We have been enabled to gain some idea by now both of the nature and the historical evolution of the steamship liner. But not all steamships are liners, any more than all cattle are race-horses. Steamship is a word which covers a multitude of varying craft and embraces a large family of different natured children. Some of them go out into the world far beyond the horizon and vanish until a few weeks or months later they come returning homewards proud of their achievements as the safe carriers of mails and passengers. But there are other members of the same family whose duty keeps them close to the home where they first saw the light; who rarely venture out of sight of land. There are others who, though they never carry any passengers but their crew, nor an ounce of cargo, are yet as useful to the human race as those great speed-makers which go rushing through night and day across the ocean. Some of these steamships used for special purposes have a character of their own no less distinctive than their more elegant sisters, and the mere fact that they are not so violently advertised, or so prominently pushed before the eyes of the average citizen, detracts nothing from their interesting virtues. Nor, again, do we wish to give the impression that this large class of special steamships is in any way entirely confined to coasting or inland voyages. The steamship nowadays, both large and small, goes everywhere, and is ready to do almost anything, and one of the most interesting of all mechanically-propelled craft is the tug-boat, which it is quite possible the landsman, promenading his floating hotel, may have barely deigned to cast his eyes upon as his big steel home is being drawn out from the quay, or landing-stage, and swung round on her way to the other side of the world. How frequently indispensable is the tug to the big steamship, both when entering and leaving the comparatively narrow harbours! You see her at Southampton, for instance, pulling the great steel hull away from the quay; you see her at Liverpool hauling ahead to get the mighty, towering bows of the liner clear of the landing-stage out into the river. You see them in New York when the mammoth comes to enter the narrow opening alongside the pier, pressing their noses on to the mammoth’s stern and compelling her giant dimensions to move round. Or, again, you see the tug towing her overgrown sister through the dock at the end of her voyage, coming slowly in as if she had captured one mightier than herself, and was proudly conscious of her performance. Yet it is not only the big steamships, but those beautiful modern steel sailing ships which have to employ her help. You meet them down Channel somewhere with perhaps only staysails and jigger set and a powerful tug ahead at the end of a strong tow-rope. In a day or so they will have parted company. The tug will return whence she set out; the bigger ship will spread her canvas and begin her many-monthed voyage.

It is possible that if you were not a sailorman, and your eyes chanced to fall upon such a ship as that illustrated opposite this page, whether in harbour or at sea, you might feel no more interest in her than in any other craft. And yet this is a little vessel which can go anywhere and tow almost anything from a great floating dock to a disabled liner. Her name is the Blackcock, and she is one of the famous, powerful tugs owned by the Liverpool Screw Towing and Lighterage Company. Captain G. B. Girard, who commands the Blackcock, has been aptly termed the “Grand Old Man” of deep-sea towing, and during the last quarter of a century has covered 200,000 miles over the seas at this work. Quite recently he took the Blackcock to Fayal in mid-Atlantic to fetch over to Oporto a dismasted Portuguese barque. In spite of stiff breezes and heavy cross seas, the Blackcock and her tow made an average of 160 miles per day. It was this same tug which set up an interesting record some years ago by steaming 2,600 miles from Barbados to Fayal without having to stop for coal anywhere. She was towing a 2,000-ton German ship, named the Ostara, from Barbados to Hamburg, a distance of 5,000 miles altogether. In 1894, the Gamecock, a sister of this tug, towed a disabled steamer from Port Said to Liverpool, a distance of 3,300 miles, in twenty-seven days. The Blackcock took an important part in towing from Fayal to Liverpool the Cunard liner Etruria, which had been disabled, and caused the greatest anxiety in consequence of her being lost sight of for so long a period with hundreds of passengers aboard at the time. This towing voyage represented a distance of a couple of thousand miles, and there are many other equally wonderful incidents connected with these well-known “Cock” tugs. If the reader will bear in mind what we said some time back with reference to the origin of the bridge deck, he will be able to see the point well-illustrated in the illustration before us. The bridge deck and its sides are joined to the ship’s hull in such a way that in the case of the tug being attacked by a cross-sea she is not likely to founder through the water getting down below to the engines, as in the sad incident that we chronicled at an earlier stage. These tug-boats are necessarily exceptionally powerful, the Blackcock having over 1,000 horse-power.

