CHAPTER VII
THE MODERN MAMMOTH STEAMSHIP
In the history of the steamship during the short space of time that she has been employed, the changes in connection with her have followed with singular celerity. We have, during the previous pages, witnessed in the material of which she is built the gradual transition from wood to iron and steel; we have seen how steam pressures became greater, and the ensuing introduction of the compound system, the triple-expansion and the quadruple. We have also watched the change from paddle-wheels to a single screw, and thence to twin-screws. Each change has seemed to be so excellent in its nature, so beneficial in results, that almost on each occasion we might have thought that finality had been reached. At times our minds have been wearied with the constant reiteration of the latest wonders, and our imaginations have found some difficulty in responding to the demands which one invention after another has put forward. It has all happened within so short a time, and on a scale of such unheard-of magnitude, that scarcely have we been able to find expressions adequate to our subject.
But now we enter upon what is the most wonderful of any period since the steamship came into the world, and for this we have to thank the introduction of the turbine, merely the beginnings of which we are now watching; whose influence, not merely in the engineering world generally, but in the domain of the steamship particularly, is already marking, in the most certain manner, a distinct cleavage between the things of yesterday and those of to-morrow. The turbine is only in its infancy, yet since its infantile influence has caused already so great a revolution, one hesitates to reckon what it will do before it is as old as the old-fashioned reciprocating engine, whose history we have outlined. Its modern practical invention is due to two men, one an Englishman, the other a Swede, who during the early ’eighties made their systems public. The latter is Dr. Gustav de Laval; the former the Hon. Charles Algernon Parsons, son of the Earl of Rosse, who after a distinguished career at Cambridge, where he graduated as eleventh Wrangler, brought out this new method in 1884. Five years later Dr. de Laval, working at the same problem, developed a somewhat similar engine. We have spoken of the _modern_ invention advisedly, for there is nothing new under the sun, and we shall see that the bare principle is hundreds of years old. In its simplest form, the turbine is similar to a water-wheel, a jet of steam taking the place of water. As far back as 1629, Giovanni Branca, an Italian engineer, had suggested much the same thing, and if the reader will now refer to the illustration opposite he will be able to gain some idea of the form in which his idea took shape.
[Illustration: GIOVANNI BRANCA’S STEAM ENGINE (1629).
The simplest form of Turbine.
_From the Exhibit in the Victoria and Albert Museum._]
Steam was to be raised as usual, by applying heat to a vessel containing water. (In the picture this vessel is seen to be in the shape of a man’s head and neck, the steam, so soon as it is formed, issuing out of his mouth. The original illustration was published in _Le Machine_ by Giovanni Branca, printed in 1629, and containing all sorts of most interesting labour-saving devices, such as the employment of winches, chain-pumps, water-wheels, water-buckets and pumps of many kinds.) As the steam escaped it was directed against the vanes on the circumference of a wheel fitted with little fans like a water-wheel, and so causing it to revolve. In the picture the wheel is being utilised by means of gearing for lifting pestles. Speaking generally, this resembles roughly the idea of the de Laval turbine, but in actual application de Laval allows the steam to issue through one or more nozzles placed as close as one-sixteenth of an inch to the blades or fans, so that every particle of steam shall strike a blade.
[Illustration: THE BLADES OF A PARSONS TURBINE.
_By permission of Messrs. C. A. Parsons & Co., Newcastle-on-Tyne._]
But the Parsons system differs in detail from this, and employs a number of wheels mounted on the same shaft, the steam entering at one end, working its way along and expending its energy to each wheel as it passes. If the reader will examine the illustration facing page 186, he will see a section of one of these turbines, which is here reproduced through the courtesy of Messrs. C. A. Parsons and Co. But before we deal with the actual working of this, we would also call attention to the drawings on page 185, which depict alternate rows of fixed and moving blades. Steam enters the turbine in a direction parallel with the axis of the shaft, and flows through the length of the turbine in a zig-zag fashion. Looking at the top line in this diagram, we see a row of fixed discs or blades sloping in one direction, on to which the steam pours. These, so to speak, reflect the steam so that it passes at right angles from the slope of the fixed blade to the first row of moving blades which are on the shaft, thus giving them and it a rotational force in the direction indicated by the arrow. But the curved shape of the moving blades causes the steam to issue from them in a direction exactly opposite to that in which it had entered, and thus the reaction gives additional rotational force to these moving blades. The steam now reaches the next row of fixed blades and repeats the same action again on the next row of moving blades.
[Illustration: THE PARSONS TURBINE.
_By permission of Messrs. C. A. Parsons & Co._]
Turning now to the illustration of the turbine facing this page, let us see how this applies in actuality. This sketch represents a section of a cylindrical case with rows of inwardly projecting blades, and within this cylinder revolves a shaft with outwardly projecting blades. Steam enters at the point marked _A_ on the lower half of the cylinder, and then passes through the different rows of fixed and moving blades, as previously explained, finally leaving the cylinder at the exhaust pipe, marked _B_. But it will be noticed that the diameter of the shaft varies in three different stages, the reason for this being that a method analogous to the compound method in the triple-expansion engines is here employed. Thus the whole expansive force of the steam is not converted into speed all at one stage, but working its way along, expands as it goes. It should be added that the fixed blades are on the case of the cylinder, but the moving blades are on the rotor (or rotating part, consisting of a hollow steel drum), the steam rebounding from the fixed blades to the moving ones much as one billiard ball cannons off another.
The cylindrical case is divided horizontally, and can be taken off, so that the blades may be got at. The illustration facing page 188 shows the lower half of the fixed portion or cylinder of one of the _Carmania’s_ turbines. The blades themselves are made either of brass or copper, and are caulked one by one into grooves in the cylinder and shaft, but a newer method enables them to be assembled in complete sectors ready for insertion. The Allan Line turbine-steamer _Virginian_ contains no fewer than 750,000 of these blades on the rotating part, but together with those which are fixed, they total a million and a half, the diameter of the largest blade being 8 feet 6 inches.
