THE PRICE OF SPEED ON GREAT LINERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8090, 7 January 1903, Page 1

THE PRICE OF SPEED ON GREAT LINERS.

Commenting on the launch of the Norddeutscher Lloyd "flier/' the Kaiser Wilhelm 11., and the White Star liner. Cedric, the largest ship in the world, the Shipping World gives some interesting comparative figures. The former is to cross the Atlantic at a speed of twenty-four knots, and will i have engines to develop 40,000 indicated horse power, while the British ship will obtain seventeen' knots, with 14,000-horse power. The two boats represent German and British policy at the present moment. To gain jher 40 per cent in speed the Kaiser Wilhelm 11. will bum 190 per cent more coal—about 750 tons a day; she requires 256 more hands to work her, while of her 600 hands only 45 will be ordinary sailors, the remainder being mostly mechanics of various kinds; and she must forgo the carrying of some 1200 passengers and 15,000 to 20,000 tons of cargo every voyage. Such is the price of speed, and the moral to be drawn from the launch of the latest great German ship is that there are plenty willing to pay he-avily to cross the Atlantic at the best speed. The tendency of British ship-owners is to cheapen freights by employing steamers of very large tonnage. We have not been singular in this respect, only where foreign nations have built one such shin we have built a dozen. Of the largest class of ships 255 belong to this country, 81 to Germany, 31 to America, 18 to France. 11 to Russia, and 4 to Holland.