Every advance—whether it be in dimensions or power of steamships, or whether it consist of modifications in their structure or appointment—toward that ideal period when sea-voyaging will have attained its maximum of comfort and its minimum of risk, is deserving of record. The qualities of safety and comfort, even more than increase of speed and the consequent shortening of sea passages, are first essentials in the realisation of this great end. The structural modifications, and the great development in size of recent vessels, affect the qualities named in ways which already may have been made evident, but which call for more detailed treatment. The more minute watertight sub-division of the hulls of vessels, for instance, and especially the presence of an inner skin or cellular bottom, are marked accessions to their safety.
The primary object and ruling principle of all proper watertight sub-division, is so to limit the space to which water can find access, that in a vessel with one, or even two, compartments open to the sea, the accession of weight due to the filling of these compartments would not exceed the surplus buoyancy she should possess. Until within recent years this was not so fully regarded as it ought, owing chiefly to the objections of shipowners to minute sub-division, as impairing a vessel’s usefulness and capacity for stowage of miscellaneous cargo. These objections have still doubtless much weight for vessels in certain trades, but the tendency of modern passenger traffic to estrange itself from cargo-carrying mediums, makes them almost inapplicable to a large section of our mercantile marine. There is now, indeed, more faith in well divided ships generally as being in the long run no less efficient and more economical than scantily divided ones.
The salutary influence exerted by the Admiralty, in stipulating for increased sub-division of the hulls of all merchant vessels eligible for state employment in times of war, worthy of special recognition. A few years ago only thirty or forty large steamers in the merchant navy were so constructed, as regards sub-division, that they would have survived for a few minutes the effect of collision with other vessels or of grounding on rocks. Within recent years—greatly owing to the stipulations referred to, and to the desire f shipowners to comply with them for the reasons given—there are few, if any, of the many first-class mail steamers turned out, not so constructed.
Much valuable information on the subject was given in a paper on “Bulkheads,” read before the Institution of Naval Architects in March, 1883, by Mr James Dunn, of the Admiralty, whose experience in matters relating to the qualification of merchant ships for State employment eminently entitles him to be considered an authority. From diagrams contained in the paper, the effects of good and of inefficient sub-division of vessels are well illustrated. Figs. 5 to 8 in the present work represent some of these. They are concerned with two vessels, in one of which—an actual case—the bulkheads were well placed and cared for, and carried to a reasonable height as shown in Fig. 5; the result of a collision proving that under such conditions they were of immeasurable value, while in the other vessel, although having the same number and a similar disposition of bulkheads, their presence is rendered valueless by their being stopped at or about the water-line, as indicated in Fig. 7. In the first case, a steamer of nearly 5,000 tons, during a fog, ran into the vessel represented by Fig. 5 and 6, striking her abreast of No. 3 bulkhead, and opening up two compartments to the sea. The bulkheads, however, as has been said, were carried to a reasonable height, and the water could not get beyond them—they stood the test—the vessel did not sink, but kept afloat at the trim shown in Fig. 6, and in this condition steamed 300 miles safely into port. The second case—though a suppositionary one merely, yet representative of not a few merchant steamers now afloat—would not be attended with like results should such an accident happen as has been described. In vessels so bulkheaded, the water not being confined to the two holds, numbered 2 and 3, as it was in the previous actual case, would pour over the top of the dwarf bulkhead into the foremost hold, and the ship would soon assume the position indicated in Fig, 8: one not at all favourable, as may be readily believed, for the completion of a voyage to port.
These cases illustrate the value of minute and careful sub-division of the hulls of vessels by watertight bulkheads. Unless, however, the bulkheads are carried a few feet higher than the level of the water outside—and it is to be regretted that this is still not infrequently overlooked or neglected in merchant steamers—they are valueless, and, indeed, had better not be in the ship at all. They will contribute to the loss of the vessel by keeping the water at one end, and carrying her bows under, whereas if they are not fitted, the same volume of water will distribute itself throughout the bottom of the ship fore and aft, preserve the even trim of the vessel, and allow more pumps to cope with the inflow. Although her freeboard, or height of side above water will be reduced, she will still be seaworthy, the boiler fires may be kept burning, and the machinery going, sufficiently long for her to reach a port of safety. Readers appreciating the above considerations will readily see why it is that sailing vessels are usually fitted with only one transverse bulkhead—that near the bow—and understand how it is that the outcry sometimes made by inexperienced people about the absence of other bulkheads in emigrant sailing vessels is for most part unheeded by those on whom the responsibility falls.
