During the ’eighties the competition for the Atlantic “blue ribbon” had become very keen indeed, until the Umbria and Etruria began to shatter existing records and to show their undoubted superiority. But their turn to be eclipsed was not long in coming, and the Inman Line were determined to make a bold bid for supremacy once again. A year or two before the launch of the Umbria they had made a spirited effort with the City of Rome, a large vessel with a displacement of over 11,000 tons. But she did not prove successful.

The line became the Inman and International Company, and set forth to build a couple of large, powerful steamships which would be in advance of the City of Rome in speed, though not quite so large. Already there had been small twin-screw ships, but the City of New York and the City of Paris were to be driven by twin-screws of a size and power which had not yet been produced. It was fitting that the Inman Line which had introduced the successful screw liner to the Atlantic should also be the pioneers of the very big steamships fitted with twin-screws. These two vessels were taken over in 1893, when the Inman Line became reorganised, and passed from the British flag to sail under the eagle of the American Line. Nowadays they sail from Southampton under the names of the New York and the Philadelphia respectively. The illustration facing page 166 shows the City of Paris (afterwards called the Paris, and only later still the Philadelphia) getting under way from New York. Her graceful bow, with its bowsprit and figure-head, is reminiscent of the old clipper sailing ships. The high dome of the first cabin dining-saloon will be seen rising in the space between the fore-mast and the bridge, and the promenade deck runs practically the whole length of the ship from the bows to the stern.

The hulls of these steamships are built of mild steel, and in addition to possessing a double bottom throughout their entire length in which a considerable amount of water ballast can be carried, they are divided into fifteen water-tight compartments. The bulkheads of the latter come right up to a height of 18 feet above the water-line, so that in case of collision the ship could still keep afloat even if three compartments were open to the sea.

Their two engine rooms are separated from each other by means of a longitudinal bulkhead, and they are driven by two separate sets of triple-expansion engines. We have already seen that triple-expansion is just the principle of the compound engine carried one stage farther, and if the desire for attaining the high speed contemplated were to be gratified it was inevitable that this method should have been adopted. With the exception of a very few quadruple-expansion engined ships, such as the Cunard Ivernia, the White Star Baltic, and the German Kaiser Wilhelm II., most modern liners which have not been fitted with turbines are of the triple-expansion type. It may not be out of place, therefore, very briefly to explain the working of this.

The steam, then, enters the cylinder above the piston-rod by means of a valve, but when it has half-filled the cylinder and the stroke is also half completed, the supply of steam is cut off. But the piston-rod does not for that reason come to a standstill: owing to the expansive force of the steam the rest of the stroke is completed when the steam has occupied twice the space it did at the time it was cut off—that is, when the half-stroke had been made. Having, therefore, now completed its work in this cylinder, instead of being allowed to escape, the steam is conducted to a much larger cylinder than the first, for the steam still retains much of its expansive force. In this second cylinder, the same thing occurs again, but when it is admitted to a third, it has already lost much of its pressure. It does its work, and having come through the third cylinder has thus undergone “triple expansion.” Now that it has completed the stroke it passes into the surface condenser already referred to, where it is suddenly chilled and converted into water again, and the vacuum thus formed tends to pull the piston back. In the olden days, as we have seen, the vacuum was made by means of the jet condenser, but now it is done by what is known as the “surface” condenser. It is by means of the latter that the fresh water is able to be used again and again. Otherwise, a steamship could only carry enough fresh water for a few days’ voyage, salt water being not used for the boilers, but merely for circulating through the pipes of the condenser to keep them cool. As the steam comes out from the lower pressure it impinges on the sea-water cooled tubes and so falls to the bottom of the condenser as water. It is then pumped into a tank by means of the air-pump, and from the tank it is pumped back again to the boilers by a feed pump, passing on its way through a filter in order that any oil which may have been gathered in the cylinder may be extracted. It now passes through feed-heaters, where it is heated by exhaust steam from the auxiliary machinery, and so when the condensed water again enters the boiler it is almost at boiling point.