Such, briefly, is the principle of the new form of engine which is causing so thorough an alteration in the means of propelling the steamship. Practically all the turbine craft are of the Parsons type. For some years this system was employed for driving electric dynamos on land, for pumping stations, colliery fans and the like, but in 1894 it was first installed in the now celebrated little ship, the _Turbinia_, which was built for the purpose of exhibiting the capabilities of the turbine. She was of only 44 tons, developing 2,000 horse-power, but those who happened to see her racing along the water at Spithead, doing her 34 knots without distress, were in no further need of conviction as to her speed abilities. But therein lay the drawback; the difficulty at first was to obtain such a speed as should be suitable for slow-going vessels, though we shall see that this difficulty is now disappearing.
[Illustration: THE “CARMANIA” (1905).
_From a Photograph. By Permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._]
[Illustration: LOWER HALF OF THE FIXED PORTION OF ONE OF THE “CARMANIA’S” TURBINES.
_From a Photograph. By Permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._]
Another great fault of the turbine is that it can only go one way, so that in order to enable a ship to go astern, she has to be fitted with an additional propeller and turbine, the blades in the latter being placed in the opposite way; when the ship is going ahead, these just revolve idly. In practice it is usual to employ two propellers and turbines for going astern instead of one. For driving other than fast ships the turbine was found not to be economical, but the reader may ask the question: “Why not let the ship go fast? Why detain her, if she is anxious to get to port?” The answer is that she wouldn’t get there as fast, for the reason that unless the ship is designed to travel at very high speeds, the propeller, revolving at a great rate, loses its efficiency; for, instead of being able to use the water, much as an oarsman uses the water for his oar to get a good grip, the water is simply carried round with the screw. In order to counteract this failing, therefore, it has been suggested that the turbine should not drive the propeller direct but drive a dynamo, the current from which should actuate electric motors for such a speed as will suit the propellers. With this would also vanish the reversing difficulty, for a motor is easily reversible. But a paper was read by the Hon. C. A. Parsons, the Vice-President, at the annual meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects, in March, 1910, in which he gave particulars of a scheme to enable a high-speed turbine to be suitable for a low-speed tramp steamer. As Mr. Parsons’ theory has actually been put into practice, and will no doubt be found to be the solution of the problem, we may here outline so interesting an experiment. In a word, the method employed is just that which we saw was used in those early days, when the screw engines were first brought in. As the reader will recollect, the difficulty was then overcome by means of gearing, instead of the engines working directly on to the shaft; so, in principle, at least, is it in the present instance.
With a view of putting to a test turbines mechanically geared to the propeller shaft, an old screw steamer, named the _Vespasian_, was purchased in 1909. She was built in 1887, and has a displacement of 4,350 tons. Originally, she was fitted with ordinary triple-expansion engines, and before making any alterations it was decided to run trials with those engines in use. But in order that these should show their best performances, they were overhauled, and rendered thoroughly efficient. It was further decided, in order that the proper data under service conditions might be obtained, that she was to be run properly loaded. Arrangements were therefore made with a firm of shipbrokers to take a cargo of coal from the Tyne to Malta, and during this voyage a special recording staff on board made careful measurements of the coal and water consumed. She then returned to the Turbinia Works, and her triple-expansion engines were taken out, and in their place were installed two turbines, one high-pressure and one low-pressure, the former being placed on the starboard side, the latter to port, a reversing turbine being incorporated in the exhaust casing of the low-pressure turbine. By means of mechanical gearing the power was conveyed from the turbine to the shaft, and without having made any alterations to the propeller, the vessel was loaded again to her proper trim and sent out to sea in February, 1910. The results are significant, and may be summed up thus: the _Vespasian_ was found to possess under normal full-speed conditions an increase of about one knot per hour owing to the higher efficiency of the turbine, but with reduced water-consumption, and consequently coal consumption, amounting to nearly 20 per cent. Further, the weight of the reciprocating engines was 100 tons; that of the turbines is only 75. Thus the ship is enabled to carry a larger amount of cargo, whilst simultaneously she effects a saving in coal, in oil, in engine-room staff and in up-keep. Mr. Parsons asserts that the turbines and gearing have given no trouble, have caused very little noise or vibration, and there is no appreciable wear on the teeth of the gearing.
To the Allan Line belongs the honour of having been the first to introduce the turbine upon the Atlantic, and at the beginning of the year 1905, the _Victorian_ and _Virginian_, which had been contracted for two years earlier, began running. These two ships are employed on the Liverpool-Montreal service, and were built to be of as great a size as safe navigation of the river St. Lawrence would permit. They displace 12,000 tons each, and are fitted with Parsons triplicate turbines, driving three independent shafts and maintaining a speed of 17 knots average; but on her trials the _Virginian_ attained a speed of 19·8 knots, and the _Victorian_ 19·2 knots. Three propellers are used for steaming ahead, and two low-pressure turbines are employed for manœuvring either ahead or astern; these are provided with a supplementary turbine for going astern. When going ahead, the steam is first used in the high-pressure turbine engine and then allowed to flow therefrom to the two low-pressure turbines, after which it passes to the condensers. Owing to the turbine system the vibration is reduced to a minimum, and since it is possible, from their nature, to place the turbine engines very low in the hull, it follows that the screws also can be placed very low. The practical effect of this is that the propellers are rarely out of the water in a heavy sea, and so the objectionable “racing” disappears. The _Virginian_ soon showed that she was not merely a comfortable, but a comparatively fast ship, for she made an eastward trip in the shortest time hitherto occupied between Canada and England.
