THE LINER IN HER TRANSITION STATE
The period which follows after about the year 1862 is notable as
witnessing not only the gradual universal adoption of the screw in
steamships, but the more general appreciation of iron as the material
from which to construct a vessel’s hull. After the prejudices which
already we have seen arising at different stages of the steamship’s
history, it was scarcely to be wondered at that iron should come in for
its full share of virulent criticism and opposition. The obvious remark
made on all sides was that to expect iron to float was to suppose
that man could act exactly contrary to the laws of Nature, and this
notwithstanding that already, besides barges, a few ships thus built
had somehow not only managed to keep afloat, but to traverse channels
and oceans in perfect safety, carrying such heavy weights as their
own machinery, to say nothing of their cargoes and human freights.
But slowly the public prejudice began to wane. Already the Cunard
Company had given way to iron in 1856, and in 1860 the Admiralty were
at last convinced that the new method was just and sound. Within the
limited scope at our command we have not space here to enter into the
elaborate discussion of matters which have to be taken for granted
before the building of the steamship begins. But the plain answer to
the natural inquiry, as to how and why a vessel made out of iron does
not immediately sink to the bottom as soon as ever she is launched,
is this: whereas iron in itself is far heavier than water, yet the
iron ship has not the same specific gravity as the iron from which it
is made. Therefore, the ship of this material will be supported by the
water in which it is placed.
In actual displacement, an iron ship is proportionately lighter than a
ship built of wood, and by “displacement” is meant the amount of water
which a vessel displaces through being allowed to float. Of course,
the quantity of water which a ship displaces (or pushes to one side)
depends entirely on the weight of the vessel, and is exactly equal
to the weight of the ship. Thus, suppose we were to fill a dock with
water up to the level of the quay and then lower down into it by means
of gigantic cranes a _Mauretania_ or _Lusitania_, the water would, of
course, flow over on to the quays. Now the amount of water thus driven
out would be the exact equivalent of the liner’s displacement. When
we say, for instance, that the displacement of the _Mauretania_ is
40,000 tons, when loaded, we mean that her total weight when loaded
is this number of tons, and her hull when afloat puts on one side (or
“displaces”) just that amount of water.
Now, as compared with wooden ships, the use of iron meant a saving
in displacement of about one-third, taking the wooden and the iron
ships to be of the same dimensions. From this followed the fact that
the iron ship could carry a greater amount of cargo with consequent
greater profit to her owners. And, as I have already indicated in
another chapter, before it was possible to build ships of great length
iron had to be introduced to enable them to endure such longitudinal
strains. Again, a wooden ship must have her skin and ribs made of a
thickness far greater than an iron ship, for the clear reason that one
inch of iron is much stronger than one inch of wood; in other words,
to obtain a given strength the iron will take up less room in the ship.
Thus in an iron steamer there will be more space available for cargo
than in a wooden ship of the same design. We could go on enumerating
the advantages of iron, and quote instances of iron ships, whose cargo
had got on fire, arriving safely in port and coming into dock where the
assistance of the local fire-brigade had enabled the vessel’s own pumps
to get the conflagration under. It is only as recently as December
of 1909 that the _Celtic_, the well-known White Star liner, during a
voyage between New York and Liverpool, had the misfortune to get on
fire while at sea. By means of tarpaulins and injections of steam it
was possible to control the burning until the Mersey was reached, when
it was intended to flood her holds. Had she been a wooden ship instead
of steel, or even iron, the _Celtic_ would undoubtedly have ended her
days in the Atlantic.
The first Atlantic company to build all its steamers of iron was the
Inman Line, which had been founded in 1850, and until 1892 was one of
the foremost competitors for the coveted “blue ribbon” of the Atlantic.
Their first ships had been the _City of Glasgow_ and the _City of
Manchester_, and these, inasmuch as they were built of iron, and were
propelled by a screw at a time when prejudice had not yet died down,
were entirely different from the prevailing type of steamer; and this,
it should be remembered, at a period six years before the Cunard had
built their iron _Persia_. This _City of Glasgow_ was built by a
Glasgow firm of shipbuilders, and Mr. Inman had sufficient confidence
in her to purchase her and form a company. Barque-rigged, with a single
funnel, she was of only 1,610 tons and 350 horse-power. Under the
command of Captain B. E. Matthews, who had been on the famous _Great
Western_, she had already crossed from Glasgow to New York and back
in 1850, and on December 11th of that year began her regular sailings
between England and America. The _City of Glasgow_--all the ships of
this line were named after cities--was fitted up in a manner which
at that time called forth the greatest admiration. “One room,” wrote
a correspondent in the _Glasgow Courier_, about that date, “is being
fitted up as an apothecary’s shop, from which the surgeon will dispense
his medicines.” She was provided with five water-tight bulkheads, and
had a propeller whose diameter was 13 feet, with an 18 feet pitch. It
was in connection with the Inman ships that the custom was inaugurated
of carrying steerage passengers on the best Atlantic liners, although
hitherto they had been taken across solely on board sailing ships.