From statistics presented in the paper above referred to, it is shown that during a period of six years, ending with December, 1882, the average loss per annum of ships not qualified for the Admiralty list was one in twenty-five; while of ships so qualified the annual average loss was only one in eighty-six. The chances of loss from any cause are thus seen to be nearly four times as great for a ship not constructed to qualify for the Admiralty list as for a vessel entered on that list. During the first four-and-a-half years of the period referred to, not one ship of those entered on the list was lost by collision although a considerable number had been in collision, and escaped foundering by reason of the safety afforded by their bulkheads. During 1882 six casualties happened to ships on the list, one of which—a case of collision—proved fatal. This was a case, however, such as no merchant steamer afloat at the time would have been capable of surviving. The whole of the ship—a small one—was flooded abaft the engine-room, the two after holds being open to the sea. The whole of the losses from the Admiralty list during the period referred to—eleven in number—have been from drifting on rocks, or otherwise getting fixed on shore, with the solitary exception above quoted. In the same period 76 ships have been lost which had been offered for admission to the list, but had not been found qualified; of these 17, or 22½ per cent., were lost by collision; and 10, or 13¼ per cent., were lost by foundering; most of the rest stranded or broke up on rocks. The risk of fatal collision, according to Mr Dunn, is about 1 to 100, irrespective of the class of ship, and the ships on the Admiralty list enjoy almost absolute immunity from loss by this cause.
The foregoing indicates the way in which minute water-tight sub-division has come to be widely regarded. Much requires yet to be done to reach the end desirable, as there are many vessels built prior to the movement sadly deficient in the qualities concerned. The bulkhead near the bow—the “collision” bulkhead, as it is termed—has done noble service in many cases of collision, and it is with reason that its position and structural character in all vessels are subject to special supervision and made a condition of classification in the Registries. Recently it has been made imperative by Lloyd’s Society that vessels over 330 feet long should have two additional water-tight bulkheads extending to the upper deck, in the holds, forward and aft of the machinery compartment. The requirements of this Registry, it may be said, constitute at once an anticipation and a reflex of the needs of merchant ship construction. In water-tight sub-division, as in other matters, the Society and its large staff of able surveyors are “powers which make for” sterling efficiency.
The extended adoption of double bottoms is specially contributory to the safety of vessels in the event of their running over a reef into deep water, or in going ashore. Numerous instances are on record of steamships so constructed sustaining damage to the outer skin, and yet—because of the inner bottom remaining intact and perfectly water-tight—no serious damage resulting. The case of the Great Eastern is an early yet notable example. This great vessel in 1860 ran over a reef of rocks and tore a hole 80 feet long and 10 feet wide in her outer skin, yet, because of this feature in her construction, she was placed in no jeopardy.
In this connection it would seem that even the employment of steel as the constructive material affords safety to a vessel in circumstances which would almost prove fatal to a ship built of iron. The remarkable experience which befell the first steel ocean-going steamer—the Rotomahana, belonging to the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand—may here be recounted. While steaming between Auckland and the Great Barrier Island on New-Year’s-Day, 1880, this vessel struck upon and ran over a sunken rock. She had a large party of pleasure seekers on board, and but for the fact that she was built of such a ductile material as mild steel, the commencement of the year 1880 might have been clouded by a catastrophe which would have spread gloom and sorrow throughout New Zealand, if not over a wider circle. At the earliest possible moment the damaged vessel was docked for examination. The results are effectively summarised in an extract from a letter referring to the accident, written by the managing director of the Company. He says:—“This experience has clearly shown the immense superiority of steel over iron. There is no doubt that had the Rotomahana been of iron, such a rent would have been made in her, that she would have filled in a few minutes.” The starboard bilge for over 20 feet of its length was more or less indented, one plate especially being greatly misshapen between two frames. This plate was removed, hammered, rolled flat again, and replaced—after the frames which had been bent inwards by the force of the grounding had been straightened. No new material except rivets were required for the execution of the repairs. The Rotomahana, as if to show her ability to “laugh at all disasters,” has grounded twice subsequently on the rocky and treacherous coast along which she plies, yet has come out of the ordeal with immunity from positive danger. Her remarkable experience may safely be taken as most convincing evidence of the suitability of mild steel for shipbuilding. Other cases are not wanting, however, in which the same thing is exemplified. One which recently astonished everybody concerned with shipping was that of the Duke of Westminster, a vessel 400 feet in length, built of mild steel by the Barrow Shipbuilding Coy., which lay bumping for a week on stony ground near the Isle of Wight, without making a drop of water. The bottom plating of the Duke of Westminster, as she appeared in dry dock, was corrugated between the frames for more than half the length of the vessel, and yet not a single plate was cracked, nor a rivet started. Another case of an equally striking character is that of the British India Coy.’s steamer India, built by Messrs Denny, of Dumbarton, which went ashore near the mouth of the Thames in December, 1881, and was left high and dry at low water. Her bottom, although forced up about 3 inches over a length of about 40 feet amidships, did not give way, and the vessel, during the period she was aground, did not make a drop of water.
