THE LUSITANIA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 8955, 4 January 1908, Page 3

THE LUSITANIA.

I had not proceeded far across the Scottish-border when I received my first intimation of the keen interest which the people of the Clyde were manifesting in the newly-launched Cunard linor. "Ye will be staying in Glasgow?" queried a fellow passenger to the northern metropolis. "Yes." "Then ye will see the Lusitauia." And therewith my friend treated me to some interesting facts as to what the Clyde had dove in the matter of shipbuilding generally, and the Lusitauia particularly. At one of the Glasgow railway stations I gave a porter directions as to the destination of my luggage. "So you're going to ?■ Then you'll see the Lusitania, at the Tail o the Bank," said he to me as the train moved off. A few minutes later, one of the occupants of my carriage—from whom I sought some information as to places just being passed, aud who therefore rightly judged me a stranger—said: "Just keep a look-out at the next turu and you'll see the Lusitauia." I kept a look-out as directed, aud was rewarded with my first view of the huge leviathan whoso advent in the shipping world was occasioning so tremendous a stir. Next morning I strolled out on tbe esplanade to leisurely survey the tarfamed Clyde. To that end I possessed myself of a part of a seat already occupied by a friendly-looking native, who greeted me with a pleasant salutation. A moment later he remarked, "She looks graund. disna she?" "Which she?" I asked. "The Lusitauia, mou!" Just at that moment a boy with a bnudle of papers under his arm passed, shouting "Glesga Herald!" Beckoning to him, I procured a copy, and opened it, when, lo! in the largest, of type aud the subject matter of several columns was the word "Lusitania." For weeks as this vessel lay off Gourick, receiving her final touches, she was the one absorbing topic of conversation to the people of the Clyde. Day after day cheap ferryvboat excursions were made to her, aud many tens of thousands of people availed themselves of the chance of a close view. But stringent precautions were adopted to prevent anyone boarding her, save on two special days, when she was thrown open to the geueral public at a charge of three shillings per head. Though the days in question were wet and stormy, and the charge almost prohibitive, yet three thousand pounds were received at the gangways, which was handed over by the Cnuard people to the hospital. In a very practical manner a number of wealthy Americans in Britain showed their interest in this great ship by competing with each other in their efforts to secure the state rooms in the maiden trip across the Atlantic, by offering as much as eight hundred pounds for that privilege. That she was elaborately furnished need scarcely be said when three and four hundred guineas were spent on panels and stained windows. While externally she was made to resemble a ship, everything between decks was done to make her as unlike one as possible. The "Grand Hotel" principle was successfully aimed at. As she lay in the stream the passing and re-passing of vessels near her afforded opportunities of contrast whereby her vast proportions could be realised. Some idea of her size could be gained by the knowledge that each of her four funnels was - twenty-four feet in diameter, and their tops from 137 to 140 feet above water, and yet were not in the least disproportionate to her great length, and a displacement of nearly thirty-three thousand tons

Until the appearance of the Lnsitania, the honour of having built the largest vessel lay with the Germans in the "Kaiser Wilhelm. " Now this honour was restored to the Clyde, with the added lastre that the total tonnage of vessels launched on the Clyde had exceeded the total of all the shipbuilding yards of Germany. Hence there was some reason for the extraordinary outburst of enthusiasm which greeted the advent on the Clyde of what was undoubtedly the greatest achievement in modern naval architecture.