As early as 1853 mild cast steel had been suggested for shipbuilding, and in 1855 Howell introduced it as “homogeneous metal,” but shipbuilders took little notice of the suggestion for some years. Robert Napier and Sons received orders in 1858 for some high-pressure boilers and marine machinery where lightness combined with strength was of the utmost importance, and it was proposed to use “homogeneous metal” for the one and puddled steel for the other instead of the wrought iron which was ordinarily employed. Steel as then made was very brittle and many attempts were made to remedy this defect. David Kirkaldy made a series of important experiments which lasted three and a half years and attracted the attention of the Scottish Shipbuilders’ Association. His principal service was the discovery and placing on record of the effects of oil hardening upon the properties of steel.

The Ma Robert is said to have been the first steel steamer ever built; she was constructed by Laird’s for the Livingstone expedition to the Zambesi. High tensile steel was used with a limit of elasticity of about twenty-three tons, which is very similar to the metal used in the Mauretania and Lusitania where stresses are to be met. Strength and lightness were essential in the Ma Robert and therefore the new material was used. The little vessel was 73 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, and was flat-bottomed and of very little draft. But the hull corroded badly and leaked very much, and the steamer came to grief on a sandbank in the Zambesi.

The Rainbow, built of steel plates in 1858, was a smart, handsome paddle-boat, schooner-rigged, and carrying two very tall masts. She had a high-pressure engine and her steam-pipe emitted the energetic snort which was peculiar to the locomotive of the time. Indeed her high-pressure machinery made such a noise that she could be heard from one side of the Mersey to the other. She was intended for the Niger Exploration expedition, and on her trial attained a speed of between twelve and thirteen miles an hour. She was 130 feet long by 16 feet beam. Although her plates were only one-eighth of an inch thick she had the stiffness and rigidity of a strong ship, and there was almost an entire absence of vibration from the engines. Her boilers, which were of puddled steel plates, were proved up to 200 lb. on the square inch, though they were only worked at 50 to 60 lb. The engine was of 60 nominal horse-power, working up to 200 indicated. The hull was divided athwartship and longitudinally by bulkheads into ten or twelve water-tight compartments.

It must be remembered that these experimental steel boats were intended for inland navigation, and being taken to Africa were withdrawn from the observation of practically every one who was competent to judge of the relative merits of iron and steel. Certainly no one attempted to build a steel boat for the ocean for some years afterwards, and it was not until 1875, when the Admiralty, acting upon observations made in the dockyards of France where steel was being used, represented to British manufacturers the importance of improving the quality of steel, that the Siemens-Martin process was brought out, and in consequence two cruisers were constructed of steel produced in this way.

With the launching of the Rotomahana, an ocean steel steamer of 1777 tons gross built by W. Denny and Bros. in 1879 for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, the iron age of the steamer may be said to close and the age of steel to begin. It has been shown how iron slowly but surely replaced wood in construction; when the superiority of steel to either had been practically demonstrated the change from iron to steel was rapid. In 1891 over 80 per cent. of the steam-ships under construction were of steel.

The Rotomahana was followed in 1881 in the transatlantic trade by the Allan liner Buenos Ayrean. The Allan Line has always been to the fore in the provision of first-class steamers. They were the first to have a steel ocean steamer; the first to adopt bilge keels on vessels, the Parisian in 1884 being fitted with them; and they were the first to make the experiment with turbine-driven steamers for ocean traffic in the Victorian and Virginian in 1903. These two vessels are 540 feet in length by 60 feet in breadth, and 40 feet 6 inches in depth. They are of 12,000 tons register, and have a speed of 17 knots. Besides these, the company has five twin-screw boats of tonnages ranging from 9000 to 11,000 tons, and twenty-two screw boats from 3000 to 5395 tons.