All these are instances of the enhanced safety of ships due to the employment of steel, which ought certainly to be recognised by underwriters in the way of reduced premiums for vessels constructed of this material. One consideration which, it is both curious and sad to say, militates against this result, and which, judging from views entertained by shipowners themselves, stands in the way of the employment of steel, is not its inability but its very efficiency to withstand the results of grounding or other catastrophe. It is argued that while the effects of grounding are less severe in the case of steel, and do not result in fracture or through-piercing because of its great ductility, yet the amount of damage requiring repair is invariably much greater than in the case of iron. This view of the matter—which virtually places pounds, shillings, and pence before the comfort, if not the very lives, of those on board ship—the author feels bound to say, is not, so far as he knows, shared by owners of ships engaged in mail and passenger service, and it cannot surely be entertained by underwriters of any proper discernment.
Safety in ocean steamships, in so far as affected by design, has unquestionably received greater attention at the hands of designers within recent years than formerly. The particular directions in which this is evinced, as well as the causes at work in bringing it about, will be dealt with in the chapter on scientific progress, the object here being to indicate the extent to which the safety of ships is affected by the qualities of their construction and outfit. The general question of seaworthiness, affected as it is by matters almost beyond the province of the marine architect, is in great measure the care of others concerned. The underwriting or insurance societies looking to their own interests, the Board of Trade on behalf of the lieges, and shipowners on their own and their customers’ and servants’ account, are parties on whom responsibility devolves in this connection. The question whether they are duly, and at all times alive to such responsibility, is one very difficult to answer, and cannot be fully dealt with here. Apart from the question of remissness by these bodies, in what are clearly their special duties, there is great difficulty in apportioning the duties and responsibility aright. The Board of Trade have not infrequently received checks when with precautionary motives they have interfered with departments and in matters but little affecting a vessel’s seaworthiness. The conflict which has so long raged and still rages between the Board and the shipowners of Britain regarding the loading of vessels, illustrates, and is indeed the result of, both difficulties. The Merchant Shipping Bill, introduced by Mr Chamberlain, and in a modified form now before Parliament, will, it is hoped, furnish a satisfactory solution of the matter. Shipowners themselves have too often insisted on exercising functions and dictating in matters which only may be determined with propriety and safety by builders or by competent naval architects.
The amount of thorough supervision to which a vessel is subjected while under construction, renders the fear of unseaworthiness, from either defective construction or equipment, the least reasonable of all the fears with which ocean navigation is regarded. It is in later circumstances, and concerning matters of a more extraneous character, that the most justifiable fears may be entertained regarding a vessel’s safety. Overloading, improper stowage, bad management, under-manning, insufficient repair, besides the numerous inevitable and unforeseen circumstances incidental to sea-voyaging, may be instanced as the causes to which the greatest losses are attributable.[4] Few instances of loss from structural defects are adduceable, and even in these, causes of a more or less extraneous character are associated with the loss. On the other hand, instances could be multiplied where vessels sustaining the casualties which rough weather or rank carelessness make always imminent have come out of the ordeal with credit to the constructors. One notable case may be instanced. The Arizona, of the Guion Line, some time after being put on the Atlantic service, while steaming at a speed of 14 knots, and almost in mid-Atlantic, ran into an iceberg of gigantic dimensions, and notwithstanding that the force of the concussion smashed her bows for a length of 20 feet into an unrecognisable mass, she kept afloat, and reached a port of safety.
