LARGE COMPARISONS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 69, 28 April 1914, Page 8

LARGE COMPARISONS.

With the launch of the Britannic Belfast has once more stepped to the front as the leading British district for "the building of very large merchant vessels (says a Home exchange), but exactly how far it is ahead of Clydebank and behind Hamburg is not easily defined. On the strength of her gross tonnage, the Britannic seems to stand about halfway between the Aquitania and the Vaterland. She is certainly larger than the one and smaller- than the other. But if the dimensions available can be compared —if they have a uniform basis and are not some of them between perpendiculars and some over all—the Britannic is shorter than the Aquitania by a foot or' two, so that the Clyde still has the credit of having produced the longest British vessel.' There is, of course, nothing curious in the conclusion that titie shorter vessel of the two is the larger, because the types ' are not comparable, and the differences in beam and draught account for the apparent discrepancy. It really does hot matter very much, but it will be interesting to compare the official measurements of the two ships and their service speeds, and to see how in big vessels so closely matched in the matter of length, tonnages, and knots are affected by beam and draught. That is, if it is really the case that there is only a foot or two of difference in length. Meantime we are,, in the Aquitania and the two German boats, well past the 900 ft mark, and we may now begin to speculate regarding the 1000 ft liner that is bound to come as soon aa there are docks in which she can be berthed.