The Cunard Line’s first steel steamer was the Servia, built by Messrs. J. and G. Thomson, and completed in 1881. She was 515 feet in length, and of 7392 gross tonnage, and her engines, of 10,000 indicated horse-power, gave her a speed of 17 knots. Incandescent electric lamps were fitted in her, she being the first of the fleet to carry them. The Aurania, of slightly less length, but of equal speed, and also of steel, was built in 1883. After her came the Umbria and Etruria, steel single-screw steamers, with engines of 14,500 indicated horse-power, giving them a speed of 20 knots. The sisters Campania and Lucania, steel twin-screw vessels of 12,952 tons, were added for the New York trade, and later the Caronia and Carmania. They were sisters except in their engines; the latter being the company’s first turbine experiment, and having triple propellers. They are each 675 feet in length by 72 feet 6 inches beam, and 43 feet 9 inches moulded depth.

The Etruria was sold in 1909 to the shipbreakers for £16,750, and with her there ended another chapter in the history of the navigation of the North Atlantic. She was a “flyer” only a few years before being disposed of, her record passage from Queenstown to New York being 5 days 20 hours 55 minutes, and her eastward passage 6 days 37 minutes. She was built to outstrip the Oregon, a vessel built for the Guion Line in 1883 by John Elder and Co., and known from her speed of 18 knots as “the greyhound of the Atlantic.” The same builders were ordered by the Cunard Company to eclipse her, and constructed two steamers, the Etruria and Umbria, which for many years were the fastest ships afloat. Before they left the builders’ hands, however, the Oregon was acquired by the Cunard Company. The two Cunarders had the largest compound engines in existence. These boats were 500 feet between perpendiculars, 57 feet 3 inches beam, and 40 feet moulded depth. They were each of 8127 tons gross, and had engines of 14,500 indicated horse-power, giving them an average speed of 19 knots. It was stated of them at one of the meetings of the Cunard Company that “no ships ever gave their owners less uneasiness than these two, and no ships have done such an extraordinary amount of good work. They are monuments that cannot lie to the skill of the design and the faithfulness of the labour that went to their accomplishment.”

The Cunard express steamer Mauretania, sister ship to the Lusitania, launched at Clydebank, was constructed on the Tyne by Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., who were already represented in the Cunard fleet by the Ultonia, Ivernia, and Carpathia. A description of the Mauretania given by the builders and the Cunard Company states that the flat keel-plate is five feet wide and three and three-quarter inches thick, and forms a portion of the bottom of the ship. Associated with this flat keel is a vertical keel, five feet high and one inch thick, and to this vertebra are attached, directly or indirectly, the frames and beams which make up the skeleton. The double bottom is divided by this vertical keel and the transverse frames into compartments in which water-ballast may be taken. The tops of these tanks are carried well round the turn of the bilge, so that should the bilge keels be torn away and the hull pierced, the entering water would be confined between the inner and outer bottoms. As a further precaution towards securing insubmersibility, the lower deck is made completely water-tight. Below it are the orlop and lower orlop decks, and above are the main, upper, shelter, promenade, upper promenade, and boat decks—nine decks in all. Automatically closing water-tight doors are fitted in the bulkheads, and can be closed from the navigating bridge in a few seconds. The Mauretania has 175 water-tight compartments, so that it is claimed for her that she is as unsinkable as a ship can be.

“The steel plates which cover the ribs or framing of the vessel or are used for the decks, bulkheads, and casings, or in other ways, number 26,000, the largest being about 48 feet in length, and weighing from four to five tons. To secure these plates to each other and the structural framework of the ship, over 4,000,000 rivets have been used, aggregating in weight about 500 tons. The largest rivets are used in the keel-plate, and these are eight inches in length and weigh 2³⁄₄ lb. The main frames and beams placed end to end would extend thirty miles; the rudder, which has two sets of steering gear, both of which are below the water-line, weighs 65 tons, and the diameter of the rudder stock is 26 inches. The castings for the stem, stern-post, shaft bracket and rudder together weigh 280 tons. Her ground gear is, with that manufactured for her sister ship, the Lusitania, the strongest yet made. The three anchors each weigh ten tons, while the 1800 feet of cable is composed of 24-inch links, the iron in which is 3³⁄₄ inches in diameter and the weight of each link about 1¹⁄₂ cwts. This mighty harness has been vigorously tested, sample links and shackles emerging successfully from a test strain of 370 tons.