Where, as has already been indicated, there is such close oversight and thorough supervision—where, indeed, the real interests of every party honestly concerned lie so clearly in the high qualities of construction—nothing short of such results as the foregoing should be expected. The insurance companies, on whom the burden (monetary at least) of loss at sea ultimately falls, see it their interest to know that those registration societies, on whom they rely for guarantee as to a vessel’s structural and general efficiency, are themselves efficient and trustworthy authorities. These societies, known as Lloyd’s, Liverpool Underwriters, and Bureau Veritas, Registries, in spite of the dread as to business rivalry affecting injuriously their standards of classification, have still a high criterion, and enjoy the confidence of insurance societies and shipowners alike.
Shipowners themselves, notwithstanding some examples to the contrary, are, and have always been, anxious and painstaking seekers after thoroughness; not merely mercenary grubs, sacrificing considerations of safety to features promising exemption from tonnage or other registration dues, and perhaps the extinction of a rival. Some of the best British vessels, notably those of the Cunard Line, are unclassed at the registries, but have been built under private survey. The well known boast of the Cunard Company that not a single life has been lost by mishap at sea during their long and extensive service, is eloquent testimony to the care exercised in the construction and management of ships. It is the practice of some companies to effect classification in two, sometimes three, separate registries, and the number of inspectors employed to superintend the work of construction, over and above the surveyors of the registries and the overseers of the firms, is in some instances astonishing. The crowning case of all is that of the building firms themselves—many shipbuilders unquestionably being conscientious and thorough to a degree which simply mocks this great array of supervision.
In the outfit of vessels correspondingly close attention is paid to those features, fixed or portable, which contribute to the safety of the ship and the welfare of passengers. The universal adoption of steam winches for working cargo enables the pumps communicating with the holds to be wrought by steam, through levers attached to the barrel ends of the winches. Special donkey-engine pumps, in addition, are now employed in all the higher class vessels, and automatic means of registering the quantity of water in the holds are beginning to be introduced. Provision against outbreaks of fire, no less than against foundering, has been receiving greater attention than formerly. Many of the first-class mail steamships are fitted with fire-pipes leading to every compartment, and which convey at the turning of a valve a charge of steam sufficient to extinguish the most serious outbreak. Lowering and detaching gear for life-boats is now a necessary part of every first-class steamer’s equipment. Over a dozen different apparatuses for effecting this very important purpose are at present in the market, some of which are admirably adapted for safe and speedy working, even in the hurry and panic which too often accompanies cases of shipwreck.
Important as these devices are for saving life and property in event of casualty, the appliances which contribute to the prevention of casualty at all, are perhaps more so. This is a gradually increasing and improving element in ships’ outfit. Conspicuous among this class of articles are navigational instruments, and of these perhaps the most noteworthy are the instruments with which the name of Sir William Thomson is associated, although many others, in use or awaiting adoption, and designed for equally important purposes, might be referred to, did space permit.
Within the period covered by this review, this eminent inventor has introduced an instrument which enables soundings to be taken while vessels are going at full speed, at depths of 100 fathoms and under. The sounding line adopted is a fine steel wire, such as is used by pianoforte makers, which passes through the water with very little resistance, and can be sent to the bottom by a light weight or sinker, even when the ship is going full speed. Fastened to a short length of rope, near the sinker, there is a brass tube, in which is placed a glass tube two feet long, closed at one end and open at the other. This glass tube is coated inside with chromate of silver. As the sinker goes down, the air in the tube becomes compressed, and sea water rises up inside, the height to which it rises depending on the depth, from the surface, to which the glass tube goes down. As the sea water rises in the tube, the salt of the water acts on the chromate of silver and changes the colour from red to white; thus a mark is left on the glass tube showing the height to which the sea water rises, from which the actual depth may be at once measured by a prepared scale. By means of this sounding machine a ship can feel her way round a coast in a fog without reducing speed. In later instruments the inventor has devised another form of automatic gauge, which obviates the use of glass tubes, and is a decided improvement on the gauge here described.
