1889. These two steamers marked one of those epochs of complete

transformation in type of vessel necessitated by the public demands and rendered possible by the advance of engineering science.[93] They had considerable beam and their subdivision into water-tight compartments was more thorough than in any vessel hitherto built. Another innovation in their construction was the arrangement of fore and aft bulkheads in addition to the transverse bulkheads. Both these ships were of the Inman type with clipper bows and the usual long graceful lines, but they spread less sail than any of their predecessors, being fitted simply with three pole masts carrying fore and aft schooner rig only. The funnels of each boat, which were three in number, were placed between the fore and main masts. Each vessel carried two separate engines built on the three-crank system, and the boilers were constructed to work at the then unusual pressure of 150 lb. to the inch. The rudder was in many respects different from that usually constructed for merchant steamers, and more nearly approximated to the type adopted in the Navy, in which, as a protection against hostile projectiles, the rudder is wholly submerged. This form of rudder was introduced in these two steamships as they were intended to be used as auxiliary cruisers. The rudder itself was constructed on a modification of the balanced system, in which a portion of the rudder is placed forward of the stock. Both these steam-ships made some very rapid passages, the _City of Paris_ in May 1889 bringing down the time of the transatlantic journey to less than six days. These were the last vessels added to the Inman and International Line. In March 1893 the line was reorganised and became the American Line. This company launched the _St. Louis_ and _St. Paul_ built at Cramp’s yard at Philadelphia. The two American-built ships were each 554 feet in length and of 11,600 tons gross register. They held the record for the New York-Southampton service for some years. During the Spanish-American War they were used as auxiliary cruisers. [93] “The Atlantic Ferry.” [Illustration: THE “OLYMPIC” BUILDING, OCTOBER 18, 1909 (WHITE STAR LINE).] The increase in the size of steam-ships is not confined to the Atlantic alone, but is a feature of all the great lines whatever part of the world they may serve. The Peninsular and Oriental, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the Ellerman Lines, all the passenger lines trading to North America, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the Orient Line and the principal lines trading to the Far East, are all the possessors of steamers of 12,000 tons or over, though in the case of those that use the Suez Canal the size is limited by the fact that if they were made any larger they might have difficulty in getting through the canal at all. The heavy canal dues, which are already a serious item to the owners of all steamers using the canal, would be more onerous still if the vessels were of greater size, and as it is, some of the lines trading to Australia deliberately take the Cape route so as to avoid this expense. Lloyd’s Register’s Annual Summary issued in January 1910 contains the following on the production of large steamers since 1893: “The number of large steamers launched in the United Kingdom during 1909 has been less than during any of the previous four years. During the years 1893-6, on an average, ten vessels of 6000 tons and upwards were launched per annum in the United Kingdom; in the following four years, 1897-1900, the average rose to 32, at which figure it stood for the four years 1901-4, and at 30 for the four years 1905-8. During 1909 only 19 such vessels were launched. Of vessels of 10,000 tons and upwards only three were launched in the four years 1893-6; 24 were launched during the four years 1897-1900; 27 were launched during the four years 1901-4, and a similar number during the four years 1905-8. “During 1909 six vessels of 10,000 tons and above were launched, the names of which are as follows: Balmoral Castle 13,000 tons gross. Orvieto 12,130 „ „ Osterley 12,129 „ „ Otranto 12,124 „ „ Mantua 10,885 „ „ Ruahine 10,758 „ „ “At the present time there are under construction 37 vessels of 6000 tons and upwards, of which eight are of over 10,000 tons each. “The average tonnage of steamers launched in the United Kingdom during 1909 is 2092 tons: but if steamers of less than 500 tons be excluded the average of the remaining steamers reaches 3080 tons gross. “Of the vessels launched in the United Kingdom 16 are capable of a speed of 17 knots and above. The fastest of these vessels is the turbine yacht _Winchester_ (26 knots). The fastest merchant vessels are five steamers intended for Channel service (two turbine and three twin-screw vessels), all of which attain the high speed of 22 knots.” Of