Which Is the Largest Ship In the World ?

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1928, Page 9

Which Is the Largest Ship In the World ?

is the largest ship in tke HnSa®/ fyke f l uestion is caussonie controversy in shipping circles due t 0 the conflicting claims of British and American ship-builders. The honour seems to lie between the White Star's Majestic and the United States Shipping Board’s aptly-named Leviathan.

A dispute has existed for some years as Io which of these ships is Ihe largest, in the. world. It is strange that such a dispute should remain unsettled for so long. The question seems on the .surface to be an easy one to settle. Size is a matter of mere measurement, and these two ships have been measured to the last inch. What factor then causes the argument. to remain in,being?

ft is a question of relativity. The British • measure their ships in one way and the Americans have a different basis of measurement. The Leviathan is actually eight feet shorter than the Majestic, the latter having a length of 915 ft.

But when it comes to measuring up the gross tonnage of the two ships, there is a difference caused by the different systems of measurement prevailing in the two countries. If measured according to the British rules the tonnage of the Leviathan is 54,282, but when measured by the American rules her tonnage works out at 59,957. The Majestic if measured by British rules, as she is, has a tonnage of 56,551, but if measured under American rules she would have a tonnage of 61,206. Consequently there can be no doubt that the British ship is the larger of the two and therefore the largest ship in the world Since on the American’s own system of measurement she is 1,249 tons larger than the Leviathan, in addition to being eight feet longer. Not only therefore is a British ship the largest in the world, but the fastest ship in the world also belongs to the British register, the famous Mauretania. This ship is the wonder ship of the world. She is the oldest fast

liner on the Atlantic run, having beei launched over 20 years ago. She wa: built on the Tyne. When she was pm in commission she soon showed her

self to be the fastest ship afloat, and was able to show a clean pair of heels to all her competitors. The remarkable thing is not that she beat all competitors 20 years ago, but that she still retains her unrivalled supremacy. Only a tew weeks ago she set up a new record for the return passage across the Atlantic. This wonder ship, in 27 consecutive runs across the Atlantic in all weathers during one year, maintained an average speed of 25.5 knots. Her highest mean speed for the passage is a shade over 20 knots, and during 24 hour bursts she has touched over 27 knots. In 1010 she crossed the Atlantic in four days. 10 hours, 11 minutes. Fourteen

years later she went from Cherbourg to New York, 3,157 miles, in five days, three hours, her best day’s run being 642 knots. The highest day’s run ever achieved on the Atlantic or any other ocean was made by the Mauretania 17 years ago, when she covered 676 knots, over 27 knots an hour for 24 hours.

The next largest and fastest ship is the Cunarder Berengaria, which, with the Majestic and Leviathan, forms the trinity of great ocean liners. A tribute must be paid to the German shipbuilders, however, for all three of these ships were built by German yards, and were commandeered after the war. The Leviathan went to America, and the Majestic and Berengaria to Britain. They are the Big Three of the Ocean, the finest, the most magnificent ships afloat. But neither Germany nor any other nation has yet produced a worldbeater like the magnificent Mauretania, which for 20 years lias held the Blue Riband of the Atlantic. At an age when other ships are growing old and decrepit, she proceeds to astonish the world by setting up fresh records. There has never been seen her like before, and there is reason to believe that such a ship will never be built again'