The well-known Improved Mariner’s Compass introduced by Sir W. Thomson enables the magnetism of the ship to be completely corrected instead of only approximately. This is attained by the use of several small needles instead of one or two large ones. The requisite steadiness of the compass card is obtained by means of an aluminium rim suspended round the edge of the card. The extreme lightness of the card reduces greatly the wear of the needle point supporting the compass. Along with the compass the inventor supplies an azimuth mirror which greatly facilitates observations either on a point of land or on a star, the whole invention proving from experience an almost indispensable item of outfit for well-appointed vessels.
The care and ingenuity expended on the question of ship safety must not, however, be measured simply by the amount of attention and skill exercised in constructing and outfitting vessels of the common type. The question has very naturally occasioned many distinct novelties in ship design. Some of these have been directly designed to secure safety, but the greater number have aimed at combining with safety the other qualities of speed and comfort; as in the instances given in the previous chapter. The success attained in practice, it need scarcely be said, has hitherto been but partial.
The problem of rendering ships absolutely unsinkable has, from very early times, received attention from many concerned in shipbuilding and navigation. Propositions and trials have been made from time to time, without as yet any very marked success attending any of them. Various plans have been submitted for safety-ships, the general principle of which consists in forming the ship into two or more distinct and entire portions, and in the event of one sustaining damage by collision or otherwise, those remaining to be disconnected and sent adrift—presumably with all passengers on board.
Other life-saving devices, while interfering somewhat with the original structure, have simply been intended to use or modify existing features or material on board ship. Two of these which have received attention from the Scientific Societies may be shortly described as examples of the class of devices referred to. One was the proposition of Mr Jolly, M.A., of the Royal Navy, laid before the Institution of Naval Architects in 1874; the other being that of Mr Gadd, submitted to the Manchester Mechanical Society in 1879. Mr Jolly’s proposal was to construct what he felicitously termed the “ark saloon,” an erection on the upper deck, and resembling very closely an ordinary deck-house, but instead of being built permanently on the vessel, it was to be an independent structure capable of being readily disconnected, and “while answering all the purposes of accommodation found in ordinary deck-houses, to have within it hidden resources capable of converting it when afloat into a perfectly navigable vessel.” Mr Gadd’s proposal was to form the upper portion of the bulwarks of ships of loose sections 12-ft. long, composed chiefly of hollow, thin metallic tubes. These sections when immersed in the water would form so many pontoons, and would be provided with cords and loops along their sides, and in the event of the ship going down would be lifted out of their place by the action of the water. Objections on economical grounds to Mr Jolly’s scheme, fully pointed out by members of the Institute, apply almost equally to the proposal of Mr Gadd. The expense involved in their application would far outbalance in the eyes of the shipowner the possible service they could render. No provision was made by Mr Jolly for launching his ark saloon, thereby limiting its use to cases of foundering; and even in event of this, the “ark” was only to be so in name until the good ship should “go under,” and leave the saloon serenely floating—presumably with all souls inside. The difficulty in Mr Gadd’s proposal, of at once making the bulwarks easily floatable and structurally efficient for the resistance of heavy seas, seriously detracted from its feasibility.
It would be a somewhat heavy task to make adequate note of all the varied proposals and patented inventions for the preservation of life at sea. Some of these, as in the foregoing instances, are proposals affecting structural features; but others, and by far the most numerous, are simply adjuncts to the vessel. Ingenuity has been specially directed of late towards bringing into efficient requisition, in event of impending shipwreck, the commonest items of a ship’s outfit. This has been abundantly evidenced in the several naval exhibitions held within the past three years in various parts of the country. Firms whose work lies in cork and Indiarubber manufactures have there exhibited in great profusion various forms of life-belts, life-buoys, life-saving mattresses and pillows, and life-saving dresses. Others, availing themselves of larger items, have shown life-saving adaptations of deck-seats, deck-houses, and bulwarks made into the form of life-rafts. Not a few of these devices have received adoption in our passenger-carrying steamships, and their more general use—especially if accompanied by proper knowledge of how they may best be taken advantage of—would materially help to rob shipwreck of some of its terrors at least, if not of its dire fatalities. It has been urged in this connection—and the plea is eminently reasonable—that Parliament should invest the Board of Trade with proper powers—if that Body is not already vested with all that is requisite—to take the matter of life-saving appliances thoroughly and practically in hand, and by means of experiments in all kinds of weather to determine which are the best means of saving life under different conditions. Having done this, also to draw up rules for the proper stowage and use of such appliances on board ship, and to see that such rules are strictly observed, and that no vessel be permitted to go to sea which is not so equipped.
