The Examiner. Published MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JUNE 1

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXII, Issue 3881, 1 June 1906, Page 2

The Examiner. Published MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JUNE 1

lx is generally considered to be a foregone conclusion the that by. the building OONARDEBS. of its two D6W 25knot liners the Cunard Steamship Company will achieve among other objects that of bringing back to that company “ the blue ribbon of the Atlantic.” The Kaiser Wilhelm 11, of the North German Lloyd line, at present bolds the record for the Eastward passage, the fastest average lime established by this vessel over the distance being 28 58 knots per hour. The Kaiser Wilhelm II has a length of 706 ft, a breadth of 72ft, and a moulded depth of 42|ft, and her engines are capable of something over 40,000 horsepower when worked to full capacity. The new liners will have a length of 786 ft, a beam of 88ft, a depth of 60ft, and a displacement of 48,000 tons. They will be larger on every point of comparison than even the famous old Great Eastern, whose breadth of 88ft and depth of 57|fc are greater than the corresponding dimensions of any ship afloat even at the present day. Compared with the largest ships eyer built, the new Curnarders show themselves 61ft longer than the Baltic, 48ft broader and lift more in moulded depth, yet in point of dead weight or displacement they wiil only exceed the Baltic by 3000 tuns, this indicating to some extent how the under-water body has been fined down to get the easy lines necessary for speed. The Baltic has maintained 16.25 knots across the Atlantic with her engines indicating 18,000 horse-power, but to drive the new Ounarders nine knots faster will require four times as much power, their horse-power being set down at 75,000. The builders of the new ships have guaranteed that they shall maintain an average speed of 24J knots an hour fur the whole Transatlantic voyage, and in view of the great size of the ships, their fine underwater form, great momentum when they get under way, and the enormous horse-power that their quadruple turbines will develop, it is considered that that speed should not only be easy of accomplishment, but should be greatly exceeded, at least on the trial trip. Recent turbine steamers appear to have invariably exceeded their contract speeds. Of these two huge vessels, the one being built at the John Brown Company’s Works on the Clyde, is expected to be launched about July next, but it is not likely to be ready for the trial trip before the following spring. The other, building at Swan and Hunter’s yard, on the Tyne, will probably be launched about September next, and make her trial trip about a year from that time. It is proposed to call the new liners the “ Lusitania ” and “ Mauritania.” These names have not met favor in all quarters, and the good old names “ Britannia ” and “ Hibernia,” held by the first ship to carry the Cunard flag across the Atlantic, have been suggested in their stead. Stood vertically on end one of the new Cunarders would tower 281 ft above the pyramidal top of the Washington Monument (591 ft) and 288 ft higher than the cross at the top of St Peter’s Cathedral at Rome.