Across the Atlantic in Four Days

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 6, 8 February 1906, Page 20

Across the Atlantic in Four Days

If any evidence were needed to prove that these are go-ahead times it has been furnished (says an exchange) by the new turbine steamer ' \ irginian,' of the Allan line, which has so recently knocked a whole day off the Atlantic record— (reaching Cape Race, in Newfoundland, four days| and six hours a Her Heaving Moville, in Ireland^ One cannot, help wondering what our good forefathers of two or three generations ago would have said if .they had been told that many a child then living would be able to cross the Atlantic in a few hours over four days. Why, it was the talk and wonder of the world when, in 1819, the good ship ' Savannah,' of 350 tons, fitted with an auxiliary paddle steam-engine— the first ot all ocean-going steamships— made the passage from New York to Liverpool in 2(i days. In those early days of steam navigation it was stated as a thing to marvel at that ' some steamboats actually voyaged tiom Glasgow to Inverary, partly through a strong sea, performing the journey of JJO miles in (iO hours, and touching at stop-ping-places with almost the regularity of a stage-coach. No serious accident has as yet occuned, and if the boilers of cast-iron should give way, a piece of cloth is firmly wedged into the hole and the \essel proceeds without any danger to the passengers.' But the ' Savannah ' was not destined to hold The Supremacy of the Atlantic, for after she had led the way so gallantly two other vessels put her performance quite into the shade. One of them was the ' Sums,' a Cork packet-boat of i?<o3 tons and 2?() h.p., with the wonderful speed of eight and a half knots an 'hour , and the other was the ' Great Western '—the largest and most powerful ship then afloat— oil 1310 tons and 700 h.p. It was on April 1, 18' iX, that the ' Sirius ' started from Queenstown on hei venturesome voyage (she had never before been out of the Irish Channel) across the Atlantic, and tour days later her big sister and rival, the ' Groat Western,' left Bristol in pursuit of her. Never was a more gallant race on the high seas ; the little ' Sirius ' fought e\ery league of the way, her engineer stoking his lacs with everything he could lay hands on, and she anchored in New York 1 Harbor just two days before hei pursuer on the 23rd, the larger vessel having brought the Atlantic record down to fourteen and a half days, or nearly half the time taken by the ' Savannah ' some years earlier. This was the first ol li 1 trips across the 'herringpond ' made by the ' (Jre.vt Western,' and belorc shewas withdrawn fiom the service she had reduced the passage to within a lew hours of twelve days. Her plucky little rival, the 'Sinus,' never repeated her performance ; she was sent back to her humbler Irish Channel work, and a couple of years later went to the bottom or the sea outside Queenstown, carrying many of the passengers with her. It was in ithis year (1810) Lillet L The Pioneer Cunard Steamers began to run— four wooden paddle-vessels, each about 230 ft long, of 114)0 tons and 7'oo h.p. ; and of these the ' Britannic ' made her first outward trip in 12 days 10 hours, while her return passage was made in the phenomenal time of 10 days. The year 1874 saw the production of the 'Germanic' and ' Britannic,' of the White Star fleet, vessels which, however small they might appear in comparison with the leviathans of to-day, were giants indeed compared with their pioneers, the ' Savannah r and ' Sirius.' These boats quickly made the ten days' record look.very foolish, the ' Britannic ' reducing the time for the eastward passage to a shade under seven days eleven hours But the ' Britannic ' in turn had to yield the palm to still swifter vessels. The ' Servia ' reduced the record to ten minutes under seven days ; the ' City of Paris ' of more than twice the ' Briiannic's ' tonnage and nearly four times her horse-power, knocked more than a day off the ' Servia's time, crossing in five days nine-

teen hours eighteen minutes ; and to-day there are several vessels, .such as the ' Deutschland,' ' Lucania,' 'Campania,' and ' Cedric,' which can bridge the Atlantic in a few hours aver five days. In view of this startling breaking of records, one feels little surprise on being told that before| long an Atlantic passage that occupies more than four days will be considered slow. It may be interesting to note that several of the old clippers made some remarkably quick passages. Half a century ago the ' Red Jacket ' crossed 'from New York to Bristol in thirteen days ; while the 1 Dreadnought,' in 1862, anchored at Queenstown nine days and seventeen hours after leaving Sandy Hook, thus proving that in her day sails were no mean rivals of steam.