In the same year the Cunard Line followed with the _Carmania_, their first turbine liner, fitted with three turbines and three screws. She was preceded a little by the _Caronia_, a sister ship in every way except that the latter is propelled by two sets of quadruple-expansion reciprocating engines, driving twin-screws. These ships have a displacement of 30,000 tons, and a length over all of 675 feet. They were built of a strength that was in excess of Board of Trade and other requirements, and when we state that no fewer than 1,800,000 rivets were used in the construction of each, one begins to realise something of the amount of work that was put into them. Their steel plating varies in thickness from three-quarters of an inch to an inch and an eighth in thickness, the length of each plate being 32 feet. Fitted with a cellular bottom which is carried well up the sides of the ship above the bilges, they can thus carry three and a half thousand tons of water-ballast. The principles underlying the design and construction of these ships were steadiness and strength, and in the attainment of this they have been eminently successful. There are eight decks, which may be detailed by reference to the photograph of the _Carmania_ facing page 188. Immediately below the bridge is the boat deck. Then follow successively the upper promenade deck, the promenade, the saloon, upper, and main decks. Below the water-line come two other decks for stores and cargo, the depth from the boat deck being eighty feet. Both of these ships are fitted with the now well-known Stone-Lloyd system of safety water-tight doors, which renders the vessel practically unsinkable. This enables the doors to be closed by the captain from his bridge, after sufficient notice has been given by the sounding of gongs, so that everyone may move away from the neighbourhood of these doors. But should it chance that, after they have been shut, any of the crew or passengers have had their retreat cut off, it is only necessary to turn a handle, when the door will at once open and afterwards automatically shut again. The system is worked by hydraulics, and is a vast improvement on the early methods employed to retain a ship’s buoyancy after collision with an iceberg, vessel or other object. A glance at the illustration will show that a very great amount of consideration was paid to the subject of giving the _Carmania_ a comprehensive system of ventilation, a principle which has been carried still further in the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_.
In the event of war the _Carmania_ and _Caronia_ would be fitted with twelve large quick-firing guns, for the hulls were built in accordance with the Admiralty’s requirements for armed cruisers. For this reason, also, the rudder is placed entirely under water, and besides the ordinary set of steering gear, there is another placed below the water-line.
[Illustration: A STUDY IN COMPARISONS: THE “MAGNETIC” AND “BALTIC.”
_From a Photograph. By Permission of the London & North Western Railway._]
On her trials the _Carmania_ attained a speed of over 20 knots, and the saving in weight by adopting turbine engines as compared with the _Caronia’s_ reciprocating engines was found to amount to 5 per cent. In actual size these fine ships are inferior to the _Great Eastern_, but they were built with meticulous regard for strength, and needed 2,000 tons more material than was used in the old Brunel ship. The arrangements of the _Carmania’s_ turbines are worthy of note. There are three propellers and shafts. That in the centre is the high-pressure turbine, whilst the “wing” (or two side) turbines placed respectively to starboard and port are the low-pressure and astern turbines. Steam is supplied by eight double-ended and five single-ended boilers, which are fitted with Howden’s system of forced draught. This latter enables the air to be heated before it enters the furnace, and was patented in 1883. It is also in use on the _Mauretania_.
The beautiful picture facing page 192 was taken in Holyhead Harbour in June, 1909, and is a study in comparisons. At the left, first come the two small steam craft, then the White Star passenger tender, the _Magnetic_, a twin-screw steamer of 619 tons, and, finally, the other White Star twin-screw mammoth _Baltic_, of 23,876 tons. The _Magnetic_ happens to be less than 100 tons smaller than the little _Sirius_, which was the first steamer to cross the Atlantic entirely under steam power in 1838. Therefore, if we but imagine in place of the twin-screw tender the paddle _Sirius_, we can form some fairly accurate idea of the extent to which the Atlantic steamship has developed in less than seventy years, a development that neither Fulton nor anyone else could have foretold in their wildest flights of imagination. This _Baltic_, with her 24,000 tons, is one of the largest vessels in the world--about 9,000 tons larger than Noah’s Ark, if we take the Biblical cubit as equal to a foot and a half, which makes that historic craft about 15,000 tons register. The _Baltic_ has a length of 725¾ feet; the Ark measured 450 feet in length. The _Baltic_ can carry with the utmost ease and luxury 3,000 passengers, as well as 350 crew. Just how many animals she could put away in her holds as well, if called upon, I do not know; but in any case it would be able to put up a keen competition with the capacities of Noah’s craft.
Here, again, we find a White Star ship excelling not in speed, but in size, for she was designed to do only 16½ knots at the outside. She is propelled by quadruple-expansion engines. She made her appearance in 1905, and is additionally interesting, as she exhibits a slight divergence from the ten beams to the length principle, which governed for so long a time the White Star ships; to come up to this rule this vessel would have to be another 30 feet in length.
We have already explained the reason which underlies the comparatively moderate speed of these ships, and mentioned that the question of economical steaming was at the root of the matter. As an example we might quote the case of the _Majestic_, belonging to the same line, as an instance. This vessel consumes 316 tons of coal per day to get a speed of 19 knots; the _Baltic_, a vessel nearly twice and a half the size, requires only 260 tons of fuel a day for her 16½ knots.
And so we come to those two leviathans which form, without exception, the most extraordinary, the most massive, the fastest, and the most luxurious ships that ever crossed an ocean. Caligula’s galleys, which were wondrously furnished with trees, marbles and other luxuries which ought never to desecrate the sweet, dignified character of the ship, were less sea-craft than floating villas exuding decadence at every feature. There are some characteristics of the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_, with their lifts, their marbles, curtains, ceilings, trees, and other expressions of twentieth century luxury, which, while appreciated by the landsman and his wife, are nauseating to the man who loves the sea and its ships for their own sakes, and not for the chance of enjoying self-indulgence in some new form. But all the same these two Cunarders are ships first, and floating mansions only in a secondary sense. They are even more than that: they are ocean-greyhounds of a new breed with a pace that surpasses any other of the mercantile sea dogs.