But it is the Dutch, for some reason or other, who have specialised more than any other country in the towing industry, and they own the largest and finest tugs in the world. The reason for this national development I attribute partly to the nature of the coastline between Germany and France, with its series of nasty sandbanks and shoals always ready to pick a ship up; partly, also, to the numerous straightways with frequently a foul wind. In either case there is plenty of opportunity for the tug to go out and earn a living.

The finest fleet of ocean-going tugs is owned by Messrs. L. Smit and Company, of Rotterdam. Besides about a score of river and harbour craft, they have no fewer than ten bold ocean-tugs, which by reason of their high power and large bunker capacity are enabled to undertake towages to almost any part of the world. When the Mauretania left the Tyne for her trial trip this company’s tugs, the Ocean and the Poolzee, had her in tow at the bows. Tugs of this line have also accomplished such interesting long voyages as towing floating dry-docks from the Tyne to Trinidad; an obsolete Spanish warship from Ferrol to Swinemünde; the s.s. Kronprinzessin Victoria from Las Palmas to Antwerp, after the liner had lost her propeller. When the old Inman liner City of Rome was put aside, she was towed by the tug Zwarte Zee from Greenock round to the Weser. The illustration facing this page shows the tugs Roode Zee and the Zwarte Zee taking in tow an enormous floating dock, capable of holding vessels up to 7,000 tons, from Wallsend on Tyne to Callao (Peru). To tow so unwieldy a thing as this for any distance at all is a pretty severe tax on a tug; but to take it all the way to Peru on the west coast of South America is about the utmost test which the most severe critic could ever impose. The distance is 10,260 nautical miles. One of the largest and most modern of this line’s tugs is the Zwarte Zee, which was launched in 1906. She resembles very closely the Roode Zee, seen in the foreground of the accompanying picture, and measures 164 feet long, 30 feet wide, 18 feet deep, and has the extraordinary high horse-power (indicated) of 1,500. It will be noticed that, like the Blackcock, she is well protected by her bridge deck amidships.

The sturdy little vessel illustrated opposite page 238 shows the salvage tug Admiral de Ruyter. She is owned by the Ymuiden Tug Company, Amsterdam, and is stationed at Ymuiden in readiness to render assistance to vessels in distress off the treacherous Dutch coast. She is capable of facing any weather, and her high bows and bold sheer enable her to keep fairly dry in even a pretty bad sea. An interesting comparison will be seen between this and the Edmund Moran. This represents a typical New York harbour and river tug. No one who has ever come into the American sea-port can have failed to have been struck instantly by the numbers of fussy little tug-boats of a peculiar type that come running up and down the Hudson and across from the New Jersey shore to the great city. Their prominent features include a good deal of sheer, an exaggerated bridge deck with wheel-house in front, at the top of which is usually a golden spread-eagle. In the winter-time, when thick ice-floes obstruct the Hudson and the bitter cold penetrates into the little wheel-house, there are more comfortable though less exciting avocations than those enjoyed by the commanders of these busy steam craft, which now carry on their work in such numbers where little more than a century ago Fulton’s Clermont was scorned and ridiculed by those who never thought that the river and harbour would ever see such steam-shipping.

But the tug-boat has in some cases been enlarged, and super-imposed by a promenade deck, and even given a saloon so as to become a passenger tender. The illustration opposite page 234, for instance, shows this evolution. This is the Sir Francis Drake, one of the passenger tenders owned by the Great Western Railway Company, and, since the opening of Fishguard Harbour for the calling of Atlantic liners, this vessel has been employed for landing the Mauretania’s and other great ships’ passengers without wasting time. The liner comes into harbour from America, lets go her anchor, and immediately after there come alongside her three of these tenders. One takes the mails as they are shot on to her deck, another receives the baggage, while the third is used for passengers; this third tender is also the last to leave the liner, so that when the passengers get ashore they find their baggage already awaiting them at the Customs platform. In the olden days the tug was a wheezy old lady lacking the smallest attempt at smartness, and exceedingly slow. Her hull was of wood and clinker built, her paddle-wheels gave to her a very moderate speed, and her accommodation was chiefly non-existent. But to-day, as the Sir Francis Drake shows, she has developed in some cases into practically an Atlantic liner in miniature.