“The principal measurements of the Mauretania are:

“Figures, however, convey but a bare idea of the great size. A favourite standard of comparison in shipping is the leviathan of Brunel, the Great Eastern, the mammoth steamer, which, born before its time, yet solved in her construction many of the most difficult problems with which the modern builders of big ships have to grapple; yet the Mauretania quite dwarfs the gigantic Great Eastern, as the following figures show:

“The Great Eastern was an experiment, but there is nothing of the experiment about the Mauretania and her sister, the Clyde-built ship Lusitania. The valuable data obtained from the running of the 20,000-ton turbine Cunarder Carmania has afforded a valuable object-lesson in adapting the turbine method of propulsion to liners of the leviathan class, demonstrating the suitability of the steam turbine to the largest type of vessel.

“The Mauretania is propelled by turbine engines of about 70,000 indicated horse-power, driving four shafts, each of which is fitted with one three-bladed propeller of manganese bronze. The outermost shafts are each connected with a high-pressure turbine, the inner shafts being rotated by the low-pressure turbines.

“The boilers and turbine engines of the Mauretania were constructed by the Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company, Ltd., of Wallsend-on-Tyne. There are twenty-three double-ended and two single-ended boilers, and one hundred and ninety-two large furnaces. The boiler plates are the largest yet made. The steam is conducted from the boilers into the turbines, of which there are four.” The turbines contain about 3,000,000 blades, rotating four shafts, the united length of which is close upon 1000 feet with a weight of about 250 tons, each shaft carrying 17,000 or 18,000 indicated horse-power. Under the covenant with the Government made at the time she was arranged to be built, she is fitted for an armament of 12 six-inch guns. Her rudder and both sets of steering-gear are below the water-line, and in the way of the engine and boiler rooms there are side bunkers which, filled with coal, are equivalent to an armour-belt round the vulnerable portion of the ship.

Although the Mauretania and Lusitania are usually spoken of as sisters, there are some differences in the design. They are the same length, but the former is six inches deeper, which adds about 500 tons to her registered tonnage. Special high tensile steel was used to a greater extent in the construction of the Mauretania, making that vessel something like 1000 tons lighter. Her lines are slightly finer, and it has been claimed to account for her speed that there is some superiority in her engines.

In regard to the structure of the Lusitania, it is stated that with the whole structure of mild steel Lloyd’s accepted a stress of ten tons to the square inch, and that in view of the strains thrown upon the upper works a high tensile steel of less scantling was adopted for those parts; a material having been discovered with a tensile strength 20 per cent. greater than mild steel, a reduction of 6 per cent. in the scantlings was allowed from those for mild steel. The Cunarders were not the first vessels by many years in which high tensile steel of a strength of thirty-six tons was used, as it was introduced twenty-three years ago in the steam-ship America.

Whether the great Cunarders pay in the financial sense is known only to the management of the line, but there is no denying that they are a great national asset. A detailed estimate, published at the time they were about to make their first voyages, placed the expenditure at £17,990 per voyage, and the income, allowing for a full passenger list, at £31,350.[91] But this did not profess to be more than a general estimate and in no sense official. The question has been raised in various quarters whether an equal speed could not have been obtained from reciprocating engines with a less consumption of coal; as a reply to this view it has been pointed out that the sizes that would have been required for the ingots, &c., for the machinery were beyond the capabilities of our steel manufacturers, and thus, as so often has happened, the new set of conditions was met by the new development of invention.

“The above table shows at a glance the ships that have come between the Campania and the Lusitania. The Baltic shows the type of steamer that pays the best, going across at a moderate speed sufficient for most people while at the same time carrying an enormous amount of cargo.”[92]

Alterations have been made in the propellers of both these steamers with a view to finding the size, pitch, number of blades, material, weight, and number of revolutions per minute and the other details upon which efficiency depends, but the result is carefully guarded. Such tests are expensive.