The advantage of this triple-expansion was found to give greater speed with less expenditure of horse-power. At first the City of Paris was not as fast as she ought to have been, but after the A-shaped brackets, which supported the two shafts, were removed and, instead, the hull at the stern was, so to speak, bulged out to contain the shafts, her speed was found to be 19 knots with an employment of 2,000 horse-power less than she had needed before this alteration.

The City of Paris had made her appearance in 1888, but in the following year it was the White Star Line’s turn to come to the front again. From 1873 till 1884 their fleet had been the fastest on the Atlantic; and now again they were ready to enter the lists. Sir Edward Harland was once more entrusted with the task of designing the new ships, and those two beautiful creatures the Teutonic and Majestic were launched, the former in January and the latter in June of 1889. The Majestic is illustrated opposite page 162, but this view shows her as she was afterwards altered and appears now. When these ships first commenced to run they were both fitted with three pole-masts with a gaff on each; but following the custom now adopted on many modern liners, one of the masts and all the gaffs have since been removed. It will be seen that a modified turtle-deck is still retained at the stern, and in one other respect this ship also continued the influence of the first Oceanic. It will be recollected that the latter possessed the enormous proportion of ten beams to her length. The Teutonic measured 582 feet long and 57·8 feet broad, so that she is only a few feet lacking in this respect. Her gross tonnage is 9,984, and her indicated horse-power 18,000. The Majestic broke the record by crossing from Queenstown to New York in five days eighteen hours eight minutes; the Teutonic by doing the same journey in five days sixteen hours thirty-one minutes. If called upon, these ships could steam from Portsmouth to Bombay via the Cape of Good Hope, a distance of over 10,000 miles, in twenty-two days without having to coal on the way, a fact that might have some importance in the event of war breaking out.

In these two ships was also introduced the practice of overlapping the twin-screws, and in order that they might be able to clear the deadwood at the extreme end of the stern, a hole—technically called a “screw port”—was made after the manner in which a “port” is left for the screw to revolve when a vessel is provided only with a single propeller. The advantage in the case of the twin-screws was that they were allowed plenty of water for their propellers to revolve in. The advantage of the screws overlapping tended also to enable them to work in a manner as near as possible to the centre line of the hull.

The introduction of the twin-screw system was made in the Orient liner Ophir (see opposite page 166), which was built in 1891. Each of her four decks is of steel, and she was given the triple-expansion engines in two sets—one set for each propeller. She was the first vessel on the Australian route to be fitted with twin-screws, but many others have since followed and proved the wisdom of this innovation. Her propellers are made of manganese bronze, with three blades each, and give her a speed of between 18 and 19 knots. It will be recollected that it was this ship which was selected to carry the present King and Queen on their tour of the British Colonies in 1901.

The ceaseless competition in the Atlantic steamship progress continued without abatement, and by now the Cunard Line was ready again to fight for the lead. In September of 1892 the Campania was launched, and was followed in the next February by the Lucania. Since their length was greater than the width of the Clyde, where they were built, they had to be launched into the river diagonally. They were, of course, fitted with twin-screws and with triple-expansion engines, there being five cylinders, of which two are high-pressure, one intermediate, and two low-pressure. We do not intend to weary the reader with a list of statistics which can easily be obtained by those to whom bare figures make their appeal; our purpose is served if we show in what important detail each successive vessel advanced the history of the steamship so as to approach more nearly to what is considered the ideal by modern experts. But we shall be shirking our duty if we do not indicate some of the main characteristics which gave to such a craft as the Campania a distinctiveness that distinguished her and her sister the Lucania from her contemporaries. One greatly improved liner nowadays so quickly surpasses her predecessor; the age of obsolescence now moves at so greatly quickened a speed; that the general public, whose memory is also so short-lived, scarcely has time to appreciate all that the latest steamship means ere it has passed quietly from service and been handed over to the ship-breakers, or, under a new flag and a changed name, continues its work at some remote corner of the world.