But although the screw-propeller has ousted the paddle-wheel in very many instances, yet this has been by no means universal. The advantage which the older method possesses is that it can work in less water than the screw needs for its revolutions. In certain harbours, for instance, and shallow rivers—especially in those extreme cases where it is weedy—the paddle-wheel steamer is still pursuing its useful work. It is therefore not unnatural that the tug should in many cases be paddle-driven. The illustration facing page 240 shows one of these paddle-tugs of a fairly modern date. She is owned by the British Admiralty. The Dromedary, as she is called, is well known among the Portsmouth craft, and just as the tug is employed for helping liners out of port, so the Admiralty use the Dromedary for assisting such leviathans as the modern Dreadnoughts out of Portsmouth harbour, and rendering assistance in berthing in a harbour where the tides are very strong and the water is considerably crowded.

We referred in a preceding chapter to the serious difficulty which, owing to the gradual increase of the modern steamships, is felt in certain ports. New York harbour had to be dredged before it could accommodate the Mauretania and Lusitania with safety. Liverpool’s depth of water is such that the two Cunarders can only enter during twelve hours out of the twenty-four. Fishguard has had to be dredged, whilst Southampton has been, and will need it again. In a smaller degree most ports need constant dredging, otherwise local conditions combine to silt up the navigation channel. Now all this is carried out by specially designed steamships, which, like other vessels, have gradually been increasing to enormous sizes. We might divide dredgers into two classes—the “bucket” dredger, and the “suction” dredger. The illustration facing page 240 gives an excellent idea of the former. This is the Peluse, the largest sea-going bucket-dredger in the world. She was built by Messrs. Lobnitz and Company, Limited, of Renfrew, for employment on the Suez Canal.

There is nothing in the least beautiful about this type of steamship. Ugly to look upon, splashed all over with mud and sand, covered with machinery and unsightly erections, they are sisters of toil to the ships of beauty. They “bring up” in a harbour or channel, and set their series of buckets dredging away to increase the depth. These buckets are readily seen coming down from a height in the centre of the ship. They are revolved by an endless chain, and the ship is cut open longitudinally to allow them to work.

It will be noticed that since the rudder, if placed in its accustomed place in the centre line of the hull, would be in the way, it has been duplicated and placed on either side of the stern. After the dredger has taken aboard her full cargo of mud from the sea-bottom she proceeds to the deep sea, and there discharges her contents through doors placed in the bottom of the hull, though sometimes she may discharge the mud into barges brought alongside. It will be seen that the Peluse has been very efficiently protected against any damage which might be inflicted by another vessel coming alongside her. These vessels are given very powerful machinery, which drives both the propellers and the dredging apparatus, an arrangement allowing the latter to be connected with the main engines. The most modern example of this type has triple-expansion engines and twin-screws, so that she is entitled to more respect than her unwelcome appearance might suggest.

The suction-dredger, on the other hand, as its name signifies, does not scoop up the sand, but sucks it up into her holds through pipes which reach down to the bed of the river or estuary. The largest of these is well-named, and is illustrated opposite page 242. This represents the Leviathan, which is owned by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, Liverpool, and it is through her work that the river is able to be maintained in a navigable condition. This voracious animal sucks up sand at the rate of 10,000 tons in less than an hour, by means of centrifugal pumps, and when loaded with this heavy cargo steams out to sea at a speed of ten knots, and then by means of doors discharges the sand through her bottom. The doors are worked by means of hydraulic machinery. She herself is propelled by four sets of triple-expansion engines, which also work the centrifugal pumps. We can get some idea of the size of this dredger when we remark that her enormous length of 500 feet makes her as long as the Etruria.