late years the P. & O. Company has added several magnificent vessels to its fleet, of a size and degree of equipment superior to any of their predecessors, mostly of the “M” class, so called because all their names begin with that letter. These are _Moldavia_, _Mongolia_, _Macedonia_, _Marmora_, _Mooltan_, _Morea_, and _Malwa_, and they mark a new epoch in the history of the company’s shipbuilding operations, as they far exceed in size the largest previous type as represented by the _China_, _Persia_, _Egypt_, and others, which in their turn were far ahead of all the steamers before them. The _Marmora_ and _Macedonia_, built at Belfast by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, are each of 10,500 tons, and are 530 feet long by 60 feet broad, with a moulded depth of 37 feet. Accommodation is provided for 377 first and 187 second saloon passengers. The _Moldavia_ and _Mongolia_, built at Greenock by Messrs. Caird and Co., have a gross register of about 10,000 tons, and are 520 feet long by 58 feet broad and 33 feet deep. They have been fitted for the conveyance of 348 first and 166 second saloon passengers. The arrangements in connection with the passenger accommodation are in advance of anything hitherto attained in the company’s steamers in respect to comfort, roominess, light, and ventilation. All the cabins are on the main, spar, hurricane, and boat decks, and most of the inside ones are lighted from the outside of the ship by a passage-way to the scuttle. The vessels have a coal capacity of 2000 tons in bunkers and reserves, and have a limited cargo space of about 3500 tons, half this space being fitted with the most up-to-date appliances for the conveyance of refrigerated produce. The fifth of this class of steamers, the _Mooltan_, was built by Messrs. Caird and Co., Greenock. The _Morea_ and _Malwa_ combined the best features of all these steam-ships. They are of 11,000 tons register, with engines of 15,000 indicated horse-power driving twin screws, giving them a speed of 18 knots. The former was built by Messrs. Barclay, Curle and Co., being the largest which has yet left their yards. This shipbuilding firm, by the way, claims to be the oldest on the Upper Clyde, and has probably built and engined first-class mail steamers for as many companies as any other shipbuilding establishment in existence. The _Malwa_ was built by Caird and Co. It is thirty-eight years since Barclay, Curle and Co. began building for the P. & O. line, their first steamer being the _Zambesi_ in 1873. [Illustration: THE “ST. LOUIS” (AMERICAN LINE).] [Illustration: THE “MOREA” (P. & O. LINE).] It is now some years since steel-built vessels propelled by new and economical machinery became the premier cargo carriers in the Australian trade. Recognising that it would no longer be profitable to build sailers to compete against the steam-ships, many of the sailing-ship owners decided to adopt steam-power and to dispose of their sailing ships as the opportunity offered. The principal steamer lines which brought about this change were the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company and the Orient Line. The steam-ships of the Orient Line began to run in June 1877, when the _Lusitania_, chartered from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, was despatched from London to Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney via the Cape of Good Hope. In the following year the joint efforts of Messrs. Anderson, Anderson and Co. and Messrs. F. Green and Co. founded the Orient Steam Navigation Company. The service at first was to be monthly, but it was soon evident that fortnightly sailings were imperative to meet the demands upon the line by shippers and passengers. The fortnightly service was determined upon in the beginning of 1880, the company obtaining the co-operation of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. Among the earlier vessels were the _Cuzco_, _Garonne_, _Chimborazo_, _Cotopaxi_, _Lusitania_, and _Sorata_, which were some of the finest that had ever crossed to Australia. The Orient Company afterwards built the steam-ship _Orient_, an iron vessel, and at that time the largest and finest steam-ship afloat. She remained in active service for no less than thirty years, and was disposed of to be broken up only a few months ago, when she was still as sound as on the day she was launched, her only defect being that she was unequal to modern requirements. The Orient Company also built the _Austral_, which had the misfortune to sink in Sydney Harbour whilst coaling. She was raised again and continued in active service until a few years ago. The Orient Company for some years carried the mails to Australia with vessels the ownership of which was shared by the founders of the line, Messrs. Anderson, Anderson and Co., and Messrs. R. and H. Green and Co. and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the line being then known as the Orient-Pacific Line. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company bought out the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and for some years the line was known as the Orient Royal Line. The Orient proprietary, however, recently bought out the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and the Orient Company are now the exclusive owners of the service. New vessels have from time to time been added to the fleet, all of which are of steel and propelled by twin screws. When the Government of the Australian Commonwealth entered into a fresh contract with the Orient Company in 1908, for the conveyance of the mails, for a subsidy of £170,000 per annum until 1920, the company placed orders for the building of five new splendidly fitted steam-ships which are among the largest and fastest travelling to Australia. On the Orient mail route to Australia eleven ports are visited between London and Brisbane, and the journey is thus relieved of the monotony and tedium usually incidental to a long sea voyage. Notwithstanding the many calls made, the voyage to Sydney is made in 43 days, or in 33 days if the railway is made full use of. Messrs. Geo. Thompson’s Aberdeen Line of steamers is a direct descendant of one of the most famous of the clipper lines. At one time it owned about 25 sailers of the highest class, including the _Thermopylæ_, _Patriarch_, and _Miltiades_; the first named made the fastest passage on record for a sailing ship to Australia, 60 days from London to Melbourne, and with the others afterwards distinguished herself in the tea races. Such was the speed and reputation of the Aberdeen Line clippers that the company did not find it necessary to adopt steam until 1881, but then they decided to be well ahead of the times, and on the advice of the late Dr. Alexander Kirk had the steamer _Aberdeen_, which they ordered, fitted with the first set of triple-expansion engines that had ever been applied to a large ocean-going steamer. This vessel was followed in 1884 by the _Australasian_, and then by the _Damascus_, and other vessels of the same high class were added as required. How great is the care taken of passengers is shown when it is stated that in all its long career not one of the company’s vessels has ever lost a life except through natural causes. The vessels of this line travel by way of the Cape, where a call is made. The steamer _Miltiades_, added in 1903, accomplished on her maiden voyage the fastest passage ever made up to then from London and Plymouth to Melbourne, and a year or two after, when required at a few days’ notice to take the running of the regular mail boat via the Suez Canal, landed the Australian mails more than 24 hours before time. The old proprietary of Geo. Thompson and Co. was turned into a limited liability company in 1905, and both Messrs. Ismay, Imrie and Co., who represented the White Star Line, and the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., accepted the invitation to become interested in it. Hitherto its largest vessels were the _Marathon_ and _Miltiades_, each of 6800 tons, but in 1907 the _Pericles_ was launched by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, being named after an old clipper of the line which in her day was one of the finest and fastest ships ever built. The _Pericles_ was a twin-screw steel steamer of over 11,000 tons register with two sets of quadruple-expansion engines, and her scantlings and fittings were in most cases considerably beyond the requirements of the Board of Trade and the Admiralty Transport Department. Her length was 500 feet, and her beam 62 feet. She was unfortunately lost in 1910 by striking an uncharted rock off the West Australian coast. The first regular cargo line of steamers between England and Australia was established in 1880 by the late Mr. W. Lund, who previously owned a large number of sailing vessels. These steamers were started as cargo boats but carried a limited number of passengers, and as newer steamers were added they became very favourably known for the comfort of their accommodation. The first steamer owned by the Lund, or, as it is better known in the South African and Australian trades, the Blue Anchor Line, was the _Delcomyn_. In 1909, their largest steamer, the _Waratah_, a fine screw steamer of 9000 tons, was mysteriously lost with all on board between Durban and Cape Town. The Blue Anchor Line has recently been acquired by the P. & O. Company. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., is an amalgamation, formed in 1883, of the two historic firms whose names it embodies. The united company ceased a couple of years ago to despatch sailing ships, but the main result of the combination has been the placing on the route of some of the finest passenger and cargo steamers afloat, and the inauguration of a fortnightly service between London and New Zealand. Shaw, Savill and Co. in the early days made London their main port of departure, and just in the same way the Albion Company adhered to the Clyde. The joint concern covers the whole ground. The steamers of the line are built specially for the company, and are expressly designed for the Colonial trade, and are second to none in comfort, celerity, and security combined. The outward voyage of the steamers is via Teneriffe, Cape Town, and Hobart; and the homeward trip is made via Cape Horn, calling at Monte Video or Rio de Janeiro and Teneriffe. The company has played an important part in the development of the frozen meat traffic between England and New Zealand. The machines used are those patented as the “Haslam” and “Bell Coleman,” known as the Patent Dry Air Refrigerators, though in the later steamers the CO₂ system is installed. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., were the pioneers in this trade. They fitted up the first sailing ship with refrigerating machinery, and successfully inaugurated an industry which has since grown to such vast dimensions. The company is one of the largest carriers of frozen meat in the world, bringing over to this country in their steamers considerably over 2,800,000 carcases of mutton per annum. All the company’s present steamers are of steel, and most are twin screw, their tonnage ranging from 5564 in the _Karamea_ to 10,000 in their newest boats, the _Pakeha_ and _Rangatira_. Its service is maintained in connection with the White Star Line, which supplies four or five steamers of 12,000 tons each. By few firms has such an extraordinarily rapid progress been shown as by that known as Elder, Dempster and Co., of which the late Sir Alfred Jones was the head. After his death the line was acquired by Lord Pirrie, who transferred it to a new company bearing the name of Elder, Dempster and Co., Ltd. The firm originally consisted of Alexander Elder and John Dempster, who founded the British and African Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., in 1868, and in 1879 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Alfred L. Jones was admitted to partnership. Under his direction the firm became of considerable importance, but it was not until he and Mr. W. J. Davey became partners and sole managers that the firm progressed by leaps and bounds and rapidly became one of the largest and most influential commercial houses in the world. Its energies were tremendous and its successes no less so. The Beaver Line of steamers to Canada from Liverpool was at one time the property of this firm, who sold it to the Canadian Pacific Railway. The shipping companies controlled by Elder, Dempster and Co. included the British and African Steam Navigation Company (1900), Ltd., the African Steamship Company (incorporated under Royal Charter), Elder, Dempster Shipping, Ltd., Cie. Belge Maritime du Congo, Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, and the Compañia de Vapores Correos Interinsulares Canarios. Only a few years have elapsed since the banana was almost a curiosity here, but thanks to the enterprise of Elder, Dempster and Co., who practically created the tropical fruit trade and built several steamers for the conveyance of tropical fruit to England, the banana has become most popular. The West India Islands, especially Jamaica, have derived immense benefit from this trade, the encouragement of this and other tropical products having brought it no small measure of prosperity. For this work the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, Ltd., was established in 1901, maintaining at first a fortnightly and then a weekly service from Bristol to Jamaica. In connection with this service there are numerous inter-island services. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1905 inaugurated their splendid “A” class of steamers, of which the _Aragon_, _Amazon_, _Avon_, _Araguaya_, and _Asturias_ are examples. The largest of these is the _Asturias_ of 12,500 tons. In part directly and in part through its connections the company’s enterprise extends to all parts of the world. It acquired in 1907 an interest in the Shire Line of steamers engaged in a regular service from London to Port Said, Suez, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Kobe, and Yokohama; and in 1908 it took over the old-established Forwood Line service from London to Gibraltar, Morocco, Las Palmas, Teneriffe, and Madeira. The repairs effected to ships since they have been built of steel are no less wonderful than the building of the ships themselves. It is by no means uncommon for a ship to be cut in half, the pieces drawn asunder, and the intervening space built up. The repairing of the _Suevic_ by fitting it with a new bow