Those who remember seeing the Campania lying in the Mersey soon after she was commissioned, and with their minds full of the hitherto unparalleled features which had been foretold concerning her, will recollect that the first impression conveyed was identical with that made on seeing the Mauretania immediately after she had left the builders’ hands. Not so much size but gracefulness; not the characteristics of a floating monster, but of a singularly beautiful creature whose every line suggested dignity with speed were the points that attracted one.

Handsome is as handsome does; these two sisters, one of which is no more, were not long in showing that their achievements were not belied by their good looks. In appearance less like “the biggest things afloat” than the most symmetrical colossal yacht, the Campania was built for business, and not primarily to be a thing of beauty. She has made the run between Queenstown and New York in 5½ days, and ocean travellers soon appreciated the important fact that in getting from one country to the other she had a reputation for regularity that would be hard to beat, irrespective of winter and summer weather. The Campania is slightly larger than her late sister, and has averaged just under 22 knots for a whole year’s east-bound voyages. The engines of these elegant ships were arranged in the manner already indicated so as to avoid having unnecessarily large cylinders, the two high-pressure cylinders driving one crank, being arranged tandem fashion, the intermediate cylinder driving one crank, whilst the two low-pressure were also put the one above the other like the high-pressure, and by an ingenious contrivance it is possible to prevent the screws racing; for when the number of revolutions begins to exceed its proper limit the supply of steam is automatically cut off.

In order to render these boats less likely to roll in a sea-way, they were fitted with bilge-keels. They have, too, since been provided with wireless telegraph gear, whose aerials stretch from one mast to the other, and connect with the Marconi cabin, and the up-to-date system of submarine signalling is also installed, so that in case of thick weather the sound waves transmitted from submerged bells on lightships outside Liverpool or New York may be conveyed to the ship herself below the waterline, and so by means of a telephone up to the officer on duty in the navigating room.

These two ships also marked another advance in method of building, for the steel plates from which their sides were made were of unprecedented size, and thus it is obvious that the number of rivets was considerably smaller. Opposite page 170 we give an illustration of the Lucania under way, and by comparing her with the earlier Atlantic liners, a fair idea will be obtained of the trend of steamship evolution. It will be noticed that the Oceanic turtle deck has gone, for the reason that since the stern had now become at such a height from the water it was hardly necessary. The topmost deck of the Lucania is the shade deck, and the one immediately below it the promenade deck; it should be noted that these two are not really part of the structure of the ship herself, but platforms superadded in much the same way as in a vastly different type of craft, the Viking ship, which, when it began to enter its transition state, had fighting platforms erected both at bow and stern so as to accommodate her men. The Campania measures 600 feet (between perpendiculars), with a beam of 65 feet 3 inches, and displaces nearly 20,000 tons. It was only in the early months of 1910 that the Lucania, her sister, after being on fire and compelled for that reason to be flooded with water, was sold out of the Cunard Company’s service.

We come now to consider the entering of fierce competition from a quarter that hitherto had not affected the development of the modern liner. We have seen that in spite of the efforts which America had put forth from time to time, the pride of the Atlantic Ocean had been British ultimately. The American-subsidised Collins Line had in the end to bow its head and yield, nor has the reorganised Inman Line (now the American Line) been a dangerous competitor in the matter of record passages. At different times first one British line of steamships pushed itself to the front, to be in turn ousted by its rival; and so the evolution of the steamship profited. But now it was to be not Britain, nor America, but Germany, which was to make a bold bid for the commercial sovereignty of Atlantic speed. Few phenomena are more notable within recent years than the sudden rise of Germany as a world power. In the realm of steamships there has been scarcely any parallel to the rapid development which that nation exhibited, so that within a remarkably short space of time she became able not merely to build her own ships, but of a size that had been exceeded only by the Great Eastern, and with a speed that no liner of any sort or of any nationality had ever yet attained. It is fitting, therefore, to give here a brief sketch of the manner in which this new competition originated, for to this undoubtedly is due the coming of the mammoth ships represented by the Mauretania and Lusitania. In the future this is the direction from which the quickening factor will come, as formerly it used to come from internal steamship organisations.