The owners of the Leviathan are also the proprietors of the ship shown in our next illustration. This, the Vigilant, is seen alongside the crane in the Herculaneum Dock, Liverpool. The Dock and Harbour Boards are practically local Trinity House brethren, though totally independent bodies. Just as the Trinity House authorities have the upkeep of the light-houses and lightships round the English coast, so the Dock and Harbour Boards are charged with the duties of keeping the local buoyage in efficient order for ensuring safe navigation into and out of their ports and estuaries. Gas buoys have to be refilled periodically, moorings have to be laid down afresh, and, in the case of damage, replaced. Periodically these have, in any case, to be brought ashore to be overhauled, repainted and then returned to their duties, bobbing about to the ceaseless heave of the waves. For such work as this the Vigilant is employed. The illustration shows a gas buoy being lowered on to her deck from the quay. Not very long ago an out-going steamship from Liverpool fouled one of the Mersey buoys in a curious manner. She was proceeding in such close proximity to the latter that she actually caught her propeller in one of the mooring chains, with, as may be expected, consequent damage.

The introduction of electricity and the invention of the telegraph caused a new sphere of work for the steamship. For connecting land to land across the sea, cables had to be laid, and for this purpose it was thought at one time that any very large steamship would suffice. It will be recollected that the unhappy Great Eastern was thus employed after she had given up running as an Atlantic passenger ship. Then presently it was shown to be advisable to use specially designed ships for this purpose. The illustration facing page 244 shows an interesting little model of one of the older craft thus employed, the telegraph steamer Monarch, a schooner-rigged, iron, screw vessel built at Port Glasgow in 1883, for the Telegraph Department of the Post Office. Enormous sheaves are fitted at the bows as fair-leads for the cable to run out or for hauling it in. This particular ship was employed both in laying and repairing submarine cables, and could carry enough fuel and stores for six weeks’ work. She had a displacement of 2,135 tons, and a single propeller driven by compound engines. The bow-sheave will be easily discerned. An earlier telegraph ship was the Medway, launched in 1865, and built originally for the Mediterranean trade, but she was used in the following year to help the Great Eastern in laying the Atlantic cable. She carried the Newfoundland end of the cable after the Great Eastern had gone as near in to shore as she dared. The Medway also carried 500 miles of cable in case the 2,730 miles which the Great Eastern had aboard should prove inadequate. Another converted vessel, the John Bowes, was used in laying the cable from Dover to Ostend, but modern telegraph ships have the dimensions and general appearance of liners. The Silvertown, which was well-known on this work, is still afloat and to be seen in the West India Dock, London. Such modern cable-laying ships as the Faraday are further supplied with platforms which project from the side of the ship at the stern for greater convenience in the work for which these vessels are intended. As much as from three to four thousand sea-miles of telegraph cable can be carried by some of these ships, which, in addition to the bow fair-lead have a similar arrangement at the stern, and are supplied with all necessary grappling apparatus in case a broken cable has to be picked up.

Another special type of steamship is the oil-tanker. Owing to the nature of her cargo a steamship that carries oil is far more liable to disaster through combustion than even a cotton-ship. Oil is carried not in barrels, but in bulk. At one time it used to be carried by sailing ships in barrels, but this meant that a great deal of trouble and space were unnecessarily expended. The first tank steamer was built in 1886 by Sir W. G. Armstrong, Mitchell and Company. Carrying a cargo of petroleum in bulk is obviously a fairly risky proceeding. Firstly, there is the terrible risk of fire, more especially as the ship must have engines and furnaces; but there is also the risk of the oil obtaining a good deal of impetus, unless guarded against, as the ship rolls. It can easily be understood that so considerable a weight moving about in liquid form—a shifting cargo, in fact, of a peculiar type—is likely to cause the gravest anxiety. The illustration facing page 246 will show to what trouble the designers and builders have been put in order to devise a safe oil-carrier. This represents the interior of a modern tank steamer built by Messrs. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company, Limited, by whose courtesy this photograph of a model is here reproduced. First of all, it will be seen that the whole of the engines are placed aft, so as to be away from the dangerous oil. This characteristic, however, has recently been departed from, and in some ships the engines have been placed amidships, as in most steamships. Of this we might instance the s.s. Phœbus, built by Messrs. David J. Dunlop and Company, for the carrying of 9,000 tons of bulk oil. In such cases as these it is essential to insert a long, oil-tight tunnel which encloses the propeller shaft, but the drawback is that it takes up a good deal of valuable space from the ship’s hold. The accompanying illustration shows the holds divided up into a number of separate compartments by means of oil-tight bulkheads, which are further subdivided by a longitudinal bulkhead. But oil possesses the properties of expansion and varies according to the prevailing temperature. It is obvious, therefore, that room must be left for expansion. To meet this, then, a long trunk or slit is left to allow the oil to expand, so that after the ship has filled her holds to the proper height the cargo may yet be allowed to become larger in bulk. The model before us shows slits at the sides at the ’tween deck, so that this expansion may take place. It will be recognised where the ladders lead down to the holds beneath. These vessels carry powerful pumps, the oil being taken on board and discharged by this means. Oil is also employed as the ship’s fuel, and the boiler is kept as far away from the cargo as possible, but in order to counteract the possibility of the oil getting adrift and leaking into the after part of the ship, a separate small compartment is also added, so as more completely to divide the hold from the boiler and engines. This will be easily recognised in the illustration. The other illustration facing page 246 shows a model of the Silverlip, also with her engines placed well aft; but this, with her derricks and her deck-houses, represents a larger and more complex ship.

