THE FASTEST SHIP IN THE WORLD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 826, 30 December 1887, Page 32

THE FASTEST SHIP IN THE WORLD.

THE MAILS ARRIVE IN TWENTYSEVEN DAYS FROM LONDON.

[Melbourne Telegraph.]

“ Were the world a ring of gold, Ormuz would be its diamond.” This exceedingly assuring statement blazes out in letters of oak, carved over the entrance to the saloon of the fastest and most magnificent steamer of the mercantile marine on earth. For a day or two past everybody has talked of the Ormuz, that has beaten all records, and placed the metropolis of the world within 27 days 6 hours of its Antipodes, Melbourne. Nearly everybody who reads what is written here will remember the days—not a long time ago at all—when merchants, everybody, stopped one another in the street—“ Fine passage, sixty days from London. Wonderful ship the Thermoplyse. ” But then they had been used to seventy, eighty and ninety days, a whole three months of waiting for their English letters. Then came, later days, and the time fell to

fifty-five, fifty, forty, and people began to talk about the end of the world approaching when the Potosi and Sorata came along and landed news only thirty-two days old: Now, bocause tho Ormuz shows that she has claim to her inetto, everyone is astounded. Perhaps in a few yeai’s’ time Australians will run Home and back again in six weeks. It was at the latter end of September that Captain Charlton, who for a long timo commanded the Austral, stood on the platform of a railway station in London wishing bon voyage to a friend who was ori his way to catch a P. and O. steamer at Plymouth. “Au revoir, old fellow,” he said, “I shall be leaving about the 15th of next month in the Ormuz. I’ll lunch with you at Adelaide at 4 o’clock on the 17th November.” The appalling confidence of this assertion sinks Jules Verne and his “Round the World in Eighty Days ” to tho depths of insignificance. It requires a good deal of nerve to tell a man that you will meet him at a spot 12,000 miles off in three or four weeks’ time ; but at all events Captain Charlton kept his word, and reached the railway station at Adelaide two minutes before the train started to the suburb where his friend lived, and at five minutes to four on the 17th he knocked at the door of the villa, and said that he felt a little peckish. How it was done was in this way. Captain Charlton looks at the whole business in a very matter-of-fact sort of way. He is a young man, 35 at the most, of the medium height,, and with a pleasant, open, manly face, and a very bronzed skin. He has brought thousands of people to Australia from'time to time, and he has the distinction of being the beater of records for the past six years. He does not want to talk about the run of the ship, but his love for her gets the better of him, and he goes on —‘•Yes, she is the fastest ship in the world for long distances. There is nothing afloat that can cpme up to her, and this run will not be beaten, except by herself. And mind you this, she has made the passage under singularly adverse circumstances, for, from the time we crossed the Equator until we reached here, there has been nothing but strong head winds and high seas to fight against. Well, yes, I did have instructions about this voyage, of course. Every commander has instructions. But we started with the intention of showing what was in the Ormuz, and though we have made the fastest passage, still had not the weather been so bad we should have been in Adelaide early on Thursday morning, instead of in the afternoon.”

Then Captain Charlton goes into figures. “ You see it is simply an equation between speed and coal. I think in saying she is the fastest ship afloat I made the reservation for a distance. Now, the Umbria and Etruria are the Atlantic flyers, and for that voyage they would beat me. But supposing they came to Australia, and we started level, they would go ahead and get a long way in front. But after they had left Aden they would have to stop here” (and Captain .Charlton places his finger on the chart at a spot somewhere in the middle of the Indian Octan) “ to coal. While they were waiting I should pass them, and get into port perhaps a day or more before them. Now, we have not taken any Coal since we left Aden, and we have covered 6111 miles since then. ? If the Umbria tried that she would have to fill her holds with coal instead of cargo. No ; I cannot tell you what coal we bum, but you can make it out for yourself. We are 8500 horse-power, and the consumption is 1.61 b (one pound and six- tenths) per horse per hour. This is very small — much smaller than that in any large steamer afloat. Of course you understand that I mean that taking into consideration the power obtained, the amount burnt is less than that on any vessel. The Admiralty experiments failed to bring the rate down lower than 2-5, so we have beaten that. With regard to the run, our best day was on the sth November, when we recorded 420 miles for the twenty-four hours. That was at the rate of seventeen and a half knots, hut we kept up sixteen right through tke voyage. I will explain what I mean by an equation between speed and coal. After doing that 420 we might have piled on the coal and driven her hard, but if we had done so we would have got to King George Sound perhaps twelve hours before we did, but we might have had to wait 24, 36, or 48 hours before we could have a fresh supply to go on with. So you see the whole thing is reduced to the very finest degree of nicety. You have to take everything under the sun almost into consideration, and proceed accordingly. After that big run though, look how we fell off” (he points to the chart again). “ You see here 389, 364, 339, 327,354, 379, 381, 370. That brings us to King George Sound. The head winds caused that falling-off. Isn’t it enough ? you ask. Certainly not. She is good for 390 miles a day, and she ought to do it, if we had anything like luck. Make a copy of the chart figures, if you think-they are any good.” The invitation is accepted, and the appended tables will give perhaps the best idea of the performance of the Ormuz , October 14 : Left Gravesend at 6.34 a.m. October 16 : Arrived at Plymouth at 6.35 a.m., and left at 0.46 p.m. October 21: Arrived at Naples at 0.25 a.m., and left at 1.3 p.m. October 24 : Arrived at Port Said at 0.6 p.m. October 28 : Left Suez at 0.29 a.m. October 31 : Arrived at Aden at 10.11 a.m., and left on Ist November at 1.15 a.m. November 14 : Arrived at King George Sound at 7.45 ' p.m., and left at 10.5 p.m. November

17 : Arrived at Adelaide at 3 p.m., and left at 11.25 p. m. November 19 : Arrived at Melbourne at 8 a.m.

The day’s runs are as follow :—384, 391, 380, 361, 329, 184, 367, 380, 360,177, 392, 388, 347. 155, 362, 391, 391, 420, 389, 364, 339, 327,’354, 374, 379, 381, 370,125, 216, 376, 378. These are the runs from Plymouth to Adelaide, the distances steamed being 10,531 miles ; and, to accomplish this, the propeller revolved 1,994,750 times, or at the rate of revolutions per minute. One of the outcomes of the run is that she lands in Melbourne English files to the 21st October, the day before another ocean greyhound’s (the Carthage) deliveries, dated the 14th October. “This is just a landing of mails,” Captain Charlton goes on to say, ‘ 1 but you must look at it in another light. When a man starts from London for Melbourne, naturally he wants to get there as soon as possible, and when we stopped this morning the passengers had been just 34 days and 9 hours aboard. But there was one who came with the mail. Mr Dodgshun, a merchant of Flinders lane, left on the 21st October, came over the, Continent, and joined us with the bags. He got off at Adelaide, caught the express, and wa3 home yesterday. That is about the fastest travelling any man has ever done. ” Captain Charlton again laments what he calls his ill-luck in having bad weather ; but then he is an Englishman, and would very likely growl at something if he made the passage in a week. At all events, his ship has earned her motto—“ Were the world a ring of gold, Ormuz would be its diamond.” /