In 1889 the White Star Company built the Teutonic of 10,000 tons, which, like her sister ship the Majestic, was intended to be an armed mercantile cruiser. These two vessels, which each took nearly three years in building, were at that time the finest the world had seen, and the speediest, and were regarded with such wonder that at the naval review in 1889, one of them was visited by the German Emperor and the late King Edward (then Prince of Wales) and many distinguished officers of the Navy. The Majestic soon brought the record from Queenstown to New York down to 5 days 18 hours 18 minutes, but this was reduced by the Teutonic to 5 days 16¹⁄₂ hours.

The second Oceanic, also of steel and a twin-screw boat, was placed in the Liverpool and New York service in 1899. She was 704 feet in length and was the first vessel to be built longer than the Great Eastern, but in other respects she was smaller, her beam being 68·3 feet, her gross tonnage 16,900 and her displacement tonnage 26,100. The indicated horse-power of the Oceanic was 29,000 as against the 11,000 of the Great Eastern, and her speed was 21¹⁄₂ knots as compared with 13. In equipment, too, she was regarded as the last possible word in luxury and magnificence. Her promenade deck was 400 feet long, and the saloon was 80 by 64 feet, the latter surmounted by a glass dome 21 feet square.

Two enormous steamers, the Celtic in 1901 and the Cedric in 1902, of 20,904 tons gross, again established a record for size; the latter is slightly the larger vessel, but in other respects they are sisters. These were the last vessels built for the White Star Line as an independent organisation, as in the following year the line became a part of the great Morgan Combine though still retaining its individuality of management.

The Republic, a White Star steamer which had just left New York for England, was rammed off Nantucket in January 1909 by the Italian Lloyd steamer Florida inward bound. The White Star liner Baltic took off from the Florida all the passengers that had been saved from the Republic. The latter vessel was kept afloat all night by her water-tight compartments. All the while she was afloat she signalled by wireless telegraphy for assistance and this brought the Baltic and other vessels on the scene. The Republic was built in 1903 for the Boston-Liverpool trade of the Dominion Line and was named the Columbus, and was afterwards taken over by the White Star. She was a twin-screw steel steamer of 15,378 tons gross, and the largest vessel which has yet been lost at sea.

A notable event in the trade with Canada was the introduction of the White Star liners Megantic and Laurentic, which are run as White Star-Dominion Line steamers to save possible complications with other lines in the Canadian trade. They are important, not only on account of their size, but also because of the engineering experiments they embody, the Megantic standing for the highest perfection of the twin-screw balanced reciprocating engine, while the Laurentic is remarkable for the introduction of reciprocating engines and low-pressure turbines. In other respects they are sister ships. They are the largest vessels yet placed in the Canadian trade. The Laurentic was launched in September 1908 at Belfast by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, and the Megantic left the slips the following December. They are each 565 feet long by 67 feet 4 inches beam, and about 15,000 tons gross. Each carries 260 first-class passengers, 420 second-class, and over 1000 in the third class. Their cargo capacity is also very great. They are singled-funnelled, two-masted steamers. Like all the other vessels of the White Star Line they have been constructed throughout on the most approved principles, nothing that long experience and practical knowledge could suggest being wanting to make them as perfect as possible in all particulars.

The last three or four years have seen the advent of the largest steamers afloat, and before the end of 1910 they will be eclipsed by one of the two steamers, the Olympic and the Titanic, now building for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolff at Belfast, which are to be of about 45,000 tons each. At present the largest White Star vessel is the Adriatic, launched in September 1906 and placed upon the service to New York in the spring of 1908. This gigantic ship is 709 feet 2 inches in length, 75 feet 6 inches beam, and 52 feet deep, and her displacement is over 40,000 tons. Besides the usual luxurious fittings of the vessel, which are all in accordance with the traditions of the White Star Line—she is in this respect an improved version of all her great predecessors—she has an electric passenger lift giving communication between the various decks, a gymnasium, and a full set of turkish baths besides plunge bath, massage couches, and electric baths. The hull is divided into twelve water-tight compartments, the bulkheads being fitted with doors which can all be closed instantaneously from the bridge if desired, and there are no fewer than nine steel decks.