We come now to a type of steamship, which, by reason of its peculiar construction, is deserving of more than ordinary consideration. Opposite page 248 we give the latest example of this type—the s.s. Inland. The “turret-ship,” as the class is called, is of quite modern origin, and no one can come face to face with her without being instantly struck with her unusual appearance. She owes her birth to Messrs. William Doxford and Sons, Limited, of Sunderland, who are the patentees and builders of this kind of ship. It is needless to say that when this novel class of steamship first appeared in the early ’nineties there was aroused the usual prejudice; indeed, having in mind what has been the experience of other inventors in connection with our subject, the reader could hardly expect otherwise. Firstly, let us consider her with regard to her appearance. It will be seen that she differs from the usual cargo and passenger ship in that her sides tumble right in above the water-line. This forms a kind of half turtle deck, and is known as the harbour deck. But the upper deck of the “turret-ship” is extremely narrow. (This will be seen more easily by reference to the next illustration, which gives a model of the midship section of such a ship.) The harbour deck need not be used except when in port, but it can be employed for stowing long timbers or even iron girders if required. Like the oil-tanker, many of the turret-ships have their engines placed right aft, so that there is a long clear space for stowing the cargo in the hold, an advantage which is especially appreciated in the carrying of certain kinds of cargoes. Just as we saw there was great danger to a ship in the possibility of oil washing about the hull and shifting in a perilous manner, so also there is a danger in such cargoes as rice and grain. With regard to the latter, I remember the case of a big cargo ship which had the misfortune to spring a leak and the water swelled the rice to such an extent that the ship, strong as she was, burst her sides. But in the case of grain the danger is not merely that, but also of shifting. As guarding against this possibility the turret-ship, by reason of her special design, is specially suitable, for any shifting that may take place in the turret matters but little, and whatever shifting may take place in the hold is compensated for by the turret; the cargo can be shot into the hold without needing any trimming. The deck of the “turret” portion will be seen from the illustration facing page 248 to form a navigating platform.

Some of the modern turret-ships are fitted with twelve or fourteen masts arranged in pairs, each pair being across the ship instead of fore-and-aft-wise. These vessels have proved themselves to be excellent sea-boats, and owing to their high freeboard and the harbour deck, which acts as a kind of breakwater, it has to be a very bad sea indeed that will break over the ship. Furthermore, the harbour deck tends to reduce the rolling of the ship, for when one side of the ship heels over so that one harbour deck is under water, the windward side, when it holds a certain amount of water, actually tends to bring the ship back to her level. Moreover, since these decks are unencumbered with obstructions, they can suffer no damage through the wash of the sea. They are also extremely strong ships, for the sides of the turrets increase the strength of the vessel longitudinally, while the curved formation of the harbour deck augments their strength transversely; their simplicity of construction and their adaptability for almost any cargo still further add to their virtues. But from the view-point of the owners the turret-ship is even still more a welcome type of craft, in that since dues are paid on a ship’s registered tonnage the turret-ship is able to carry far more cargo in proportion to her size than most vessels. On a small registered tonnage the turret-ship has an exceptionally large dead-weight capacity, and those parts of her which are liable to be taxed are diminished as far as is possible, whilst at the same time greater space is allowed to the carrying and handling of the cargo. Economically, then, the turret-ship, with her odd shape, her many masts and derricks, is a very advantageous carrier.