Modern German ship-building, like her other industries, dates only from the close of the Franco-Prussian War, and the birth of a united Empire. At the same time wood had already given way to iron, and a new era had begun in the making of ships. Great Britain possessed the exclusive confidence of shipping owners, and, speaking generally, if Germany wanted a large ocean carrier built, she had to send her order across the North Sea, although steadily and gradually her national shipbuilding yards were growing up. But her designers and shipwrights lacked the knowledge which the British, through long years of experience, possessed. Since, however, the Germans were determined to engage in overseas trade, they had to obtain steamships, and these were made frequently on the Clyde, where so many other fine ships had first been seen.

But from the early ’eighties a new order of things began, and the Norddeutscher Lloyd commissioned a German firm to build the first Imperial mail steamers, which were also the first passenger steamers of large dimensions that the new Empire had yet constructed. Up till then Germany had built only two large passenger steamers, the displacement of each not exceeding 3,500 tons. The first German express steamer for the Norddeutscher Lloyd Company had been the Elbe, which was built at Glasgow, and began service in 1881, her tonnage being 4,510. During the ’eighties, spurred on by the competition which British steamships were arousing, the Germans endeavoured to build for themselves vessels of considerable proportions and send them on their long voyages. It is when we come to the ’nineties that we find the North German Lloyd Company entirely reorganising its fleet, scrapping the older-fashioned members, and, incited by the success which the Campania and Lucania had obtained, determined to produce from German yards such an express steamer as should surpass both of the Cunard vessels. In 1897, therefore, was built by the Stettin Vulcan Company the famous Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse—of which a striking illustration will be seen facing this page. She was longer, wider, deeper and of greater displacement than the Campania, but her horse-power was inferior to the Cunarder’s by 2,000. Nevertheless, the German outstripped the performances of the Campania and Lucania by attaining a mean speed of 22·81 knots, although her designed speed had only been 22·5 knots, and thus for the first time in the history of the steamship, the “blue ribbon” of the Atlantic passed over to Germany. Like the Cunard ships, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was installed with two sets of triple-expansion engines, and it had been expressly agreed between the Norddeutscher Company on the one hand, and the Vulcan Company on the other, that the ship was first to run a trial trip across the Atlantic to New York, and, if during this she did not come up to the requirements of the contract, then the Norddeutscher Lloyd were to be free to reject the ship. Such a condition as this was as severe as could ever be invented by any steamship line. However, she not merely came up to specifications, but even surpassed them, and remains one of the most efficient liners traversing the North Atlantic.

This steamship was built with flaring bows so as to increase her buoyancy forward, and is propelled by twin-screws. Another instance of the advantages which the latter possess as a means of ensuring the safety of the ship was exhibited as recently as October, 1907. Whilst coming across the Atlantic in that month the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse chanced to fracture her rudder. The weather was bad, and it was blowing a gale, but her skipper instead of running for the nearest port, which was Halifax, distant about 700 miles, brought her home safe and sound to Bremerhaven, another 2,300 miles, calling at Plymouth on the way. By means of the twin-screws the ship could be manœuvred quite independently of the steering gear. The measurements of this ship are as follows: length over all, 648 feet 7 inches; beam, 66 feet; moulded depth, 43 feet; gross tonnage, 14,349; indicated horse-power, 28,000.