The Inman and International liners City of New York and City of Paris, steel twin-screw steamers, were launched in 1888 and 1889. These two steamers marked one of those epochs of complete transformation in type of vessel necessitated by the public demands and rendered possible by the advance of engineering science.[93] They had considerable beam and their subdivision into water-tight compartments was more thorough than in any vessel hitherto built. Another innovation in their construction was the arrangement of fore and aft bulkheads in addition to the transverse bulkheads. Both these ships were of the Inman type with clipper bows and the usual long graceful lines, but they spread less sail than any of their predecessors, being fitted simply with three pole masts carrying fore and aft schooner rig only. The funnels of each boat, which were three in number, were placed between the fore and main masts. Each vessel carried two separate engines built on the three-crank system, and the boilers were constructed to work at the then unusual pressure of 150 lb. to the inch. The rudder was in many respects different from that usually constructed for merchant steamers, and more nearly approximated to the type adopted in the Navy, in which, as a protection against hostile projectiles, the rudder is wholly submerged. This form of rudder was introduced in these two steamships as they were intended to be used as auxiliary cruisers. The rudder itself was constructed on a modification of the balanced system, in which a portion of the rudder is placed forward of the stock. Both these steam-ships made some very rapid passages, the City of Paris in May 1889 bringing down the time of the transatlantic journey to less than six days. These were the last vessels added to the Inman and International Line. In March 1893 the line was reorganised and became the American Line. This company launched the St. Louis and St. Paul built at Cramp’s yard at Philadelphia. The two American-built ships were each 554 feet in length and of 11,600 tons gross register. They held the record for the New York-Southampton service for some years. During the Spanish-American War they were used as auxiliary cruisers.

The increase in the size of steam-ships is not confined to the Atlantic alone, but is a feature of all the great lines whatever part of the world they may serve. The Peninsular and Oriental, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the Ellerman Lines, all the passenger lines trading to North America, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the Orient Line and the principal lines trading to the Far East, are all the possessors of steamers of 12,000 tons or over, though in the case of those that use the Suez Canal the size is limited by the fact that if they were made any larger they might have difficulty in getting through the canal at all. The heavy canal dues, which are already a serious item to the owners of all steamers using the canal, would be more onerous still if the vessels were of greater size, and as it is, some of the lines trading to Australia deliberately take the Cape route so as to avoid this expense.

Lloyd’s Register’s Annual Summary issued in January 1910 contains the following on the production of large steamers since 1893:

“The number of large steamers launched in the United Kingdom during 1909 has been less than during any of the previous four years. During the years 1893-6, on an average, ten vessels of 6000 tons and upwards were launched per annum in the United Kingdom; in the following four years, 1897-1900, the average rose to 32, at which figure it stood for the four years 1901-4, and at 30 for the four years 1905-8. During 1909 only 19 such vessels were launched. Of vessels of 10,000 tons and upwards only three were launched in the four years 1893-6; 24 were launched during the four years 1897-1900; 27 were launched during the four years 1901-4, and a similar number during the four years 1905-8.

“During 1909 six vessels of 10,000 tons and above were launched, the names of which are as follows:

“At the present time there are under construction 37 vessels of 6000 tons and upwards, of which eight are of over 10,000 tons each.

“The average tonnage of steamers launched in the United Kingdom during 1909 is 2092 tons: but if steamers of less than 500 tons be excluded the average of the remaining steamers reaches 3080 tons gross.

“Of the vessels launched in the United Kingdom 16 are capable of a speed of 17 knots and above. The fastest of these vessels is the turbine yacht Winchester (26 knots). The fastest merchant vessels are five steamers intended for Channel service (two turbine and three twin-screw vessels), all of which attain the high speed of 22 knots.”