A good deal of interest has recently been aroused by the peculiarities of a steamship named the Monitoria, which, though not a turret-ship, is sufficiently out of the ordinary design to warrant special mention. She is just an ordinary single-deck cargo steamer, but instead of the usual wall-sided shell-plating has two longitudinal corrugations along the outside of her hull. These swellings, so to speak, extend below the water-line and gradually merge into the ship’s lines at bow and stern. The claim made for this novelty is that it is effective in reducing the wave-like irregularities, and allows of more power being available for propulsion, whilst it also lessens the rolling and pitching of the ship. The captain of this ship is reported to have said that these corrugations had a beneficial effect on the steering, whilst the wake of the ship was found to be smooth and about half the width instead of the full breadth of the ship. Very interesting as practical comment on a subject that we have treated elsewhere in this volume, is her commander’s remark that whilst in a diagonal sea, which was running at a height of 9 feet or 10 feet, a ship of ordinary form and the same dimensions as the Monitoria would have been safe proceeding at no higher speed than 6 or 6½ knots, yet the Monitoria was safe going ahead at 7¼ to 7½ knots. The corrugations are said also to increase the ship’s buoyancy, and thus admit of three per cent. more cargo being carried, while the hull is more readily able to resist the strains than vessels of ordinary shape. It is probable that this novel principle will be presently exemplified in a first-class liner, and in a foreign cruiser.

Similar to the turret-type is the “trunk-deck” steamer, which possesses like advantages. She resembles in appearance the former type, but instead of the curves (seen in the Inland) at the gunwale and bases of the turret or “trunk,” the sides of the trunk rise from the main deck nearly at right angles, the harbour deck being really a true deck. This kind of ship owes her birth to Messrs. Ropner and Sons, of Stockton-on-Tees. Such vessels afford even more than the turret-ships the appearance of a kind of up-to-date man-of-war, without the guns which one would almost expect to see protruding from behind some of her steel plates. It should be borne in mind that both the turret and the trunk type possess an absence of sheer, for the height of the lofty turret, or trunk, enables this to be dispensed with, while to make up for this lack of sheer from the bows to the stern, the vessel is given a top-gallant forecastle.

When a vessel is carrying her full cargo her stern is sufficiently immersed to prevent her propeller from racing badly in a heavy sea. But when she is making a voyage “light” there is great danger of damage to the ship through the fracturing of the propeller shaft as the ship dips her bows and raises her tail in the air. Everyone who has had experience of handling small craft of any kind is aware that the lower the ballast is placed the more the ship will roll. In an extreme case, when all the ballast is placed outside the ship on to her keel, the motion in a sea-way is more like that of the pendulum than anything else. The method which we are now about to discuss allows of water-ballast tanks being placed sufficiently high at the “wings” to counteract this rolling. Opposite page 250 will be seen two illustrations of the patent cantilever-framed steamers which are built by Messrs. Sir Raylton Dixon and Company, Limited, of Middlesbrough, through whose courtesy the photographs are reproduced. By examining them it will be seen that water-ballast can be carried not only in the usual tank at the bottom of the ship, but in the wing tanks at the sides of the ship, and at such a height that when the ship is crossing the ocean without cargo, she will have an easy motion.

The lower illustration shows a section of one of these cantilever ships, and the water-ballast tanks, above which is a shelter deck that in the case of a passenger ship can be used as a promenade, or can accommodate live cargo in cattle-ships. It will be noticed that the ship’s frames are bent inwards, and that these, together with the vertical sides of the hull, form the triangular spaces for the tanks. Now these tanks run fore and aft on both sides and increase the strength of the ship, not merely longitudinally, but transversely. Owing to this the necessity of adding such obstructions to the hold as pillars and beams vanishes, and as will be seen in the illustrations, the hold is thus free and unencumbered for all manner of cargo. It is further claimed for this cantilever craft that she can carry a dead-weight more than three times the net register, and since these tanks are not reckoned into the tonnage they increase the safety and comfort of the ship without detracting from her utility. The reader will also notice in the upper picture to what an enormous extent the modern steamship is now being fitted with extra derricks, with a cross-piece up the mast to take the strain involved in working the latter.