was not the first operation of the kind. The _Milwaukee_ was similarly treated at Wallsend by Armstrong. The destroyer _Syren_ lost her bows by stranding at Berehaven, but the after portion with the machinery was saved and given new bows by the Palmer Company, the two parts being towed to Haulbowline for the purpose. The Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer _Hudson_ had her bows so badly damaged by fire that she had to be provided with new ones. Nor are the repairing feats effected by the steamers’ engineers in mid-ocean, often in circumstances of extreme difficulty, less praiseworthy and remarkable, especially when it is a matter of patching a fractured propeller shaft while the vessel is rolling in the trough of a heavy sea and the work has to be performed in the semi-darkness of the shaft tube. The steamer _Norfolk_, in 1906, after her engines broke down in the Indian Ocean, was taken into Fremantle under improvised sail. The sails were made of tarpaulins stitched together and the necessary spars were improvised out of derrick booms. [Illustration: THE “ASSINIBOINE” IN SAULT STE. MARIE CANAL (CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY CO.).] The steamer _Hansa_ broke down in October 1908 in the South Pacific through the propeller jamming against the rudder stock. After a delay, the shaft broke when the steamer was 1281 miles out from Newcastle, New South Wales, for New Zealand. The shaft tank was flooded and the ship drifted in circles with sea anchors out, under such sail as the crew could set, while the engineers worked for almost twenty days--night and day--and sometimes more than waist-deep in water in the stern tube, till they managed to repair the shaft. Then the funnels of the steamer were used as masts and tarpaulins were rigged to them as sails. But such sails as they could set were insufficient and she drifted broadside on. The ship was picked up and finally brought into port, but by that time she was able to get her own engines to work and release the strain on the towing steamer. Repair work of a totally different kind is associated with steamers built to be severed and joined up again. The Canadian Pacific Railway steamer _Assiniboia_, for instance, was constructed by the Fairfield Company at Govan in 1907 for service on the Great Lakes and was so made that she could be cut in half in order to pass through the canals to reach her destination, after which the pieces were reunited. That a vessel should be built in order that she may be sunk and raised was the unique experience of the steamer _Transporter_, built by Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim, Barrow-in-Furness, in 1908. Some time previously the Japanese Government placed with the firm an order for two submarine vessels, and a special steamer had to be constructed to carry them. This vessel is over 250 feet long, very broad and with large hatchways. When the submarines were ready for shipment the steamer was taken to Liverpool and sufficiently submerged in dock to allow of them being floated into the hold. She was then pumped dry, and after being overhauled she left for Japan. The most serious competitors British shipbuilders have are those of Germany. The industry there is of comparatively modern growth, and it is not more than a few years since all the large steamers required by German owners were built in Great Britain. All the early steamers of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie and also of the Norddeutscher Lloyd were constructed here, but in the early ’seventies, owing to the patriotism of a Secretary of State for the Navy in encouraging the construction of warships in German yards, shipbuilding was taken up in earnest and there are now shipyards in Germany capable of turning out steam-ships in every respect equal to the best that British establishments can produce. At first, German competition was not regarded very seriously by British builders, nor were German owners altogether enamoured of the products of their own yards owing to the lack of uniformity in the quality of the materials employed. The foundation of the Germanischer Lloyd during the ’sixties meant that a new influence was exercised upon German shipbuilding equivalent to that exercised by Lloyd’s upon the British mercantile marine. It was not, however, until 1882 that the Hamburg-Amerika Linie inaugurated the serious competition between German and British builders by entrusting the building of the mail steamer _Rugia_ to the Vulcan Shipbuilding and Engineering works at Stettin, and the _Rhaetia_ to the Reiherstieg Shipbuilding and Engineering Works at Hamburg. Previous to this the German yards had been constructing small steamers, the first of which there is any record being the _Weser_, built about 1816, at the Johann Lange yards. Iron shipbuilding was established at what