Of late years the P. & O. Company has added several magnificent vessels to its fleet, of a size and degree of equipment superior to any of their predecessors, mostly of the “M” class, so called because all their names begin with that letter. These are Moldavia, Mongolia, Macedonia, Marmora, Mooltan, Morea, and Malwa, and they mark a new epoch in the history of the company’s shipbuilding operations, as they far exceed in size the largest previous type as represented by the China, Persia, Egypt, and others, which in their turn were far ahead of all the steamers before them.

The Marmora and Macedonia, built at Belfast by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, are each of 10,500 tons, and are 530 feet long by 60 feet broad, with a moulded depth of 37 feet. Accommodation is provided for 377 first and 187 second saloon passengers. The Moldavia and Mongolia, built at Greenock by Messrs. Caird and Co., have a gross register of about 10,000 tons, and are 520 feet long by 58 feet broad and 33 feet deep. They have been fitted for the conveyance of 348 first and 166 second saloon passengers. The arrangements in connection with the passenger accommodation are in advance of anything hitherto attained in the company’s steamers in respect to comfort, roominess, light, and ventilation. All the cabins are on the main, spar, hurricane, and boat decks, and most of the inside ones are lighted from the outside of the ship by a passage-way to the scuttle.

The vessels have a coal capacity of 2000 tons in bunkers and reserves, and have a limited cargo space of about 3500 tons, half this space being fitted with the most up-to-date appliances for the conveyance of refrigerated produce.

The fifth of this class of steamers, the Mooltan, was built by Messrs. Caird and Co., Greenock.

The Morea and Malwa combined the best features of all these steam-ships. They are of 11,000 tons register, with engines of 15,000 indicated horse-power driving twin screws, giving them a speed of 18 knots. The former was built by Messrs. Barclay, Curle and Co., being the largest which has yet left their yards. This shipbuilding firm, by the way, claims to be the oldest on the Upper Clyde, and has probably built and engined first-class mail steamers for as many companies as any other shipbuilding establishment in existence. The Malwa was built by Caird and Co.

It is thirty-eight years since Barclay, Curle and Co. began building for the P. & O. line, their first steamer being the Zambesi in 1873.

It is now some years since steel-built vessels propelled by new and economical machinery became the premier cargo carriers in the Australian trade. Recognising that it would no longer be profitable to build sailers to compete against the steam-ships, many of the sailing-ship owners decided to adopt steam-power and to dispose of their sailing ships as the opportunity offered. The principal steamer lines which brought about this change were the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company and the Orient Line. The steam-ships of the Orient Line began to run in June 1877, when the Lusitania, chartered from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, was despatched from London to Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney via the Cape of Good Hope. In the following year the joint efforts of Messrs. Anderson, Anderson and Co. and Messrs. F. Green and Co. founded the Orient Steam Navigation Company. The service at first was to be monthly, but it was soon evident that fortnightly sailings were imperative to meet the demands upon the line by shippers and passengers. The fortnightly service was determined upon in the beginning of 1880, the company obtaining the co-operation of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. Among the earlier vessels were the Cuzco, Garonne, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Lusitania, and Sorata, which were some of the finest that had ever crossed to Australia. The Orient Company afterwards built the steam-ship Orient, an iron vessel, and at that time the largest and finest steam-ship afloat. She remained in active service for no less than thirty years, and was disposed of to be broken up only a few months ago, when she was still as sound as on the day she was launched, her only defect being that she was unequal to modern requirements. The Orient Company also built the Austral, which had the misfortune to sink in Sydney Harbour whilst coaling. She was raised again and continued in active service until a few years ago. The Orient Company for some years carried the mails to Australia with vessels the ownership of which was shared by the founders of the line, Messrs. Anderson, Anderson and Co., and Messrs. R. and H. Green and Co. and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the line being then known as the Orient-Pacific Line. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company bought out the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and for some years the line was known as the Orient Royal Line. The Orient proprietary, however, recently bought out the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and the Orient Company are now the exclusive owners of the service. New vessels have from time to time been added to the fleet, all of which are of steel and propelled by twin screws.