These two historic craft are regarded in different ways by different people. You may think of them as hotels, you may look at them as representing the outcome of the greatest minds in naval architecture, ship-construction and marine engineering. Or, again, you may reckon up how much capital is tied up within their walls, how much material they have eaten up, how many hundreds of men they have given, and are giving, employment to. But whichever way you regard them, from whatever standpoint you choose, there is nothing comparable to them, there are no standards whatsoever by which to judge them. We can only doff our hats to the organising and originating geniuses who in one way or another brought these marvels from out of the realm of impossibility to the actuality of the broad Atlantic. Cover them with tier upon tier of decks, scatter over them a forest of ventilators, roofs and chimneys, till they look like the tops of a small town; fill them inside with handsome furniture, line their walls with costly decorations; throw in a few electric cranes, a coal mine, several restaurants, the population of a large-sized village and a good many other things besides; give them each a length equal to that of the Houses of Parliament, a height greater than the buildings in Northumberland Avenue, disguise them in any way you please, and for all that these are _ships_, which have to obey the laws of Nature, of the Great Sea, just as the first sailing ship and the first Atlantic steamship had to show their submission. I submit that to look upon these two ships as mere speed-manufacturers engaged in the record industry, as palatial abodes, or even as dividend-earners is an insult to the brains that conceived them, to the honourable name of “ship” which they bear.
The _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_ are the outcome of an agreement made between the British Government and the Cunard Steamship Company, in which it was contracted to produce two steamships “capable of maintaining a minimum average ocean speed of from 24 to 25 knots an hour in moderate weather.” In every way these ships have exceeded the dimensions of the _Great Eastern_. There was no precedent for them in dimensions, engine power, displacement or aught else. It was not to be expected that such gigantic productions as these could be the outcome of one mind; such a thing would be impossible. It was only as a result of an exhaustive inquiry made on behalf of the Cunard Company by some of the most experienced ship-builders and marine engineers of this country, aided by the constructive and engineering staff of the Admiralty, as well as by the preliminary knowledge derived from models, that the best form for obtaining this unprecedented speed was evolved. Whatever was best in existing knowledge or materials was investigated. A special committee, representing the Cunard Company, the Admiralty and private industries went deeply into the question of engines; and with right judgment, and, it must be said, with no little courage and enterprising foresight, decided, after conferring with Mr. Parsons, to choose turbines, applied to four shafts, each carrying a single screw.
[Illustration: THE “MAURETANIA,” WHEN COMPLETING AT WALLSEND-ON-TYNE.
_From a Photograph. By Permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._]
These two absolutely unique steamships differ entirely from the previous fast liners that we have enumerated, as well as from those large “intermediates” with moderate speed. The size of these mammoths was decided upon, not with reference to their cargo-carrying capacity--for they have practically no space for this--but in order to be able to steam at an average speed of 25 knots in moderate weather for 3,000 miles, to carry enough coal to last them the voyage when consuming about a 1,000 tons per day, and to carry an adequate number of passengers to allow the ships to pay their way. It was impossible, therefore, to have given them any smaller dimensions. I make this statement on the authority of no less an expert than Sir William H. White, K.C.B., the illustrious naval architect who was connected so closely with the birth of the _Mauretania_. It was a happy coincidence that the turbine had already shown itself capable of so much that to employ it in these ships seemed a justifiable experiment. For otherwise, in order to obtain the requisite speed the vessel could not have contained the large amount of propelling apparatus. The working speeds of these two ships exceeds by 1½ knots the highest speeds ever attained in the Atlantic service. Had the reciprocating engine been employed instead of the turbine there would have been serious risk of troublesome vibration, the shafts would have had to have been of very large dimensions; large-sized propellers would have been necessary, and these latter, of course, would have been unfavourable to high efficiency of propulsion, whilst with the more rapidly revolving turbine the screws are still of moderate diameter. But apart altogether from the questions of economy of space, liability to accident and so on, there was a national consideration to be reckoned. This country has now for many hundreds of years prided itself on being the mistress of the seas, a title that was only won after serious, hard struggles. Although that title has reference rather to matters immediately connected with the Royal Navy, yet national industry and a series of private enterprises had, as we have seen, given us also an analogous position in regard to our mercantile marine. This was until the German _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, followed by the _Kaiser Wilhelm II_. and the _Deutschland_, took away--in speed, at least--this title. It was, therefore, a matter affecting our honour and our pride that we should put on to the water some ship or ships that should be capable of winning back the “blue ribbon” of the Atlantic, and restoring to us the supremacy of speed at sea. There is, however, a more practical consideration. Without the assistance of the Government it would have been financially impracticable even for so wealthy a corporation as the Cunard Company to cause such a couple of ships as these to be built. And yet it was worth while that the nation should help the Company, for in the event of war breaking out between us and another first-class nation, it would not be long before we should be starved into submission if by any chance our over-seas food supply were cut off. It has been suggested with every appearance of probability, that in such a condition the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_ might render the highest service by making rapid passages across the Atlantic and, being there loaded up with grain, might hurry back home again. Their speed alone would save them from the enemy, except perhaps from the latest and fastest types of fighting-ships. But if convoyed by the _Indomitable_ and _Invincible_ battleship-cruisers, with their enormous speed and equally enormous “smashing power,” the chances would be in favour of the grain-ships reaching port. Thus when the British Government advanced the sum of £2,000,000 sterling (which amount represents about one-half of the total cost of the two vessels) it was acting with a wisdom and a power for looking well ahead that is not always possessed by political bodies. With their very considerable capacities for passenger accommodation, these two ships would also be invaluable if called upon to act as transports.