The British reply to the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse came not in speed but in size, for it is not always realised how costly it is to get an extra knot or two out of a big steamship, and that such an attainment is out of all proportion to the expense which this has involved. At high speeds the resistance of the ship, of which we have already said something, increases far more rapidly than it does when the speed through the water is slow or even moderately fast. When a ship reaches the speed of 20 knots the influential factor of wave-making comes in prominently. Furthermore, in order to coax an extra knot or two out of the ship, you must needs increase her weight and usurp a very serious amount of space by larger engines and boilers. Therefore, the answer to the German attack was seen in the comparatively slow White Star Oceanic, the second steamship of that name sailing under the same flag. This modern ship was the first vessel which exceeded the length of the Great Eastern, and is about 13 feet longer, though about 14½ feet narrower than Brunel’s craft. True to the White Star type, the latest Oceanic is ten beams, and even more, to her length, her measurements being 705 feet long over all, 68·4 feet wide, a draught of 32½ feet, and the terrific displacement of 28,500 tons, that of the Great Eastern having been 32,000. Like the other great Atlantic liners since the City of Paris, this Oceanic was fitted with two sets of triple-expansion engines driving twin-screws; she began her voyaging at the end of 1899. As will be seen from the accompanying photograph, in spite of her magnitude, she is so beautifully designed that there is nothing in the least out of perfect proportion. Some idea of the number of tiers possessed by the Oceanic, rising high above the water, may be gathered if we enumerate them singly. Looking at the illustration, and beginning from the top, there is the captain’s bridge towering 43 feet above the sea. Eight feet below comes the boat deck, and below that the promenade deck, and lower still the upper deck. Then the first line of port-holes shows the extent of the middle deck, and the next line the lower deck. In addition to these five decks which stretch from one end of the ship to the other there are two partial decks, the orlop and lower orlop respectively. Like other modern steamships, the Oceanic has a double bottom, sub-divided into so many cells. She has been built with the intention of being used, if necessary, as an auxiliary cruiser, and was designed with the necessary additional strength. Keeping up an average speed at sea of about 20 knots, this great ship is not compelled to drive headlong into whatever weather may be waiting for her. The absence of extra powerful engines also means the absence of that unpleasant vibration which is not unknown to some of the “flyers” that tear across the ocean in a hurry to get their passengers and mails to port. It will be noticed on examining this illustration that, unlike the case of her namesake, the turtle decks have disappeared altogether, the reason being, as already pointed out, that the hull is so high above the water as not to need these. In spite of her great length, the Oceanic is not so unhandy as she might seem. Her forefoot is well cut-away, and this, in addition to the proper employment of her twin-screws, enables her to be manœuvred with a facility that is a little surprising.

The Cunard Company resting content with the performances of their express steamers Campania and Lucania, still left the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse to maintain the reputation for pace, and, following the example of the White Star Line, built in the Ivernia and Saxonia a couple of steamships of great size but comparatively moderate speed. The Ivernia is two feet shorter than the Majestic, but her gross tonnage comes out at 14,027, making her in this respect but little inferior to the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, though superior to the latter in displacement tonnage. The Ivernia’s speed averages about 15¼ knots; she came into being in 1899. These vessels belong to a class of steamship which has grown up under the title of “intermediate,” its origin being based on the assumption that a comfortable, economical, moderately fast type of ship would be able to find appreciation no less than the high-powered ships. Both the Ivernia and Saxonia have considerable capacities for cargo as well as passengers, and are characterised by their exceptionally low coal consumption. They are single-funnelled boats, and engaged on the Liverpool-Boston route. But the Ivernia was the first of the Atlantic liners to break away from the triple-expansion system and to be installed with the more modern quadruple-expansion type of engine. This being the same principle as the triple-expansion pushed one stage further, using four instead of three cylinders, we need not stop to explain what is already clear in the mind of the reader.

Two other of these “Intermediates” were added to the White Star Line in 1901 and 1903 respectively. These are the Celtic and Cedric, and a photograph of the latter will be seen opposite page 176. Only in regard to speed have these handsome vessels the slightest right to be designated “intermediate.” They both possess a tonnage about twice that of the City of Paris, for the Celtic is 20,880, and the Cedric 21,034 tons, and the speed of each is 16 knots. Speed is not the main consideration to those who have the slightest affection for ships and the sea. The beautiful motion of the Cedric, for instance, in a winter’s Atlantic gale, rolling and pitching in a manner just enough to show she is a living ship and not a dull, lifeless steel box, pursuing her way with boldness and dignity, caring little for the great waves mounting up astern, is a delight that lives long in one’s memory. She has no need to break her neck hurrying and scurrying, trying to become a large-sized submarine; she prefers to go over the sea rather than through it, and this with a movement that is comparable to that of a well-bred lady gliding along smoothly and with dignity.