The development in the size of steamships not only affects the quality of safety, but also in various ways the element of comfort at sea. The greater length, for instance, is calculated to neutralise the longitudinal oscillation, the effects of which are so often fatal to the comfort of passengers. Again, the great length affords an advantage in the way of allowing better state-room accommodation; all the rooms, or a larger proportion of them, being next the vessel’s side, and consequently more airy and better lighted. It is not, however, in the increased length so much as in the development of all three dimensions, and especially in the increased ratio of breadth to length, that modern types of steamships are enhanced in the qualities of safety and comfort. Mistaken or imperfect notions as to the ratio most desirable for speed, have kept in perpetuity types of steamers which the fuller light of modern scientific investigation has shown to be undesirable. Great beam is now believed to be not incompatible with great speed, and even apart from questions of speed the advantages accruing from breadth are better appreciated.
As an illustration of this movement, one of the more recent of the many transatlantic mail steamships may be instanced. In the Aurania, of the Cunard Company, the proportions—although perhaps only in the line along which modern professional ideas tend—are certainly in advance of the general practice with regard to vessels of her great size. The dimensions of the Servia, the Alaska, and the City of Rome—three vessels comparable with the Aurania as constituting the largest merchant vessels afloat—all give a proportion of 10 beams to the length. The Aurania’s dimensions—470 feet by 57 feet by 39 feet—show her to have only about 8¼ beams to length. The success of the older type of vessel having proportions somewhat similar to this “modern instance” has in no material sense been eclipsed by the narrow types which subsequently for so long prevailed. Availing themselves of that freedom which independence of the registration societies yield—their vessels not being “classed”—the Cunard Coy determined to adopt the old-time proportions. The step has been justified, in so far as affected by the matter of speed, the powerful vessel, at her trials on the Clyde, having attained a mean speed of 17¾ knots, or 20½ statute miles, per hour. The stable qualities due to the great breadth of the Aurania has in actual service further confirmed the wisdom of the change. The magnificent vessels presently building on the Clyde for the Cunard Coy., though between 20 and 30 feet longer, are the same breadth as the Aurania, i.e., 57 feet. This is accounted for by the fact that the breadth of beam fixed for the Aurania was the largest amount permissible, having regard to the breadth of entrance of the largest dock in New York. This en passant is worthy of notice as giving colourable justification to the complaints sometimes made that civil engineers are urged to progress in dock accommodation only by shipbuilders treading on their heels.
Coincident with the changes made in the dimensions and structure of vessels, there are numerous features of enhanced comfort for passengers and crew which are deserving of notice. Notably is this manifest in the arrangement of saloons and state-rooms—their appointment, lighting, and ventilation. The character of steamships for the great ocean highways in this respect is above and beyond anything which Board of Trade enactments seek to secure. The amount of spirited competition itself on those services, acts as an efficient promoter of excellence in design and equipment.
It is now the prevailing fashion to appropriate that part of a steamer just before the engine and boiler hatchways for the principal saloon and first-class berthing, and it has so many advantages over the old plan of locating these apartments in the poop or after extremity of the vessel that its adoption in large steamers of the passenger-carrying trade has become all but general. Some of these advantages may be briefly enumerated. They are:—ampler and airier saloon space: the plumbness of the vessel’s sides permitting a saloon completely athwartship, which is scarcely practicable in the conventional situation aft, because of the curvature of sides; increased facilities for ventilation; purer air; freedom from the noise and vibration caused by propeller; comparative immunity from the effects of “pitching” or longitudinal oscillation.