The singularly impressive picture facing page 198 shows the _Mauretania_ whilst she was still lying on the Tyne at Wallsend before being quite ready for service. It is by a happy coincidence that the same picture shows a delightful contrast between this last word of modern invention and the old-fashioned type of steam tug-boat in the river, to the right. There is, in fact, so mighty a divergence in character that it is not easy to catalogue both under the very elastic and comprehensive title of steamship. Only by comparison with existing ships can one gain any idea of the _Mauretania’s_ colossal qualities. The present writer was one of those who watched the _Mauretania_ docked for the first time at Liverpool immediately after she had come round to the Mersey from the Tyne. By her was lying another steamship, by no means out of date, whose appearance at one time called forth some of the expressions of amazement and wonder that these two Cunarders have brought about. For size and speed this older “greyhound” was properly and legitimately famous, but yet within the comparatively small dimensions of the dock-space one was able to obtain a more accurate idea as to the exact proportions of the _Mauretania_ than when lying outside in the river, where space brings with it deception; and it was amazing to remark how utterly and unconditionally the new steamship overshadowed the old. Even in such close proximity as one stood, everything else looked small by comparison. The captain on the _Mauretania’s_ bridge resembled a small, black dot, the funnels looked like four great, red caverns. A brand new thick rope warp was brought to the shore to stop the _Mauretania’s_ way. It was so heavy that a score of men were needed to move it about. And yet although she seemed scarcely to be moving the liner broke it in two just as a toy model breaks a piece of cotton. Or, again, one may look at this same ship lying at her mooring buoy on the Cheshire side of the Mersey and be lost in wonder at her graceful curves. With such sweet lines you could not doubt that she was also speedy. But it is not until one sees a good-sized steam-tug go shooting by the buoy that one obtains any idea as to measurements. The buoy is as big and bigger than the tug, and, therefore, how many more times must the liner herself be bigger than the tug? You see another steamer alongside this mountain of steel and the steamer is nothing remarkable. But presently as she comes down by the landing-stage, past a smaller liner brought up to her anchor in the middle of the river, you find that that little steamer is several sizes bigger than a moderate coaster. It would have been so easy to make this finest ship in the world look also the largest; it is a much finer achievement to have made her look, what she is, the handsomest.
[Illustration: STERN OF THE “MAURETANIA.”
_From a Photograph. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._]
Passing then to some of the details of these leviathans, we find that they measure 790 feet long, 88 feet broad, whilst the depth from the topmost deck to the bottom is 80 feet. Choose out some high building or cliff 150 feet high, and it will still be 5 feet less than the height of these ships from the bottom to the top of their funnels. Their displacement at load draught is 40,000 tons; they each develop 68,000 horse-power, and draw, when fully loaded, 37½ feet of water. When crew and passengers are on board each ship represents a community of 3,200 persons. They are fitted with bilge keels, double bottoms, water-tight doors, and there are eight decks in all. To hold such massive weights as these ships exceptionally powerful ground tackle is necessitated. The main cable alone weighs about 100 tons, and there are about 2,000 feet of this, or 333 fathoms. The double bottom of the _Mauretania_ averages in depth 5 to 6 feet, and she has five stokeholds containing twenty-three double-ended and two single-ended boilers; the coal bunkers are arranged along the ship’s sides in such a manner as to be handy and as a protection to the hull in case of collision. Three hundred and twenty-four firemen and trimmers are engaged in three watches of four hours in the stokehold.
The striking illustration facing page 200 shows the stern of the _Mauretania_ out of water, the photograph having been taken whilst the vessel was being built at Wallsend-on-Tyne by Messrs. Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson. It will be noticed that there are two propellers on either side of the rudder. The two outermost are driven by the high-pressure and the inside two by the low-pressure turbines. The two inner propellers are also used for going astern, and since the turbine can only turn in one direction these two are each fitted with a high-pressure turbine, and when the ship is steaming ahead these astern-turbines are simply revolving idly. When we examined the interior of a turbine on page 186, we noted that the steam is allowed to expand in stages therein. The turbines of the _Mauretania_ are arranged with eight stages of steam expansion, while the blades vary in length from 2½ to 12 inches.
[Illustration: THE “LUSITANIA.”
_From a Photograph. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._]
We would call attention once more to the modern custom introduced by Harland and Wolff of cutting a hole, or “port,” in the deadwood of the ship. On referring to the illustration facing page 200, it will be seen that the _Mauretania_ possesses this feature in a remarkable degree, so that the flow of water to the screws is very free indeed. It will be noticed also that the rudder is of the balanced type, so that part of it projects forward of its axis, whilst the whole of it is some distance below the water-line. It will also be remarked that the two “wing,” or outermost, propellers are placed a good deal forward of the two inner screws, the object aimed at being to give these forward screws plenty of clear water to work in without either pair of propellers having to revolve in water disturbed by the other pair. In examining this picture the reader will readily be able to obtain the scale by remembering that the draught up to the water-line shown is 37½ feet. The illustration facing this page shows the appearance these sister ships possess at the bows. The present photograph shows the _Lusitania_ under way. The navigating bridge, which will be discerned at a great height, has been necessarily placed comparatively much nearer to the bows of the ship than is customary in many liners. Here the binnacle, the engine-room telegraph instruments, and other apparatus employed in the controlling of the ship, are stationed, whilst immediately abaft of this bridge, but in a connecting room, is the wheel-house. Into this small space is concentrated the exceptionally serious responsibility of ruling the ship, a responsibility which, though it now lasts but a short time, thanks to the shorter passages of the steamship, is far heavier than it was when steamships were less complicated and less huge. It is a responsibility which covers not merely the ship herself, the crew, the mails, and the passengers’ lives, but sometimes a very precious cargo. Only whilst these pages are being written the _Mauretania_ steamed into Liverpool a veritable treasure ship, far surpassing in this respect a whole fleet of some of those old Spanish treasure-frigates. Stored in the strong-rooms of the Cunarder were precious metals of the aggregate value of over a million pounds sterling, consisting of 6½ tons of gold coin and 36 tons of bullion in the shape of 1,100 bars of silver. Add all this to the value of the ship, her furniture and her passengers’ belongings, and we get something between three and four millions of money. The mere thought of it is enough to make Sir Henry Morgan and other buccaneers and pirates turn restlessly in their prison-graves.
