatch of freight. This is th» firf.l visit of the vessel to Brisbane. BIG SHIP COMPARISONS. OLYMPIC AND GREAT EASTERN. Thursday, the 20th of October, was a proud day for Ireland, which, with the launch of the Olympic at Belfast, regains the coveted distinction of having built the biggest ship afloat. This much-prized honour was lost when the Lusitania and the Mauretania appeared some three years ago. It is now recaptured with a very handsome margin. That, indeed, ia the central fact of the- situation. In point of tonnage the Olympic is equal to the Mauretania and a 13,000-ton liner combined. Her length is 880 ft, compared with the 7Soft of the Cunarder. The comparison with previous ships of the White Star Line (says the London Daily Telegraph) is not less striking. The Olympic is nearly twice the tonnage of the Adriatic, welcomed only four years ago as the biggest ship' in the world, and is four or five times the size of the Teutonio or the Majestio, those triumphs of a considerably earlier period. It was a striking advance from the 25,000-ton Adriatic to the 32,000-ton Mauretania. but all records have now been broken by the jump of 13,000 tons which the Olympic represents. On these occasions people are apt to go back to the Great Eastern for early data. Ab a matter of fact that splendid but untimely shipbuilding effort was shorter by at least 200ffc than the Olympic, and much less than half her tonnage. The Great Eastern, it may be recalled, was propelled both by paddle-wheels and propeller, a curious combination, as we should think nowadays. It is, perhaps, a little singular that in the mammoth White Star liner the element of combination is not wholly absent, since she will rely on the co-operation of reoiprocating-engines and a low-pressure turbine. The virtues of this particular combination have, of course, been well tested by the White Star In the Laurentic, so that the method of propulsion is in no sense experimental. On the 4th October there was launched on the Tyne the largest steamer yet built on tho Isherwood system of longitudinal framing. The vessel has been constructed to the order of Messrs. A. F. Klaveness and Co., of Sanderjord, and is of the following dimensions: — Length over all 452 ft ; breadth extreme, 58ft. She is one of the_ shelter-deck type, and -is capable of carrying a total deadweight of 10,650 tons on a moderate draught of water. She is intended for the iron ore trade between Wabana (Newfoundland) and Sydney (Capo Breton), and has been built to special survey of the' British Corporation as well as to that of the Norske Veritas. The epginei will be Bupplied by the North Eastern Marine Engineering Company, Wallsend, and will be of the triple-expansion type having: cylinders 28iin, 47in, and '8m diameter, with a stroke of 54in, steam » supplied by three boilers working at 1801b pressure. According to the shipbuilding returns comp'led by the United States Bureau a* Navigation. 123 vessels, of 42,745 torn gross, were built in tho United^States las* month, of which 9, of 790 tons, were wooden sailing ships; 106. of 6113 tons, wooden steamers , and 10, of 35 842 tons fateel bteamers. The steamers included the navy collier Cyclops, of 10,644 torn gross, built by Messrs. Win. Cramp and Sons; the Wm. B. Dickson, of 7568 tons, built at Ecorse, Mich., for the Pittsburgh Steamship uompany; and the Honolulan, of 7059 tons, built at Sparrow's Point, Ind. In the past three months 376 vessels, afferegahng 95,137 tons gross (40 of 82,560 tons being steel steamers), were launched in the fatates agamsfc 345 vessels, of 48,914 tons [di>, or 35,860 tons being steel Bteamers) in the corresponding period of last year.

A message from Boulogne relative to the Paris railway strike ran :— One slow train from Paris arrived here nearly two hours late, the Bale train caught the boat to Folkestone, and a mixed train with twenty passengers from Landon and goods and fish wagons, started for Paris ihe guard started only because he was threatened with instant dismissal and the driver and fireman were mutinous. Seven motor-cars arrived from Paris and \reported many others on the way and several lying overturned by the roadside. A common charge is £4 a seat. One Paris taxicab drove on to the quay with passengers for an American liner. The driver who brought Prince Souvorof from Paris for £24 took awa;- a paeeenger from the afternoon boat to Amiens for £4. He labelled his car for Paris and flew the Union Jack. While Londoners— as the Daily Mail reported recently— are experimenting with vaccine as a preventive for cold*, Germans are inhaling the perfume of the "Duke of Edinburgh" red rase as a cure for the malady of the season. The alleged discovery that the flower possesses a magic power over the bacillus CataiThalk and the Pneumococcus has just come to light in connection with a medical exhibition now taking place at the Royal Horticultural Hall, Berlin. Medical analysts declare that they have no 'doubt but that the perfume of the "Duke of Edinburgh" rose, when extracted and converted into aromatic pills, should annihilate the germs which cause colds. The announcement that he has perfected a method of photo-sculpture, or portraitute in relief, was made by Signor Carlo Baese in the course of a lecture to the Royal Photographic Society. By an ingenious arrangement of mirrors, a lantern and a moving slide, lie was able, he said, to graduate the light falling upon the sitter so as to produce a photograph more or less transparent, according to the greater or smaller relief of the various parts of a sitter's face. Talcing advantage of the well-known property of a gelatine plate to swell according to the amount of light falling upon it, he was able to obtain a mould of his subject in life-like relief, which was subsequently fixed in metal. Photographic medallions qf well-known people were exhibited. Ao a sale of shorthorns belonging to Mr. Duthie; of Collynie, Aberdeenshire, recently, a bull calf eight months old was sold for 1050gns. Others sold at 620gns., 600gns., fißogns., and 030gne. respectively.