Nothing, perhaps, in connection with improved saloon accommodation strikes one so much as the increased height between decks now prevalent. While from six-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half feet was considered sufficient some years ago, it is now the practice in first-class steamers to make the height as much as from eight-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half feet. The feeling of spaciousness this change contributes to the saloons, as well as the scope it yields for architectural treatment of the walls, are not the least gratifying results of the improvement. How much the latter result has been taken advantage of in our modern passenger steamships need scarcely be told, as their architectural and decorative character is often and eloquently enlarged upon by delighted voyagers.
A noteworthy feature in improved saloon accommodation is the provision of music rooms or social halls, which are usually situated above the dining saloons, and connected or made one therewith by means of light and ventilation wells placed in the centre. The size and ornamentation of these, and the light and air they are the means of admitting, contribute in a very marked degree to the spaciousness, beauty, and comfort of the main saloon. By recent special modifications in the deck structure, several builders on the Clyde—notably Messrs J. & G. Thomson—are rendering this feature of greater value than ever. In the National Line Steamship America, just finished by the firm named and to which attention has already been directed, the Grand Saloon is a splendid apartment, extending from side to side of the vessel, and measures over eighty feet in length. Its size and height are augmented in a remarkable degree by the fitting of a dome-roof extending in height through two tiers of decks, and embracing about half the length of saloon. This feature—some conception of which may be gathered from the sketches shown by Figs. 9 and 10, is altogether free of athwartship beams, and practically gives to the saloon a clear height of 18 feet. The crown of the dome is formed of beautifully-executed stained glass, finished round its base in a richly coloured frieze formed of panels containing well-executed oil paintings. The whole feature, for structure, ampleness, and ornamentation, is a noteworthy advance in the way of rendering the saloons of steamships more comfortable—not to say palatial—and reflects the utmost credit on the building firm.
In several vessels built within recent years on the Clyde there has been adopted—in addition to the athwartship middle length saloon, a curious and complete reversal of the traditional arrangement with respect to accommodation for the crew. The plan, one would think, must shock the orthodox sentiment of our seamen, whatever they may think of its utility. A few strokes of the draughtsman’s pencil, and per saltum “Jack” and his “castle” are transported to the poop, and the precincts so long sacred to his use are prostituted to the lounge and the tobacco pipe of the pampered “land-lubber”—i.e., they form a luxuriant smoking saloon for passengers.
Of the multifarious ways in which modern invention and skill are laid under contribution to the end that voyagers shall have the maximum of safety and comfort on board ship, the system of electric lighting now so extensively adopted is not the least noteworthy. It is only about three years ago since the application of the incandescent form of electric lamp on board ship was first tried. The success of the system and its rapid extension during the subsequent period has been remarkable, and is a matter upon which electricians, shipowners, and sea voyagers are alike to be congratulated. In every well-appointed passenger ship for ocean service, the electric light has already supplanted the former method of lighting the saloons, state-rooms, and machinery spaces, by means of oil lamps, which has so often proved a fruitful source of annoyance to passengers and crew, if not, indeed, of positive danger to the vessel herself.
The advantages of the change are such as constitute the electric light an invaluable acquisition on board every modern passenger steamship. The light gives off very little heat, there is no smell, no products of combustion to produce headaches and sickness. No matches are required, and the danger from fire is absolutely reduced to a minimum. The light requires little or no attention on the part of stewards, for it is only requisite that a man be sent round once a day to see whether any of the lamps require renewal, and the renewal of a lamp is performed as simply as trimming the wick of an oil lamp or placing a fresh candle into a candlestick. The danger, annoyance and time, formerly spent in storing up and dealing out large quantities of paraffin or other oils, are completely obviated. The lamps are as easily subject to the control of the passenger as ordinary gas jets. Instead of the flickering and somewhat clumsy oil lamps, the electric system presents, encased in neat, tiny, glass globes, a steady, mellow white light, the adaptability of which to any conceivable position or design is one of its most beautiful properties. The artistic grouping of the electric incandescent lamps, and their combination with the architectural features of saloons, are matters to which the forms adopted for the best known lamps—the Edison & Swan types—specially lend themselves. A single Edison lamp is shown by Fig. 11.