Ever since they first came out the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_ have been improving on their speeds. Their most recent remarkable performances have been caused by important alterations to their propellers. These were preceded by experiments made by the _Mauretania’s_ builders with their specially constructed electrically-driven model launch. Since these two liners commenced running, over twenty-four different sets of three-bladed, and seventeen sets of four-bladed propellers have been tested, in addition to further frequent experiments with models of the three-bladed propellers originally supplied to the _Mauretania_. By modifying the bosses and the blades, and adopting four blades instead of three, a very extensive saving in horse-power was effected in experiments. Finally, the _Mauretania_ was fitted with four-bladed propellers on the wing shafts, while three-bladed propellers were retained on the inside shafts. The result has been a substantial raising of her average speed, while the coal consumption has been about the same or rather less, but this latter is thought to be due probably to the improvements in stokehold organisation. Sir William H. White has expressed himself as of the opinion that the recently much increased speed of these two monsters is due much more to the greater knowledge of the turbines, as well as the better stokehold management, than to the propeller alterations. Up to May of the year 1908 the best average speed of the _Mauretania_ on her westward trip was 24·86 knots, but during the year 1909 it was raised to 26·6 knots. It was officially stated, on March 24th, 1910, that the _Lusitania_ made a new record on her westward trip by steaming at 26·69 knots for a whole day, that is at the rate of 30·7 land miles. Leaving Queenstown on the Sunday, she had up till noon of the following Wednesday covered 2,022 knots, at an average of 25·97 sea miles. A fortnight previous to this the _Mauretania_, for the last part of her eastward voyage to Fishguard, steamed at an average speed of 27·47 knots per hour, or 31·59 land miles. The _Lusitania_ is now fitted with the _Mauretania’s_ first propellers, and the chairman of the Cunard Company has remarked that he has been informed that the _Mauretania_ would be glad to have them back again. The following tables will give some idea of the comparative passages which these ships have made. They are interesting as being reckoned not from Queenstown, but from Liverpool landing-stage and the Cunard pier, New York:--
OUTWARD VOYAGES Days. H. M.
_Lusitania_ Quickest passage 5 7 0 _Mauretania_ Quickest passage 5 1 30 _Lusitania_ Longest passage 6 18 0 _Mauretania_ Longest passage 5 21 0 _Lusitania_ Average passage 5 21 35 _Mauretania_ Average passage 5 16 48
HOMEWARD VOYAGES.
_Lusitania_ Quickest passage 5 15 30 _Mauretania_ Quickest passage 5 5 0 _Lusitania_ Longest passage 5 22 0 _Mauretania_ Longest passage 5 17 0 _Lusitania_ Average passage 5 19 22 _Mauretania_ Average passage 5 12 14
But in spite of their bold dimensions and their efforts to prove their superior prowess in contending with the mighty ocean, both the _Mauretania_ and the _Lusitania_ have shown that after all they are still yet ships, and are subject to those same laws which govern the rusty old tramp, the square-yarded sailing ship, and the massive modern liner. We may take but two recent instances, one as happening to each of these two great vessels during the winter of 1910. In the month of January, the _Lusitania_ made the slowest passage in her history, having encountered adverse winds and mountainous waves ever since leaving Daunt’s Rock. On Monday, the 10th of January, she ran into what was thought to be a tidal wave. Immediately an avalanche of water broke on the promenade deck. The officers on duty at the time calculated the liquid weight that came aboard at 2,000 tons, and 100 feet high. At the time of the occurrence the captain and the passengers were below at dinner, and it was fortunate that no one was on deck. The wave wrecked the pilot house, which is 84 feet above the water-line; four lifeboats were smashed, as well as eleven windows in the wheel-house. Companion ladders were carried away, while the captain’s, officers’ and their stewards’ quarters below the bridge were so badly damaged that they could not be used. The chief officer was on the bridge at the time, and he found himself in water up to his armpits. The quartermaster was swept off his feet, and struck against the chart-room bulkhead, with the fragments of the steering wheel in his hands, and the chart-room was flooded everywhere with water. As if that were not bad enough, the masthead lights and sidelights were extinguished by the wave. Happily, the chief officer kept his head above all this excitement, and finding that the engine-room telegraph gear was undamaged, signalled down to the engineer to reverse the turbines. The captain, who had only left the bridge a few minutes earlier, rushed back, and in less than half an hour the big ship was on her course again, heading for New York, where she arrived twenty-six hours late.
It was during the following month that the _Mauretania_ also suffered her worst passage on record. The weather was so bad from the first that she was unable to land her pilot at Queenstown, who had to go all the way to New York. During the first day or two the sea became worse and worse. On the night of Sunday, February 20th, the _Mauretania_ was in the thick of a heavy gale and meeting seas of rare magnitude. Some idea may be gathered of the conditions, when it is mentioned that the speed of this colossal liner had to be reduced to seven knots, and kept at that for the next five hours. It may be remembered that the Astronomer Royal reported that the wind-pressure at Greenwich that night showed a velocity of 100 miles an hour. When full steam was again resumed, the _Mauretania_ received some punishing blows, and the upper works were subjected to a series of continuous batterings from heavy head seas. The glass of the bridge-house was shattered, several of the lifeboats were shifted, the water got below and flooded the forecastle, and finally an anchor, weighing 10,000 lbs., and 50 fathoms of cable were swept into the sea. Reading all this whilst having in mind the magnitude of these two steamships, truly we can say that the sea is no respecter of persons, nor even of the most marvellous products of naval architecture.