is now the Stettin Vulcan yard in 1851 and the same year the “Neptun” yard was founded at Rostock. The first German iron steamer was built at the Schichau Works at Elbing in 1855, and from 1859 to 1862 the machinery for wooden gunboats was supplied. Two iron steamers were launched by Klawitter at Dantzic in 1855, in which year also the Godefroy wooden shipbuilding yard, the present Reiherstieg yard, laid the keel of the first iron ocean-going steamer built on the North Sea coast. The Norddeutsche Werft was started in 1865 at the newly created naval harbour of Kiel, and in 1879 was united with the Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft, formerly Egells, whence arose the well-known Germania shipbuilding establishment. Without entering upon debatable economic questions it may be asserted as a fact that German shipbuilding is a State-developed industry. Little was done until von Stosch, Minister of the Navy, in introducing a Bill for the establishment of a German Navy defined once for all the relations between the German Navy and the German industries. Not only did the State give assistance by the placing of orders, but further assistance was afforded in 1879 by the exemption from import duty of mercantile shipbuilding materials, a concession the importance of which was recognised when the Norddeutscher Lloyd placed an order with the Vulcan yard in 1886 for six imperial mail steamers for the East Asiatic and Australian lines. These were the first large iron passenger steamers built in Germany. Being Government mail steamers, German material was to be used in their construction as far as possible. Before this, the Vulcan and the Reiherstieg yards had each shown what they could do by building an ocean steamer of about 3500 tons. Several English-built steamers were bought for the N.D.L. in 1881 and the following years, but in 1888-90 the company had three steamers of 6963 tons gross built by the Vulcan Company; these vessels had engines of 11,500 indicated horse-power and a speed of 18¹⁄₂ miles an hour. In these steamers were adopted central saloons and a long central deck-house with a promenade deck above, while on the main deck a dining-room, extending from one side of the ship to the other, was built. In these ships also German decorators and furnishers were given the opportunity to distinguish themselves and rival the British, and they did so. Steam-ship after steam-ship was produced, each one excelling its predecessor, until the N.D.L. decided upon the construction of the _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_ under the onerous condition that if she did not come up to the very strict requirements they imposed, the Vulcan Company should take her back. One condition was that the ship should be exhibited in a trial trip across the ocean to New York. The _Barbarossa_ type, corresponding to the White Star intermediate vessels, appeared in the ’nineties, carrying a large number of passengers and having great cargo capacity. In 1894 the twin-screw vessels _Prinz Regent Luitpold_ and _Prinz Heinrich_ were added with special equipment for the tropics. Since then steamers have been added to the fleet with almost startling rapidity to cope with the company’s many services, all the important German yards being favoured with orders. The largest steamer the company has is the _George Washington_, launched in November 1908 by the Vulcan Company, which is the greatest steamer yet constructed in Germany. She is 725¹⁄₂ feet in length with a displacement of 36,000 tons, while her gross registered tonnage is 26,000 tons. She is a first-class twin-screw steamer with five steel decks extending from end to end; she has also thirteen water-tight bulkheads, all of which reach to the upper deck and some even to the upper saloon deck. Contrary to the English practice, which is to reduce the number of masts as much as possible in these big liners, she has four masts, all steel poles, and carries 29 steel derricks. Her accommodation is for 520 first-class passengers in 263 staterooms, 377 second-class passengers in 137 staterooms, 614 third-class passengers in 160 staterooms, and 1430 fourth-class passengers in eight compartments, this vessel being the first in which four classes of passengers are carried. Besides the 2941 passengers she has a crew of 525. She has two four-cylinder, four-crank, quadruple-expansion engines of 20,000 horse-power, which give her a sea speed of 18¹⁄₂ knots. [Illustration: _Photo. G. West & Son._ THE “KRONPRINZESSIN CECILIE” (NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD).] [Illustration: _Photo. G. West & Son._ THE “KAISER WILHELM II.” (NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD).] With this steamer and four others only slightly less in size, the _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, the _Kronprinz Wilhelm_, the _Kaiser Wilhelm II._, and the _Kronprinzessin Cecilie_, the company is able to carry out its ambition of maintaining a weekly express service between Bremen and New York. The other great German shipping organisation, the Hamburg-Amerika Linie, started with a fleet of sailing ships, but inaugurated its steam service in 1856 with the _Borussia_, built by Caird of Greenock, who in the next few years executed orders for a number of vessels for the line. This steamer was one of the best of her day. The progress of this line, which claims with good reason to be the greatest shipping organisation in the world, has been extraordinary. Long ago it was adopted as its motto “My field the World,” and well it has acted up to it. Its fleet had grown by 1897 to sixty-nine steam-ships with a total of 291,507 tons register, in addition to several smaller steamers for coastal and harbour work. Its extension in the last few years has been phenomenal. Among its largest and fastest boats are the _Cleveland_ and _Cincinnati_, _Koenig Wilhelm II._, _Amerika_, _Kaiserin Auguste Victoria_, _Patricia_, _President Grant_, _President Lincoln_, and _Deutschland_, the last being one of the fastest afloat. Some of its larger vessels have been built at Belfast, notably the _Amerika_, and the _Spreewald_ and others of her class at the Middleton yard, Hartlepool. In March 1909, the fleet comprised 164 ocean steamers of a total of 869,762 tons register, and 223 smaller steamers of 46,093 tons, or a total of 387 steamers and 915,855 tons. Both these companies, by their direct services and the numerous lines which they control, are in connection with every port of importance throughout the world. With regard to engineering developments, it must be remembered that high-pressure and multiple-expansion engines were known before 1879. The little _Enterprise_ was engined by Wilson of London, in 1872, with a pressure of 150 lb.; the _Sexta_, engined by the Ouseburn Engine Works of Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1874, had boilers with a pressure of 120 lb. and triple-expansion engines working on three cranks; the _Propontis_, engined in the same year by Elder, of Glasgow, was also fitted with triple-expansion engines. Mr. Perkins’ tri-compounds came out in the ’seventies, the _Isa_ (yacht) in 1879, with a pressure of 120 lb.; and there were a few others. With the exception of the _Isa_, all the others may well be designated experiments that failed, and it was owing to the success of this little yacht that the possibility of the ordinary boiler for still higher pressures suggested itself.[94] [94] Paper on “Cargo Boat Machinery,” by Mr. J. F. Walliker, Institute of Marine Engineers. The _Propontis_, built in 1864, was re-engined and fitted with tri-compounds and new boilers in 1874. The boilers (of the water-tube type) were a failure, and were replaced by cylindrical boilers in 1876, at a reduced pressure of 90 lb. With these she worked till 1884, when her boilers were renewed. Dr. Kirk declared “that the want of a proper boiler had delayed the introduction of the triple expansion.” Plates of five tons in weight and upwards are in common use for boiler shells, yet in 1881 hardly a firm on the north-east coast would undertake to build a boiler for 150 lb. pressure. The success of the triple engine resulted in many vessels being converted and fitted with new boilers, while others were re-engined. Messrs. Palmer, in the _James Joicey_, fitted an interchangeable crank-shaft with the crank-pin on the centre engine, made with a coupling at each end to fit into a recess in the web. It was seen at quite an early stage of tri-compounds that the three-crank engine, with cranks at equal angles, from its easy turning moments, would be the most satisfactory, and its universal adoption in new engines was only the work of a very short time. The steamers _Aberdeen_ and _Claremont_, both launched in 1881, were the first to have commercially successful triple-expansion engines. As to how high steam-pressures may go, it is recorded that the yacht _Salamander_, with triple-expansion engines, had the valve set at 600 lb. The invention of the turbine has been the most remarkable event in the modern history of the steam-engine. The following passages, taken from the Hon. C. A. Parsons’ paper on turbines, read at the Engineering Exhibition, 1906, give an account of its adoption for purposes of steam navigation: “Turbines in general use may be classified under three principal types, though there are some that may be described as a mixture of the three types. The compound or multiple expansion type was the first to receive commercial application in 1884; the second was the single bucket wheel, driven by the expanding steam-jet, in 1888; and lastly a type which comprises some of the features of the other two, combined with a sinuous