LAUNCH OF THE TITANIC.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13435, 24 July 1911, Page 8

LAUNCH OF THE TITANIC.

GIGANTIC WHITE STAR LINER. Without a hitch the non - White Star liner Titanic, which shares with the Olympic the distinction of being tiic largest ship in rhe world, took the water at Belfast Lough on-31ay 31. amid a tumult of cheering and syren-blowing. She was launched from Messrs, liarland and Wolff’s yard without any christening ceremony, such not being the habit of the White Star line. The people of Belfast turned out in their thousands to witness an epoch-making occurrence, proud of the fact that in less than 12 months the two largest ships in the world, designed, built, and engined hy the famous Belfast firm, had been added to Britain’s mercantile marine, representing a value of over two millions sterling. The day was a perfect one for the launch, and the picturesque surroundings of the laud-locked lough looked at their best. Every eoign of vantage was occupied. and after rockets had been sent up as a signal for the knocking away of the last dog-shores, at 12.13 p.m., punctual to time, the huge hull slid gracefully down the ways to the accompaniment of a thunder of applause and the shrieks of syrens from the surrounding shipping. The launch occupied C2 seconds, and the launching displacement of the Titanic was 2.),000 tons, her speed down the launehway being 12 knots an hour. The Titanic was pulled up almost within her own length, and among the shipping which greeted their new sister was the Olympic, of equally gigantic dimensions, which was afterwards inspected hy Lord Pirrie and a party of guests, prior to her departure for Southampton. wherefrom she will make her first voyage to New Vork. The Olympic, which was launched last October, and the Titanic are almost identical in dimensions. The Titanic’s length is BS2ft. 9in., b.cr extreme breadth 92it. 6in.. and her gross tonnage 43.(100 ions, while her displacement will be no less than G6.000 tons, with engines of 46,000h.p. She will develop a speed of 21 knots. OCEAN LUXURIES. The Titanic represents the last word in marine architecture. She has been hnilt for comfort rather than for speed, though 21 knots an hour is only o knots less than the average speed made by the Mau vetania on the fastest of her ocean passages. The new liner is 300 ft. longer than the Dreadnought, and her turbine engines alone weigh 420 tons more than the total displacement of the first steamer that crossed from New 4 ork to the Mersey—the Savannah. The Titanic is 100 ft. high. and comprises a number of flats, each complete in itself. She will accommodate 3000 passengers and a crow of 800, and together with the Olympic will ho the mc.st luxuriously fitted of the floating hotels which have been launched of late years. For the saloon passengers there will he a verandah restaurant with the lat-tice-work cunningly entwined with tropical creepers; there will he nurseries for the children, a riding school, a swimming both, a Burlington Arcade (whore millinery. jewellery, and every other demand will he met), a roller-skating rink, a gymnasium, a fish-pond for the ardent angler, a ballroom, a theatre, a fine lounge, and a nreftv garden. Winn, on September 20. 1006. the (Tmardcr Maurciani-' was launched, if was deemed hardly passible that anything could be built to surpass her, hut beside flic Titanic she would now he dwarfed. Her length is 700 ft.. hr< adth SSft.. displacement tonnage 43.000.