[Illustration: THE “ADRIATIC.”
_From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. Ismay, Imrie & Co._]
The four-masted steamship here illustrated is the White Star _Adriatic_, which was built in 1906. This mighty vessel is of 25,000 tons, and though smaller than the two Cunarders with which we have just dealt, is superior in size and speed to the White Star _Baltic_, and until the advent of the _Olympic_ and _Titanic_, was the biggest production which the White Star Line has conceived. Like the _Baltic_, the second _Oceanic_, and the _Cedric_, this _Adriatic_ follows out the modern White Star practice of giving mammoth size, moderate speed, and considerable luxury. She steams at 17½ knots with an indicated horse-power of 16,000. Unlike the more modern ships, the _Adriatic_ is propelled not by triple or even quadruple screws, but by twin-screws, and is employed on the Southampton-Cherbourg-Queenstown-New York route. Although not provided with turbines, the _Adriatic_ exhibits a minimum of vibration owing to the careful regard which is now paid to ensure the balancing of the moving parts of the reciprocating engine. She has two three-bladed screws, which are made of manganese bronze, driven by twin engines, and her dimensions are: length, 725·9 feet; beam, 77·6; depth, 54 feet. It will be seen, therefore, that the old ten-beams to length rule is yet again broken in the modern White Star leviathans.
In 1905, the German Hamburg-American Line became possessed of the _Amerika_, which with the length of 670½ feet, beam 74·6, and a tonnage of 22,225, and a moderate speed, makes her rather a rival of the White Star _Baltic_ and _Adriatic_, than of the Cunard ships or the Norddeutscher Lloyd _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_ and _Kaiser Wilhelm II._, and the Hamburg Company’s own fast steamship, the _Deutschland_. Although sailing under a foreign flag, she is to all intents and purposes a British ship, for she was built at Harland and Wolff’s famous Belfast yard, where the White Star ships have come into being. Her speed is 18 knots, so that she is rather faster than the latest White Star ships, although inferior to the fastest contemporary liners. Carrying a total of 4,000 passengers and crew, the _Amerika_ is one of the finest vessels, not merely in the German fleet, but in the whole world.
[Illustration: THE “GEORGE WASHINGTON.”
_From a Photograph. By permission of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Co., Bremen._]
[Illustration: THE “BERLIN.”
_From a Photograph. By permission of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Co., Bremen._]
The _George Washington_, which is seen steaming ahead in the illustration herewith, was the first of the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamers to make a considerable advance on the 20,000 tons (registered) limit. In length, breadth and tonnage she was launched as the biggest of all German ships, and some of her details are not without interest. Her speed of 18½ knots is obtained by two engines with an indicated horse-power of 20,000, and her gross register is 26,000 tons. She is propelled by twin-screws, and was built of steel according to the highest German standards, with five steel decks extending from end to end, a double bottom, which is divided up into twenty-six water-tight compartments, while the ship herself is divided by thirteen transverse bulkheads which reach up to the upper deck, and sometimes to the upper saloon deck, and separate the vessel into fourteen water-tight compartments. A special feature was made in the bulkheads to render them of such a strength as to be able to resist the pressure of the water in the event of collision. The three upper decks seen in the photograph show the awning, the upper promenade, and the promenade-decks; while, as in the _Mauretania_ and her sister, and in the _Adriatic_, electric lifts are installed for the convenience of the passengers wishing to pass from one deck to the other. The four pole-masts are of steel, and have between them no fewer than twenty-nine derricks. The _George Washington’s_ engines are of the quadruple-expansion type, with two sets of four cylinders, the propellers being two three-bladed, made of bronze. The difficulty with large reciprocating engines has always been to cause them to work without giving forth considerable vibration. But the careful arrangement of the cranks of the engine so as to balance each other tends to neutralise the vibration. It is easier to balance four cranks than three, and in this German ship the four-crank principle is followed. Steam is supplied by four single-ended and eight double-ended boilers, the Howden draught system being employed.
The _Berlin_, the other latest modern liner of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Line, will be seen in the next illustration. Unlike her sister, she has been given only two masts, and in another illustration, in a later chapter, we show this ship under construction. She was recently built at Bremen for the Mediterranean to New York service, and carries 3,630 persons, inclusive of crew. Like other modern German liners, this vessel is handsomely furnished, and the public rooms are all united in a deckhouse lighted by a large number of cupola-shaped sky-lights. She has a registered tonnage of 19,200 gross, and in the Norddeutscher fleet ranks next after the _Kaiser Wilhelm II._ She passed into the hands of her owners at the end of 1909.
[Illustration: THE “LAURENTIC” ON THE STOCKS.
_From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. Harland & Wolff._]
Two interesting new ships were commissioned in 1909 by the White Star Line, for the Liverpool-Quebec service, named respectively the _Laurentic_ and _Megantic_. An illustration, showing the former on the stocks at Harland and Wolff’s yard, Belfast, is given opposite page 210. The _Laurentic_ and _Megantic_ are, as to hulls, sister ships, and each has a tonnage of 14,900, thus being among the largest steamers in the Canadian trade. But whilst the latter is a twin-screw ship propelled by reciprocating engines, the former has three screws and a combination of reciprocating engines and a low-pressure turbine, being the first large passenger steamship to be designed with this ultra-modern method. Each of the “wing” propellers is driven by four-crank triple balanced engines, the central propeller, however, being driven by the turbine. The object aimed at by this novel hybrid method was to retain the advantages of the carefully balanced reciprocating engines, but at the same time to obtain the benefit of the further expansion of steam in a low-pressure turbine, without having to employ a turbine specially for going astern. The reciprocating engines of the _Laurentic_ are adequate for manœuvring in and out of port, and for going astern, since they develop more than three-quarters of the total combined horse-power. This steamship, single-funnelled and two-masted, measures 565 feet in length, and 67 feet 4 inches in width, and besides having accommodation for 1,690 passengers, carries a large quantity of cargo. Like many other big steamships that we have noted in the course of our story, she has a double cellular-bottom which extends the whole length of the ship, being specially strengthened under the engines. Her nine bulkheads divide her up into ten water-tight compartments. It will be noticed that the rudder has gone back to the ordinary type common before the introduction of the balance method. Notice, too, that the blades of the propeller are each bolted to the shaft, and that the latter terminates in a conical shape now so common on screw-ships. This is called the “boss,” and was invented by Robert Griffiths in 1849. It was introduced in order to reduce the pressure of the water towards the centre. This method was first tried on a steamer in the following year at Bristol and afterwards on H.M.S. _Fairy_. By reason of its shape, it naturally causes less resistance through the water.
