Part 5

The wonderful results achieved by the great Atlantic liners are only stimulating men’s minds as to how the voyage may be still further accelerated. There are torpedo boats that can steam at the rate of twenty-two knots an hour, and enthusiasts now deem it possible to build passenger vessels which would double that speed. Professor Thurston proposes a steamer eight hundred feet in length, eighty feet beam, and twenty-five feet draught of water, as the best form yet known for quick sailing. The fast ships of to-day exert about one and a half horse-power per ton to reach a speed of twenty sea-miles per hour; but he anticipates some slight improvements which would reduce this figure. Though his leviathan may be expected to demand thirty-five thousand horse-power to make twenty knots an hour, he aspires to forty, and at this speed the horse-power required would probably amount to nearly two hundred and fifty thousand. The question is, whether the time saved would compensate for the expenditure of so much extra fuel. It appears that a vessel having a displacement of ten thousand nine hundred and sixty tons, and an indicated horse-power of ten thousand three hundred, consumes two hundred and five tons of coal per day; while a smaller vessel, having only nine thousand eight hundred and sixty tons displacement, and fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty-one indicated horse-power, consumes three hundred and fifteen tons of coal per day, and yet the larger vessel has accomplished the passage in about eighteen hours longer than the smaller, and burned about six hundred tons of coal less. The present difficulty of naval architects is how to give greater speed with a low consumption of coal and the same carrying capacity. If passenger vessels relied solely on passengers, quicker voyages would be at once possible. However, there seems a growing tendency towards divorcing goods from passenger traffic, as railways have already done. Then light, yacht-like vessels of modern size would, for speed, safety, and economy, probably meet all the requirements of the passenger traffic. A high rate of speed, it may be presumed, will not be overlooked, whatever else. Some sanguine people believe that less than forty years will suffice to reduce the seven days of an Atlantic trip to three and a half, and Professor Thurston mentions about eighty hours. There are several arguments which point to the possibility of a great reduction. If we go back forty-one years, the _Great Britain_ made the passage from Liverpool to New York in a little less than fifteen days, and though this was considered good, in 1874 the _Britannic_ and _Germanic_ placed Queenstown and New York within eight and a half days’ sail of each other. The _Etruria_ and _Umbria_ have since made the voyage in six days six hours. Again, of the seven vessels engaged in the transatlantic trade which have made the passage in seven days or under, not one has been fitted with those latest aids to economy, triple expansion engines and forced draught. As a matter of fact, there is enormous waste; and an authority estimates that only one half of the total power exerted by the engines is effective in propelling the vessel. In addition to this, a very considerable portion of the heat energy of the fuel escapes through the funnel, instead of producing steam. Something might be done here towards securing greater economy; and by using high-pressure boilers and triple expansion engines, there is said to be a saving of as much as sixteen per cent. One thing seems to be pretty clear, that the fast steamers of the future will owe their speed to the engineer more than to the naval architect. The lines upon which modern racers are built are scarcely likely to be much improved. When the engineer gets the space at present devoted to cargo, for engines, boilers, and fuel, swiftness will ensue, but at a greater cost, as a matter of course, as may be gathered from the fact that on the Atlantic voyage a gain of eighteen hours between two ships, in all respects equal, necessitates an expenditure of five hundred tons of coal extra. As, however, we have already predicted in these pages, oil may yet take the place of the bulky and unwieldy coal.

‘ARMY PANICS.’

With reference to the article which appeared in a recent number of this _Journal_ (No. 144), a Forfarshire parish minister sends us an incident copied from the diary of his father, who was in the 92d Highland Regiment, and which incident bears some likeness to that quoted from Napier’s _Peninsular War_ in the article above referred to. The 92d formed part of Lord Hill’s division, which seems to have included also the 24th, the 50th, and 71st regiments, and a regiment of Guards. The incident is told as follows:

‘Our division marched to a place within five leagues of Madrid, called Aranjuez, where the king of Spain has a grand palace on the banks of the Tagus. At this time, Lord Wellington was closely investing Burgos; but the French, bringing a large army into the country, forced him to raise the siege, and the whole of the English, Portuguese, and Spanish troops had to fall back upon the frontiers of Portugal. Our division, under Lord Hill, coming past Madrid in the course of our retreat, had to cross a large bridge at midnight. It was then that a very extraordinary thing occurred. In a moment and without any cause for it whatever, all the troops were struck with a panic and driven into great confusion. Some were thrown on their backs, and others had their legs almost broken. Bonnets flew one way, and muskets another. This unaccountable panic extended to the rear of the whole division. A regiment that was lying asleep by the roadside was roused and thrown into confusion at the same instant. It so happened that next day the French came up to the bridge and a sharp contest took place. Our artillery was at one end of the bridge, and the French at the other. There was a very sharp fire on both sides with field-pieces and small-arms.’

THE TWO SEAS.

‘When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee.’

Each night we are launched on a sea of sleep; No doubts disturb us, no fears annoy. Though we plough the waves of the darkened deep, We know we are safe in the Master’s keep, And the morning brings us joy.

What dread, then, should daunt us, what doubt distress, When on Death’s dark sea we are launched alone? In that deeper sleep, should we trust Him less? Shall we limit to earth His power to bless? Will the Father forsake his own?

He made us His children; He bears us to bed; And whether our sleep be the first or last, What matters it where our souls are led, If our trust in the God of the living and dead Should only hold us fast?

J. B. S.

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