From the owners’ point of view these are economical ships to run, for with 16 knots the coal consumption is very moderate, whilst at the same time their size enables them to carry large numbers of passengers and considerable quantities of cargo. As evidence of the remarkable evolution in type, I would ask the reader to compare the accompanying illustration of the Cedric with that of the Great Eastern. Both are of about the same length, although the latter was about 8 feet wider, and at the time of her launch the Cedric was the largest ship of any kind that had hitherto been constructed. Another “intermediate,” the Arabic, followed in the same year, possessing the same speed of 16 knots, but a tonnage only of 15,801. This is one of the vessels employed on the Liverpool-New York route, the Southampton-New York White Star service being supplied by the Adriatic (to which I shall refer presently), together with the Oceanic, the Majestic and the Teutonic.

The German success in the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was now to be followed up by a still more wonderful achievement in the Kaiser Wilhelm II., a photograph of which is here reproduced. Her coming in 1903 caused a sensation in the shipping world, for she represented not merely the extraordinary capabilities which the German shipbuilders had already attained, but was superior in speed not only to all the British steamships, but to her own sister, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. Two and a half feet longer than the Oceanic, about 4 feet wider, but with 5 feet less depth, she was, like the Ivernia, fitted with two sets of quadruple-expansion engines to drive her twin-screws. Her gross tonnage exceeded that of the Oceanic and the Great Eastern as well, and with a speed of 23½ knots was a knot faster than the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. This vessel and the Hamburg-American liner Deutschland were able to give to Germany the proud possession of the fastest liners in the world until the Lusitania arrived on the scene. The Kaiser Wilhelm II.’s best day’s run is 583 knots, and she has maintained an average speed from New York to Plymouth of 23·58 knots. To obtain this the phenomenal amount of 45,000 horse-power has to be developed by means of a double set of quadruple-expansion engines—two for each propeller shaft—necessitating sixteen cylinders, steam being generated from nineteen boilers fired by no fewer than 124 furnaces. But no one could assert that such a ship as this is economical to run, for although her speed is only one knot faster than the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, yet each day she burns about another 200 tons of coal in doing it, and supposing we were to take the cost of fuel at 20s. a ton, we can easily see that each Atlantic voyage means an extra expense of much more than £1,000.

Now, since the steamship is run for the purpose of making money, it is essential that over-seas trade should not show any signs of lagging; otherwise it becomes commercially impossible to run these fast ships from one continent to the other. The craze for speed is one that may go on and on for just such a time as the financial support continues; but as soon as a diminution in trade sets in, and with it a falling-off in revenue, this wild, reckless race for speed-supremacy must automatically cease. At present it is but a reflection of the restless activity on shore. May the time not come when rest and simplicity will again replace excessive strenuousness and restore to the Atlantic something of its plain expansiveness, and take back the character which it has now developed as being merely a race-track for ocean greyhounds? However much designers, shipbuilders and engineers may conspire together; whatever inventions man in his brilliant efforts may succeed in bringing about, the solid fact remains that Nature is superior in force to all these. The winds will blow and the great seas will roll up against all the mighty ships man may build. Among the gifts to humanity there is not included that of taming the sea. She is tyrannical in her strength, untamable, dominant; and when you launch into her bosom heavy masses of iron or steel, and deceive yourself with high-sounding names—call them Great Easterns, Majestics, Indomitables, Titanics, and the rest—the Sea only laughs at you, for she knows perfectly well that a blow or two from her mighty arm will end their days and settle their fate for all time. To fight against Nature is to contend against heavy odds, to engage in a contest whose result is known long beforehand; and the most that man can ever do is make a truce with his superior foe, so that he may be able to rush across her expanse much as he would hurry past the open cage of a tigress. For that reason speed is appreciated by some as the greatest weapon which was ever given to the ship, but even then it cannot terrify a much mightier power. In spite of wireless gear, submarine bells, navigational science, expert seamanship, perfect ship-building and design, well-found ships still put to sea and disappear presently never to be seen again. The case of the Waratah is not an isolated incident, but an example of the universal law that human achievement in comparison with the eternal sovereignty of the Sea must take only a second place, and learn to obey, when bidden, a power of far older, far superior strength.