Whilst these lines are being written, there are building at Harland and Wolff’s yard still another couple of ships for the White Star flag, which, if not in speed, will be the most wonderful, and certainly the largest ships in the world. After the _Baltics_ and _Mauretanias_ one feels inclined to ask in amazement: “What next, indeed?” They will measure 850 feet long, 90 feet broad, and be fitted with such luxuries as roller-skating rinks and other novelties. They will each possess a gross register of 45,000 tons. (By way of comparison we might remind the reader that the _Mauretania_ has a gross register of 33,000 tons.) Named respectively the _Olympic_ and _Titanic_, they will be propelled by three screws, and have a speed of 21 knots, so that besides being leviathans, they will also be greyhounds, and are destined for the Southampton-New York route. The first of these, the _Olympic_, will take the water in October, 1910, and some idea of her appearance may be gathered from the illustration which forms our frontispiece. Like the _Laurentic_, these ships will be fitted with a combination of the turbine and reciprocating engines, and will thus be the first ships running on the New York route to have this system. Their builders estimate that the displacement of each of these mighty creatures will be about 60,000 tons, which is about half as much again as that of the _Baltic_. Each ship will cost at least a million and a half of money, and it will be necessary for each of those harbours which they are to visit to be dredged to a depth of 35 feet. It is a complaint put forward by both ship-builders and owners of modern leviathans that the governing bodies of ports have not shown the same spirit of enterprise which the former have exhibited. To handicap the progress of shipping by hesitating to give the harbours a required depth, they say, is neither fair nor conducive to the advance of the prosperity of the ports in question, and on the face of it, it would seem to be but reasonable that if the honour of receiving a mammoth liner means anything at all, it should be appreciated by responding in a practical manner. In New York Harbour this fact is already recognised, for dredging is being undertaken so as to provide a depth of 40 feet.
At the present moment the Cunard Company are also engaged in replenishing their fleet, consequent on the removal from service of the _Lucania_, the _Umbria_, the _Etruria_, and the _Slavonia_. An 18,000 ton steamship, to be called the _Franconia_, is being built by Messrs. Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., the firm which turned out the _Mauretania_, and will be ready some time in 1911. This latest addition will not, it is understood, be a “flyer,” for her speed is believed to be less than 20 knots, and it is therefore probable that she is intended to replace the _Slavonia_. But it is supposed that another vessel is to be built presently to relieve the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_, or to co-operate with them, and that her speed will be 23 knots, though it must not be forgotten that this ship will not be built with the help of Government money, but will be purely and solely a commercial transaction.
In the meantime German enterprise shows but little signs of lagging. The Hamburg-American Line are understood to have ordered from the Vulcan Yards at Hamburg a new passenger liner of more than 800 feet in length and a displacement of between 45,000 and 50,000 tons. Her speed is to be 21 knots. Herr Ballin a couple of years ago had a similar project in view, and entered into a contract with Harland and Wolff for building the largest ship in the world, to be called the _Europa_. But the condition of the Atlantic passenger trade became unfavourable for the enterprise, and the contract was annulled. The contract now goes, not to Belfast, but to Hamburg, for the Belfast yard has no slip vacant for several months to come. It will mean, therefore, that this _Europa_, which is destined to excel the big Cunarders in size though not in speed, will be the largest undertaking that German ship-building yards have yet had to face, for the biggest merchant ship which up till now they have turned out is the _George Washington_, of 26,000 tons. Since the _Deutschland_ lost the honour of holding the “blue ribbon,” the Hamburg-American Line have not worried much about recapturing the first position in speed. Economy plus a first-class service would seem to be the modern combination of influence that is dominating the great steamship lines. Speed is a great deal, but it is not everything in a passenger steamship, and whether the limits have not already been surpassed, and the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_ with their high speeds and enormous cost of running will presently be regarded rather as belonging to the category of white elephants than of practical commercial steamships, time alone can show.
After all, the Atlantic and the other oceans were made by the Great Designer as barriers between separate continents, and although we speak of them casually as rather of the nature of a herring-pond, and build our big ships to act as ferries, yet are we not flying in the face of Nature, and asking for trouble? In the fight between Man and Nature, it is fairly plain on which side victory will eventually come, in spite of a series of clever dodges which throughout history man has conceived and put into practice for outwitting her. You can fool her very well in many ways for part of the time; but you cannot do this for ever in every sphere. When we read of fine, handsome, well-found modern liners going astray in the broad ocean, or of excellent, capable little cross-channel steamships foundering between port and port, without any living witnesses to tell how it all happened, we have a reminder that the ways of man are clever beyond all words, but that Nature is cleverer still. What the future of the steamship will be no one can tell. Already ship-builders profess themselves capable of turning out a monster up to 1,000 feet in length. But whether this will come about depends on the courage of the great steamship lines, the state of the financial barometer, and any improvements and inventions which the marine engineer may introduce in the meantime. Perhaps the future rests not with the steam, but the gas engine: we cannot say. It is sufficient that we have endeavoured to show what a century and but little longer has done in that short time for the steamship. Sufficient for the century is the progress thereof.
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