ATLANTIC IN FOUR DAYS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 147, 19 December 1927, Page 5

ATLANTIC IN FOUR DAYS

Ten fast steamships capable of making a speed of 35 nautical miles an hour are projected for trans-Atlantic service following the completion of satisfactory tests in the Naval Basin, Washington, to determine the practicability of a now type of ocean ship to cross the Atlantic in four days, it has been announced by Lawrence R. Wilder, former president of the American Brown-Boveri Corporation and now chairman of that company's shipbuilding division. Tho tests demonstrated, it was stated, that vessels can attain a speed 50 per cent, greater than the present-day passenger steamships, using half as much fuel and requiring only one-third as largo a crew. Tho mod ( el tested developed a speed of 35 knots under water conditions simulating a severe North-At-lantic storm. Daily sailings of vessels are envisaged with terminals at New London. (Conn.), or Montauk Point (Lond Island), with Southampton and Havre as the European terminals. The ships will be exclusively for 400 first-class passengers in cabins somewhat larger than Pullman drawingrooms, with the remainder of the space devoted to mails j\nd cargo. The vessels, which will fly the American flag, are to be of 20,000 gross tons, .and will by approximately 800 ft, in length, have an. 80ft beam, and draw about 25ft of water. It is also intended to carry American, French, and British customs officers on board to avoid delay for baggage inspection at each end of the line.