When the Government of the Australian Commonwealth entered into a fresh contract with the Orient Company in 1908, for the conveyance of the mails, for a subsidy of £170,000 per annum until 1920, the company placed orders for the building of five new splendidly fitted steam-ships which are among the largest and fastest travelling to Australia. On the Orient mail route to Australia eleven ports are visited between London and Brisbane, and the journey is thus relieved of the monotony and tedium usually incidental to a long sea voyage. Notwithstanding the many calls made, the voyage to Sydney is made in 43 days, or in 33 days if the railway is made full use of.

Messrs. Geo. Thompson’s Aberdeen Line of steamers is a direct descendant of one of the most famous of the clipper lines. At one time it owned about 25 sailers of the highest class, including the Thermopylæ, Patriarch, and Miltiades; the first named made the fastest passage on record for a sailing ship to Australia, 60 days from London to Melbourne, and with the others afterwards distinguished herself in the tea races. Such was the speed and reputation of the Aberdeen Line clippers that the company did not find it necessary to adopt steam until 1881, but then they decided to be well ahead of the times, and on the advice of the late Dr. Alexander Kirk had the steamer Aberdeen, which they ordered, fitted with the first set of triple-expansion engines that had ever been applied to a large ocean-going steamer. This vessel was followed in 1884 by the Australasian, and then by the Damascus, and other vessels of the same high class were added as required. How great is the care taken of passengers is shown when it is stated that in all its long career not one of the company’s vessels has ever lost a life except through natural causes. The vessels of this line travel by way of the Cape, where a call is made. The steamer Miltiades, added in 1903, accomplished on her maiden voyage the fastest passage ever made up to then from London and Plymouth to Melbourne, and a year or two after, when required at a few days’ notice to take the running of the regular mail boat via the Suez Canal, landed the Australian mails more than 24 hours before time.

The old proprietary of Geo. Thompson and Co. was turned into a limited liability company in 1905, and both Messrs. Ismay, Imrie and Co., who represented the White Star Line, and the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., accepted the invitation to become interested in it. Hitherto its largest vessels were the Marathon and Miltiades, each of 6800 tons, but in 1907 the Pericles was launched by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, being named after an old clipper of the line which in her day was one of the finest and fastest ships ever built. The Pericles was a twin-screw steel steamer of over 11,000 tons register with two sets of quadruple-expansion engines, and her scantlings and fittings were in most cases considerably beyond the requirements of the Board of Trade and the Admiralty Transport Department. Her length was 500 feet, and her beam 62 feet. She was unfortunately lost in 1910 by striking an uncharted rock off the West Australian coast.

The first regular cargo line of steamers between England and Australia was established in 1880 by the late Mr. W. Lund, who previously owned a large number of sailing vessels. These steamers were started as cargo boats but carried a limited number of passengers, and as newer steamers were added they became very favourably known for the comfort of their accommodation. The first steamer owned by the Lund, or, as it is better known in the South African and Australian trades, the Blue Anchor Line, was the Delcomyn. In 1909, their largest steamer, the Waratah, a fine screw steamer of 9000 tons, was mysteriously lost with all on board between Durban and Cape Town. The Blue Anchor Line has recently been acquired by the P. & O. Company.

The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., is an amalgamation, formed in 1883, of the two historic firms whose names it embodies. The united company ceased a couple of years ago to despatch sailing ships, but the main result of the combination has been the placing on the route of some of the finest passenger and cargo steamers afloat, and the inauguration of a fortnightly service between London and New Zealand. Shaw, Savill and Co. in the early days made London their main port of departure, and just in the same way the Albion Company adhered to the Clyde. The joint concern covers the whole ground. The steamers of the line are built specially for the company, and are expressly designed for the Colonial trade, and are second to none in comfort, celerity, and security combined.

The outward voyage of the steamers is via Teneriffe, Cape Town, and Hobart; and the homeward trip is made via Cape Horn, calling at Monte Video or Rio de Janeiro and Teneriffe.

