How Ocean Liners Have Grown.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue XXII, 1 December 1900, Page 1028

How Ocean Liners Have Grown.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE ATLANTIC “GREYHOUND.”

Sixty years ago, says Mr Maginnis, in his most interesting and richly illustrated book. “the Atlantic Kerry,” sailing elippers reigned supreme upon the Atlantic highway. With favourable winds, the average passage out io New York was about •It) days, and 23 days home to Liverpool.

The honour of initiating the great Atlantic steam service of the present day must be awarded to the plucky little “Sirius,” built at Leith, and sent from Queenstown to New York in IS3S, under the command of Lieut. Richard Roberts. R.N.

Mr Maginnis graphically describes the Columbus-like character of the first voyage. Soon after leaving port her progress was cheeked by continuous head winds; the crew mutinied, and declared that it was utter madness to proceed in so small a vessel. The commander’s tact and tenacity, backed by a loaded musket, brought the gallant little vessel to New York, after an eventful passage of 16J days. A regular fortnightly service was begun by the “British Queen” in 1839, but the company formed by MacGregor Laird to carry it on was dissolved by the disaster to its second vessel — the “President”—which, under Lieut. Roberts, sailed from New York early in March. 1841. and was never heard of again.

The first of the famous Cunard liners was the “Britannia” (18411), a small vessel of 1,150 tons and 740 horse-power, with a speed of about 8| knots an hour. The fare was 34 guineas to Halifax, and 38 guineas to Boston, and the first passage across was made in 14 days, 8 hours. Ten years later the Cunarder “Canada” made the trip between Boston and Liverpool in 9 days, 22 hours. The “Arabia” (1852) was the last wooden vessel built for the Cunard Company, and the “Persia” (1856) the first iron paddie steamer. The “Persia" was one of the most famous of the Atlantic “ferry boats”; but the superiority of the screw-propeller for ocean liners was so evident that the “Persia” and her twin ship. the “Scotia” (1862), were the last of the ocean-going paddle-wheel steamers to cross the “Atlantic ferry.” The “China" (1861), the “Russia” (1867), ami other iron screw-steamers showed marked advance both in design and speed; but the “Servin” (1881) was practically the first of what may be called the' Express Transatlantic Service. So much room was required for the powerful engines and coal necessary to maintain such high speeds that little space was left for

cargo, so that the best boats became practically passenger and mail boats, goods being relegated to the everincreasing horde of “tramps.” The magnificent, b.ut ill-fated “Ore. gon" (1884) helped the Cunard Company to reach the premier place, which was secured later by the su-perbly-built and lavishly-fitted “Campania" (1892) and “Lucama.” (1893). Speed is not, and has not been, so much considered by the Cunard chiefs as safety, and their line still retains the extraordinary record of never having lost a passenger’s life.

The once-famous Collins Line, an American company, tried hard to wrest the trade from the Liverpool steamers, but ultimately failed. Other attempts were similarly unsuccessful, and it was not until the Inman and International Line changed its name to the American Line, in 1893, that the Americans could boast of a first-class line of their own in name, as well as in fact. The “New York” and “Paris,” and, later, the “St. Paul” a.nd “St. Louis.” have proudly maintained a high record for speed and comfort.

The first steamer of the famous Inman Line was the screw s.s. “City of Glasgow,” a three-decker, of about 1.600 tons. A later Inman steamer, the “City of Brussels” (1869), was the first to reduce the passage to under 8 days, and the same company also placed another beautiful vessel —the “City of Rome”—on the Liverpool to New York route in 1881.

A strong link between Canada and the Mother Country was forged in 1854 when the Allan Line was founded. The first Allan steamer —the “Canadian”—was an iron screw boat of 1,873 tons, and year by year better vessels were added, but it was not until 1898 that a really high-speed service to Canada was developed. The first Canadian express liner — the Castillian —sailed out in February, 1899, but was totally lost on its way home, near Halifax.

How rapidly the value of ocean steamers depreciates is shown by the fact that the (highest bids for the Guion Line (now extinct) steamer Arizona, which cost £200,000 in 1879, was £20,000, and for the Alaska which cost £250,000 in 1882, only £27.000!

The first steamer of the deservedly famous White Star Line was the Oceanic (No. 1, 1871), a fine vessel of 3700 tons, designed on altogether new lines, and memorable as the prototype of the present form of Express Liner. The enterprise and energy of Mr Ismay and the builders —Harland and Wolff, of Belfast—were still more stiikingly shown in the remarkably successful Britannic (1874) and Germanic (1875). and still more in the Teutonic (1889) and Majestic (1890), culminating in the colossal Oceanic,

which sailed on her first voyage in September, 1599, with over 2000 people on board.

This remarkable vessel is 13 feet longer than the Great Eastern, and its tonnage (16,900) is on.y 2000 tons less, bhe is about 25u0 ions more than the famous German liner the Kaiser Wilhelm de Grosse — but her speed (about 211 knots an hour) is less than tlhat of her tierman rivals—the Kaiser Wilhelm—22J knots, or the Deutschland —23 knots. The latter vessel was built at Stettin in 1899, and has a displacement of 24,400 tons, and an indicated horsepower of 36,000.

A new steamer is being built for the North German Lloyd which will be the largest, and it is expected, will also be the swiftest vessel afloat.

The limit, even of the most powerful triple-expansion engines of the present type, seems, however, to have been nearly reached, and Mr Maginnis thinks that a great change is looming in the near future. “This consists in an entirely new departure in the design of propelling machinery for all classes of vessels, which has been brought forward under the name of the turbine system.” Tlhe first successful example of this type —the Turbinia —attained a speed of 34J knots at the Naval Review of 1897.

The inventor, the Hon. C. A. Parsons, now' proposes to build an Atlantic liner on this system, which shall attain a speed of about 26 knots an hour, or about three knots more than the Kaiser W’ilhelm, which now holds the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic. But even this swift vessel is about half a knot per hour short to ensure regular five-day passages across the great Atlantic Ferry—the most frequented and perhaps the wildest and most tempestuous of all the great ocean highways of the world.