WORLD'S GREATEST LINER.

Mataura Ensign, 3 November 1911, Page 5

WORLD'S GREATEST LINER.

1 —: .. RAMMED BY A CRUISER. Never before in the history of navigation have two great ships collided and badly damaged one another so quietly as did the mammoth liner Olympic and the first-class cruiser Hawke off Castle Point, Cowes, just before one o'clock to-day, wrote the Southhampton correspondent of the 'Daily Mail' on September 20. So slight an effect did the blow dealt by the Hawke's stem have upon the enormous bulk of the Olympic, that the passengers thought their vessel had merely bumped a sandbank. The Olympic is the largest ship in the world, with a tonnage of 45,000. The Hawke is of over 7,000 tons, and she struck, according to eye-witnesses, a very hard blow. Yet a great many of the liner's passengers did not know that anything had happened until half an hour after the collision had taken place. "Why the collision did take place is at present a mystery. Everyone agrees —both those who were on board and those who saw the accident from boats near by—that the two ships were steaming parallel with one another, neither at a high speed, and that suddenly, unaccountably, amazingly, the Hawke swung round and crashed into the Olympic's starboard (right) side near the stern. Olympic's Luxuries. The Olympic is probably the most luxurious as well as the largest vessel afloat. Her elaborate dining-rooms, smoking-rooms, and bedrooms are decorated with the utmost taste and harmony of style. There are on board, besides splendid libraries and a firstclass Testaurant, a gymnasium, racket court, Turkish baths, swimming pond and palm-court verandah. The bedrooms are furnished in different styles, the Georgians and Adams predominating. The Olympic is under the command of Captain E. J. Smith, commander Royal Naval Reserve. Insured for £1,000,000. Only a few weeks ago the Olympic was being insured at Lloyd's for a million sterling. On the first news of the collision yesterday and a false report that she was beached, reassurance was effected at 5 guineas per cent. The terms of insurance are peculiar, the underwriters on the value of £1,000,000 paying only the excess of £150,000 in any one accident. The margin of £150,000 may be sufficient to cover the damage caused yesterday, and! it is quite possible that no claim whatever will fall on insurers under the hull policies.