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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:—

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.