The company has played an important part in the development of the frozen meat traffic between England and New Zealand. The machines used are those patented as the “Haslam” and “Bell Coleman,” known as the Patent Dry Air Refrigerators, though in the later steamers the CO₂ system is installed. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., were the pioneers in this trade. They fitted up the first sailing ship with refrigerating machinery, and successfully inaugurated an industry which has since grown to such vast dimensions.

The company is one of the largest carriers of frozen meat in the world, bringing over to this country in their steamers considerably over 2,800,000 carcases of mutton per annum.

All the company’s present steamers are of steel, and most are twin screw, their tonnage ranging from 5564 in the Karamea to 10,000 in their newest boats, the Pakeha and Rangatira. Its service is maintained in connection with the White Star Line, which supplies four or five steamers of 12,000 tons each.

By few firms has such an extraordinarily rapid progress been shown as by that known as Elder, Dempster and Co., of which the late Sir Alfred Jones was the head. After his death the line was acquired by Lord Pirrie, who transferred it to a new company bearing the name of Elder, Dempster and Co., Ltd. The firm originally consisted of Alexander Elder and John Dempster, who founded the British and African Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., in 1868, and in 1879 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Alfred L. Jones was admitted to partnership. Under his direction the firm became of considerable importance, but it was not until he and Mr. W. J. Davey became partners and sole managers that the firm progressed by leaps and bounds and rapidly became one of the largest and most influential commercial houses in the world. Its energies were tremendous and its successes no less so. The Beaver Line of steamers to Canada from Liverpool was at one time the property of this firm, who sold it to the Canadian Pacific Railway. The shipping companies controlled by Elder, Dempster and Co. included the British and African Steam Navigation Company (1900), Ltd., the African Steamship Company (incorporated under Royal Charter), Elder, Dempster Shipping, Ltd., Cie. Belge Maritime du Congo, Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, and the Compañia de Vapores Correos Interinsulares Canarios.

Only a few years have elapsed since the banana was almost a curiosity here, but thanks to the enterprise of Elder, Dempster and Co., who practically created the tropical fruit trade and built several steamers for the conveyance of tropical fruit to England, the banana has become most popular. The West India Islands, especially Jamaica, have derived immense benefit from this trade, the encouragement of this and other tropical products having brought it no small measure of prosperity. For this work the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, Ltd., was established in 1901, maintaining at first a fortnightly and then a weekly service from Bristol to Jamaica. In connection with this service there are numerous inter-island services.

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1905 inaugurated their splendid “A” class of steamers, of which the Aragon, Amazon, Avon, Araguaya, and Asturias are examples. The largest of these is the Asturias of 12,500 tons.

In part directly and in part through its connections the company’s enterprise extends to all parts of the world. It acquired in 1907 an interest in the Shire Line of steamers engaged in a regular service from London to Port Said, Suez, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Kobe, and Yokohama; and in 1908 it took over the old-established Forwood Line service from London to Gibraltar, Morocco, Las Palmas, Teneriffe, and Madeira.

The repairs effected to ships since they have been built of steel are no less wonderful than the building of the ships themselves. It is by no means uncommon for a ship to be cut in half, the pieces drawn asunder, and the intervening space built up. The repairing of the Suevic by fitting it with a new bow was not the first operation of the kind. The Milwaukee was similarly treated at Wallsend by Armstrong. The destroyer Syren lost her bows by stranding at Berehaven, but the after portion with the machinery was saved and given new bows by the Palmer Company, the two parts being towed to Haulbowline for the purpose. The Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer Hudson had her bows so badly damaged by fire that she had to be provided with new ones. Nor are the repairing feats effected by the steamers’ engineers in mid-ocean, often in circumstances of extreme difficulty, less praiseworthy and remarkable, especially when it is a matter of patching a fractured propeller shaft while the vessel is rolling in the trough of a heavy sea and the work has to be performed in the semi-darkness of the shaft tube.

The steamer Norfolk, in 1906, after her engines broke down in the Indian Ocean, was taken into Fremantle under improvised sail. The sails were made of tarpaulins stitched together and the necessary spars were improvised out of derrick booms.