CHAPTER VIII.
THE PRODUCTION OF LARGE STEAMSHIPS.
Apart from the enormous aggregates, no feature of the annual output of new tonnage during recent years has been more remarkable than the great number of full-powered and capacious steamships built for the various ocean-trading companies. The very general interest with which what has been termed “the race for big ships” was regarded two or three years ago has now settled down into the complacent indifference with which matter-of-fact, every-day things are treated. The number of vessels above 4000 tons gross register built during the year 1881 alone was over two-thirds of the whole number produced during the ten years immediately preceding, and was exactly double the number built during the previous five years. From these general facts it may be understood why the constant additions made to the “leviathans of the deep” excite comparatively so little interest, except where matters of dimension or mere bulk are supplemented by questions of exceptional speed or novel construction.
The subjoined table of steamships above 4000 tons gross register presently afloat or being constructed affords information interesting from several such standpoints; and shows in what years the product of big ships has been greatest, as well as what proportion of individual credit falls to the various centres engaged in their production. The vessels are arranged in the order of their tonnages, which in every case available is the gross register tonnage. While most of the information conveyed in the table is such as may be gathered separately from the registries, the form in which it has been compiled, and the fact of the moulded in place of the registered dimensions being given, makes it valuable for reference. Except in a few instances, where it was impossible to obtain them, the dimensions of the vessels have been supplied by the respective builders.
Before presenting the table, several of the most noteworthy features of the information it conveys may be pointed to. The list comprises no fewer than 138 vessels, 50 of which are constructed of steel. The year 1881 occurs twenty-six times in the subjoined table, that number of vessels over 4000 tons having been turned out within the year. As already stated, this number is over two-thirds the total number for the ten years immediately preceding 1881, and is exactly double the number for the preceding five years. The year 1882 occurs twenty-four times, the year 1883 fifteen times, and the present year—although, of course, subject to possible additions—twenty-one times.
The following summary gives the number of vessels of the “leviathan” order launched in each year since 1858—the year which witnessed the production of the Great Eastern—an achievement as regards size which has not hitherto been equalled:—
| 1858 | 1 | 1865 | 6 | 1872 | 3 | 1879 | 4 |
| 1859 | 0 | 1866 | 0 | 1873 | 9 | 1880 | 3 |
| 1860 | 0 | 1867 | 2 | 1874 | 9 | 1881 | 26 |
| 1861 | 0 | 1868 | 0 | 1875 | 3 | 1882 | 24 |
| 1862 | 1 | 1869 | 0 | 1876 | 0 | 1883 | 15 |
| 1863 | 3 | 1870 | 2 | 1877 | 1 | 1884 | 21 |
| 1864 | 2 | 1871 | 1 | 1878 | 2 |
The column giving the districts in which the vessels have been built, shows—what doubtless is already well recognised—that the Clyde is supreme in this quantitative aspect of steamship production. That river occurs seventy-nine times in the table, a number equivalent to 57 per cent. of the total of all the centres put together. Barrow follows next in order, but with the relatively insignificant contribution of twelve—although it is worthy of note that this contribution is entirely made up by the vessels of one firm: i.e., the Barrow Shipbuilding Company—the Mersey contributes eleven, the Tyne ten, and the other districts correspondingly lower numbers.