ATLANTIC FERRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23037, 14 May 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

ATLANTIC FERRY

Progress Has Been Amazing In One Hundred Years of Steam

AT the door of the Science At Museum's Exhibition in LonjL A- don, to illustrate the hundred years of Transatlantic Steam Navigation, stands a big black dog carved in -wood and a highly-orna-niented gold cup with pictures in enamel of famous transatlantic liners.

bines of 160,000 h.p., crossed in January in three clays 22 hours 7 minutes at a mean speed of 31.2 knots. She is run closely by Britain's Queen Mary, which held the Blue Riband till this year with a crossing of 3 days 23 hours 57 minutes at a mean speed of 30.63 knots. The Queen Mary is 83,800 tons, with a horse-power of 200,000. These figures mark the contrast between the steam vessels of to-day and 100 years ago, and the skill, resource, and ambitious competitiveness between shipbuilders and engineers which have brought it about, and which will continue to make the contrast wider. Dutch Claim In the story of invention there is always another. The Dutch claim that the ship Curacao, built at Dover, but fitted with steam engines iji Holland, sailed from Hcllevoetsluis to Dutch Guiana in April 1827, and so was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. But it is not clear that she was steaming all the way. Several ships, the Savannah, which preceded the Curacao, and the first Royal William among them, crossed the' Atlantic with steam auxiliary engines, but depending mostly on their sails.

The dog is the figurehead of the little paddle steamer Sirius, which crossed the Atlantic under continuous steam power in April 1838, and won honour for herself as the pioneer transatlantic steamship. The gold cup is that now held by the French liner Normandie to signify that she holds the Blue Riband of the Atlantic for the fastest passage. Close to Mutiny The plucky little Sirius was 703 tons gross, built of wood, driven by engines of 320 h.p. She was indeed so small (not much larger than a modern tug boat) that her crew threatened to mutiny, and only the determination of her commander got her from Cork to New York in 18 days, at an average gpeed for the crossing of 6.7 knots. The Normandie, 83,423 tons gross, with a greatest output from her tur-

But the Sirius kept her engines going nil the way, so we may, without undue boasting, claim for this steamship of the Dog Star the honour of being the pioneer.