treatment of the steam in 1896. The compound type comprises the Parsons, Rateau, Zoelly, and other turbines, and has been chiefly adopted for the propulsion of ships. The distinctive features of these varieties of the compound type lie principally in design; nearly all adopt a line of flow of the steam generally parallel and not radial to the shaft. In the Parsons turbines there are no compartments: the blades and guides occupy nearly the whole space between the revolving drum and the fixed casing, and the characteristic action of the steam is equal impact and reaction between the fixed and moving blades. The chief object is to minimise the skin friction of the steam by reducing to a minimum the extent of moving surface in contact with the steam, and another, to reduce the percentage of leakage by the adoption of a shaft of large diameter and great rigidity, permitting small working clearances over the tops of the blades. The other varieties of turbines have all multicellular compartments in which the wheels or discs revolve.” The first vessel to be fitted with a turbine engine was the little _Turbinia_, in 1894, and successful though she was it was found necessary in the two following years to make a number of experiments which resulted in radical changes in the design and arrangement of the machinery. The first engine tried was of the radial flow type, giving about 1500 horse-power to a single screw. A speed of only 18 knots was obtained. Several different propellers were tried with this engine, and the result not being satisfactory the original turbine engine was removed, and the engines finally adopted consisted of three turbines in series--high pressure, intermediate pressure, and low pressure--each driving a separate shaft with three propellers on each shaft. A reversing turbine was coupled with the low-pressure turbine to the central shaft. The utility of the turbine for fast speed having been demonstrated by the _Turbinia_, the destroyers _Viper_ and _Cobra_ were built and given Parsons turbines and propellers, and the _Viper_ showed herself the fastest in the world with a speed of 36·86 knots per hour. These two vessels came to grief, through no fault, however, of the turbines. [Illustration: _Photo. G. West & Son._ “TURBINIA.”] Captain Williamson, the well-known steamer manager on the Clyde, was the first to order a turbine-propelled boat for commercial purposes, this being the steamer _King Edward_, built in 1901. She gave such excellent results that the _Queen Alexandra_ was ordered. The South Eastern and Chatham Company was the first railway company to order a turbine steamer, _The Queen_, 310 feet long and of 1676 tons gross, with engines of 7500 horse-power. The first ocean liners fitted with turbines were the Allan liners _Victorian_ and _Virginian_, built in 1904, each of about 10,754 gross tonnage and having turbine engines of about 12,000 horse-power. The Cunard Line built a turbine steamer in the following year, the _Carmania_, with turbines of 21,000 horse-power and of 19,524 tons gross. So satisfactory, apparently, was the experiment that the Cunard Line next ordered the _Lusitania_ and _Mauretania_ with turbine engines of 70,000 horse-power each. After the two torpedo vessels already mentioned, the Admiralty ordered the _Velox_ and _Eden_, which had additional engines for obtaining economical results at low speeds. Then came the third-class cruiser _Amethyst_, and comparative trials with sister vessels fitted with reciprocating engines showed the superior economy of the _Amethyst’s_ engines. Next the _Dreadnought_ was fitted with turbine engines. Another conclusive proof of the superiority of the turbine was afforded by the steamer _Princesse Elisabeth_ on the Ostend and Dover service, which in her first year averaged 24 knots as against the 22 knots of the _Princesse Clementine_ and _Marie Henriette_ on an average coal consumption per trip of 23·01 tons, compared with their 24·05 and 23·82 tons respectively. The turbine boat also does the trip in about 15 per cent. less time than the other two, or, “to reduce the turbine boat to the displacement and speed of the paddle-boats, and assuming that the indicated horse-power varies as the cube of the speed, the mean consumption of the _Princesse Elisabeth_ would be about 17 tons as against 24 tons in the paddle-boats, thereby showing a saving of over 25 per cent.” Many other vessels have been fitted with turbine machinery, including the royal yacht. The multiple propellers tried in some of the earlier vessels were found to be less satisfactory than single propellers on each shaft. The first in which a combination of reciprocating and turbine engines was installed was the _Otaki_ by Denny, for the New Zealand Shipping Company. [Illustration: THE “OTAKI” (NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING CO.).]