As the reverse of being specially adapted for a particular service, the steam tramp is built so that she can readily engage in almost any carrying trade. Unlike the liner with her fixed routes and set times of departure and arrival, the tramp is a nomad, and wanders over the world picking up a cargo here and there, and taking it across the ocean at her economical but jog-trot speed. If there is nothing for her to pick up at the last port of call she betakes herself elsewhere with the hope of better luck. Her main income is derived as a coal-carrier, and for this she is quite suited. But the modern collier—the kind of ship which is expressly built for the coal trade—is fitted with numbers of steam winches in keeping with the modern feverish haste and hurry, so that no sooner has she come alongside than she may instantly begin to unload. In old-fashioned times the discharging was done from the shore, but nowadays the up-to-date turret-ship makes short work of handling her black diamonds. Special appliances are also provided for those steamships which bring over the seas vast quantities of New Zealand mutton, fruit, and other perishable articles of food. Elaborate refrigerating machinery has to be installed in the ship, and special means employed to facilitate the disembarking of the cargo, especially in the case of the former.

To a still more exceptional purpose has the steamship been adapted in order to act as an ice-breaker and give liberty to those ships which, in certain parts of the world, have, with the approach of winter, been compelled to enter a lengthy imprisonment. Such localities are found in both Canada and Russia. Thanks to the ice-breaker steamship it has been made possible to keep open the Baltic ports with a passage of sufficient width. Constructed of a strength which is possessed by no other vessel than a man-of-war, the ice-breaker attacks the frozen masses as a battleship used to ram her foe. She goes for the ship’s enemy with her curved bow, and wages war with all the ability which the ship-builder and naval architect have given her. Her bow is specially strengthened to suffer the force of the contact with the heavy ice masses, and the lines of the hull are such that the ice in its endeavour to crush the ship finds difficulty in getting a good grip upon it. Nevertheless, these ships are fitted with numerous water-tight compartments. Their means of propulsion are, of course, screws.

Similarly, across the North Atlantic, the steamship on the Great Lakes, where for one third of the year the water is frozen, has to battle with the ice-fiend. Ordinary steamers have to be laid aside, but the train-ferry steamship still goes on with her work, being specially designed to break through the impeding ice. As in the Russian ice-breakers, so here the principle employed is that the ship shall forge her way unto the ice, and by means of her overhanging bow, and its weight, shall break through the obstruction.

Across the wide harbour of New York the steamship train ferries, carrying rolling stock run aboard by lines, are employed to an extent that is strange in comparison with English customs, although the idea is not new to the Mersey, and the evergreen scheme of instituting a ferry of this nature across the English Channel to France, so that international travellers can go from Charing Cross to the other end of the world without having to change their compartments, is still advocated with enthusiasm.

We pass now to another type of steamship, which is endowed with as much distinctive character as the steam tug. The steam trawler may not be as smart as a steam yacht nor as fast as a torpedo destroyer; yet, for all that, she is able to encounter as bad weather and—size for size—is perhaps a good deal better sea-boat. In the North Sea, which has been the favourite cruising ground of the steam trawler, there is to be encountered as nasty and dangerous a short sea as can be found, perhaps, in any other part of the world. In all weathers, and at all times of the year, the trawler has to go about her business, and the comparatively few disasters that overtake her is a credit at once to the seamanship of her skipper and the seaworthiness of the little ship herself. Opposite this page we show a photograph of a typical North Sea steam trawler. This is the Orontes of Hull, built in 1895, of iron, by Messrs. Cochrane and Sons, of Selby. She measures 110 feet long, 21 feet wide, and 12 feet deep, her net tonnage being 76, and her horse-power 60. The evolution of the steam trawler was on this wise: When the value of steam had been shown to be worth the consideration of the fisherman he responded. At first the old-fashioned paddle-steamer was used tentatively on the north-east coast of England, and the writer remembers in the early ’eighties the singular unattractiveness—the total absence of beauty, indeed—which these vessels possessed. By birth and adoption these were properly tugs, but they did a bit of trawling on their own account when not otherwise required, and met with sufficient success to repeat the experiment many times. Some of these ugly old craft are still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Scarborough and Whitby.