The work in electric lighting on board ship for the year 1883 shows how firmly the electric system has become established as the only system for first-class passenger vessels. The report of the Edison & Swan United Companies embraces the work on thirty-one vessels, including three Indian troopships (and four more on order), four vessels for the Clan Line, one for the Peninsular and Oriental Company, one for the Union Steamship Company, three for the Cunard Company, three for the British India Steam Navigation Company, three for the New Zealand Shipping Company, and so on. The list of Messrs Siemens Brothers amounts to twenty high-class vessels, including the Arizona, the Servia, the Aurania, the City of Rome, the City of Chicago, the Austral, the Germanic, and the Massilia. These two firms thus give fifty-one vessels, and adding those entrusted to outsiders—four in all—affords a total of fifty-five, representing an aggregate of not less than 11,000 incandescent lamps.
The application of the electric light on board ship to the purposes of signalling, as a substitute for the ordinary system of oil lanterns, has been fully shown in theory and already partially effected in practice, but its development in this direction is necessarily retarded by considerations which do not affect its use in the interior of vessels. Vessels traversing the ocean in darkness are necessarily dependent one on the other for the means of knowing their proximity, and as the electric light much exceeds in power and brilliancy that of oil lanterns, it would have the effect of eclipsing the latter even within a large radius. The adoption of the electric light for this very important purpose would, therefore, have to be pretty much a simultaneous and general movement throughout the ships of the various companies, if not of the various nations. Apart from such considerations, however, other objections have been instanced to the appropriation of the electric light for this purpose. Difficulty, it is said, has been experienced in distinguishing the colours pertaining to the port and starboard side-lights, and fears are entertained regarding the liability of the light, or the machinery employed in generating the current, to suddenly fail in its action. Few of the objections named, of course, amount to very serious obstacles, and as the system is yet so much in its infancy, it may well happen that a few years will witness all that is here foreshadowed.
Short of this universal and complete appropriation of the electric light for signalling, however, it has been introduced with gratifying results in mercantile steamers for various important purposes—e.g., for lighting up the decks and surrounding wharfage during the work of loading or disembarking cargo; for projecting a flood of light ahead of a vessel’s course where navigation is difficult, and when danger in the shape of rocks or icebergs is imminent. The employment of the light in the way last named has been specially extended in the case of vessels intended for naval warfare. By its powerful aid the position and tactics of the enemy, the configuration of forts about to be assailed, or the nature of the land where it is proposed to disembark, can all be revealed, with a minuteness almost as perfect as that due to the light of day.
Another feature on board ship affecting most intimately the well-being and comfort of passengers—too often, indeed, the safety of the ship itself—is that of ventilation. The thorough and efficient ventilation of ships is a feature which only during very recent times has received from shipowners and shipbuilders the amount of attention it deserves. The inadequacy of the methods of ventilation existing in emigrant ships, and as applied to holds for the ventilation of cargoes, engaged public attention very considerably a few years ago. The explosion on board the Doterel, with other like casualties, resulted in the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the ventilation of ships. The prominence thus given to the subject and the experience then gained, have been fruitful of increased regard for efficiency in ship ventilation. In the absence for such a long time, however, of any system capable of universal application and having at once the merits of efficiency and cheapness, shipowners have adhered to old-fashioned, unscientific, and ineffective methods long after the invention of improved systems, one or other of which would have well repaid adoption.
In ways and to an extent which may perhaps have been made evident in the previous pages, the introduction of the electric light is of itself greatly advantageous in this connection. One striking peculiarity of the change perhaps requires more explicit statement. This is the curious fact—patent enough to all who know anything of the properties of the incandescent light—that what is the very life of oil or other lights, is to it, certain death. The element thus vitally concerned is, of course, oxygen; and it need not be more than hinted that in existing so entirely without this element—at all times a great desideratum in passenger ships—the electric light is a vast benefactor to all who “go down to the sea in ships.”
Many highly-improved methods of ventilation are now open to the shipowner; the number of patented systems in use or awaiting adoption being adequate testimony to the widespread attention bestowed upon the subject. These divide themselves into two general classes:—firstly, systems which aim at providing an efficient self-acting series of ventilating pipes in which the natural current or that induced by the vessel’s own speed through the atmosphere, is the only force utilised; and secondly, those in which machines driven by steam power are employed to produce fresh currents or extract vitiated atmosphere.