But since the fishing fleets were at sea for weeks together, and something faster than a sailing ship was required to hurry the cargoes to market, a special steam fish-carrier came in which plied her voyages from the Dogger to London and the east coast ports. From that it was an easy step to building a steamship for use not as a carrier but as a trawler. Already steam had been in use on board the sailing trawler, but that had been for hauling the nets and warping into dock. The increase of competition, the loss of a market through calms and the prevalence of head winds, clearly marked the way for the coming of the steam trawler. Recently it has been shown that the employment of the motor-propelled trawler means a saving of cost and a greater share of profits to all concerned, and perhaps in the next decade the steam trawler may find the more modern form of propulsion to be a serious rival. But even now sail has anything but vanished, and there are many purely sail-driven trawlers, as also there are many steam trawlers with auxiliary sails. Within the last few years the steam fishing ship has grown to be of considerable size, with topgallant forecastle, high freeboard and lofty wheel-house, so that it penetrates to oceans thousands of miles away from the North Sea, being enabled by reason of its size to carry sufficient quantities of coal for many miles. The lower illustration facing page 252 shows one of the modern type of steam trawler. This is the Notre Dame des Dunes, built by the same makers as the Orontes. Her substantial forecastle, her bold sheer and high bows, together with her length (rather more than six beams to the longitudinal expanse), eminently fit her for her work in most trying circumstances. A curious survival of the old-fashioned sailing ship is seen in the retention in a twentieth century ship of the imitation square ports painted along her topsides. The Notre Dame measures 160 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 14½ feet deep.

But to-day, even with all the modern improvements which have been put into the ship, both sailing and steam-propelled; notwithstanding all the navigational appliances, the water-tight compartments, the size of ships and the excellence with which they are sent on their voyages, there is still need for the lifeboat, which has to go out many times during a bad winter at the summons of necessity. Although it is possible that the motor, as in the trawler, will eventually oust steam from this special type of craft, that stage has not yet been reached. Steam is a comparatively recent innovation to the lifeboat, and this is partially explainable by the deep-rooted prejudice of the local seamen. It is also owing to the fact that when the lifeboat has to go out at all the seas are very bad, and the craft is subjected to the water breaking over, and unless special precautions were taken to guard against this the fires would be put out, and the boat would be rather worse off than if she had no engines. There are only a few steam lifeboats along our shores, and they are placed at such stations where they can lie afloat instead of having to be launched down the beach or from a specially constructed slipway. The first form of steam lifeboat was to some extent on the lines of the ship which John Allen had suggested as far back as 1730, of which we spoke in an earlier chapter. It will be remembered that he advocated a system which was actually employed by James Rumsey in 1787. The principle was that of sucking water in at the bows and ejecting it at the stern. A more recent instance of the use of this idea will be found in the boat illustrated on the opposite page which shows a hydraulic lifeboat. The disadvantage of having a screw propeller is that it stands a very good chance of being fouled, if not damaged, by wreckage and ropes. Therefore engines were installed which sucked in the water by means of a “scoop,” placed at the bottom of the boat amidships. The water thus indrawn is discharged aft on either side of the hull, and if the craft is desired to go astern, then this is easily done by discharging water forward. This type has been in actual use, and has been highly efficacious in saving human life from shipwreck. By referring to the lower figure of the illustration on page 255, which shows the midship section of one of the hydraulic type, some idea will be gained of the placing of the “scoop.” By using alternately one of the after pipes the ship can be manœuvred to port or starboard just like a vessel fitted with twin-screws. But there are corresponding disadvantages which require to be weighed. It is distinctly not an economical method of propulsion, and if the sea happens to contain much sand considerable damage may happen to the engines, and other undesirable matter also may work still greater havoc.