[Illustration: THE “CITY OF PARIS” (1866).
_From the Model in the Victoria and Albert Museum._]
[Illustration: THE “RUSSIA” (1867).
_From a Painting. By Permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._]
The _City of Glasgow_ and the _City of Manchester_ began to quicken
the pace, and at once ensued a contest between the paddle-steamers
and those propelled by screws. In 1857 this enterprising company
instituted the custom of calling at Queenstown on the way to America,
and began running their steamers to New York in place of Philadelphia.
Their success was so great that these ships were followed by the _City
of Philadelphia_, and, in 1866, by the _City of Paris_, of which a
beautiful little model is here illustrated. This was the first of their
steamships of that name, and is not to be confused with another ship
built in 1888. It will be seen that the liner before us was ship-rigged
and had a single screw. She measured 346 feet long, 40 feet wide, and
26 feet deep, her tonnage being 2,651. She was driven by horizontal
trunk engines, with steam at 30 lb. pressure, consuming 105 tons of
coal per day, and giving her a speed of 13½ knots. Her name was
afterwards changed to the _Tonquin_, and the superstitious will find
interest in the fact that she subsequently foundered at sea in the year
1885. In the _City of Paris_ the reader will be able to remark some of
the last traces of the old sailing ship, which were destined presently
to be altered considerably. The long, narrow wooden deckhouse going
down almost the length of the ship, and leaving but little room for the
passengers to promenade; the high, stout bulwarks, which rise almost to
the top of the deckhouse, were among the last links which connected the
steamship with the sailing ship. We must not forget that about the time
when the _City of Paris_ was built, the great clipper sailing ships
were enjoying their prime, and no one will deny that their influence is
very clearly marked in the model before us. As an interesting lesson
in comparisons, showing how the tendency since the ’sixties has been
to raise the decks of the steamships higher and higher, the reader
is invited to compare this illustration with that of the _Majestic_,
facing page 162, and also that of the _Kaiser Wilhelm II._, facing page
180. In the sailing ship the deckhouse had to be small, for the reason
that the deck space was required for the crew to work the sails; in
the steamer this space was encroached upon, so that the deckhouse was
elongated, and extended from the break of the anchor deck to the hood
at the stern.
The _City of Paris’s_ great rival came with the launching of the Cunard
Company’s steamship _Russia_, which is here illustrated, and began
running across the Atlantic in 1867. But though the latter’s quickest
passage from New York to Queenstown was eight days twenty-four minutes,
the _City of Paris_, in 1867, crossed in eight days four hours, which
at the time had broken the record, though the _City of Brussels_
reduced it still further to under eight days. The _Russia_ was another
Clyde-built boat, and measured 358 feet long, 43 feet broad, and
nearly 28 feet deep, having a gross tonnage of 2,960, and an indicated
horse-power of 2,800. Her average hourly speed was 13 knots on a coal
consumption of 90 tons per day. She was, of course, built of iron and
had a single screw--two characteristics which practically all the crack
Atlantic liners possessed from about 1862 until the end of 1883, if
we except the Cunard _Servia_, which was launched in 1881, although
the Allan liner _Buenos Ayrean_ had been the first steel ship on the
Atlantic.
During this period the liner was steadily adapting herself, her design,
her engines, and her build, to meet the increase of experience gained
at sea, and the increase of knowledge which shipbuilders and engineers
were accumulating was in readiness for the continuity of advance. In
1881, after a period of much usefulness and great popularity among
passengers, the _Russia_ was sold to the Red Star Line, who lengthened
her, changed her direct-acting engines to compound engines, and named
her the _Waesland_. But the _Russia_ was not the first screw-ship
possessed by the Cunard Company. Already I have mentioned that though
this line had introduced the screw-steamer into their fleet, it had
not met with the reception it had expected, and for a time a return
had been made to the paddle-wheel. It was the _China_, which had begun
running in 1862 to New York, that helped to convince those who were
prejudiced against the newer form of propulsion. She was 326 feet long,
and was driven by a type of surface-condensing engine geared down to
the propeller shaft by means of tooth-gearing after the manner already
described, her engines being of the oscillating kind.
But we approach now another of those important crises in the history
of the steamship when her future, for some years to come, became so
definitely moulded. On other pages I have already alluded to the
boilers in use on the big steamers, and to the important adoption
of the compound engines using the expansive force of steam to do
additional work after it has entered one cylinder. The increase of
steam-pressure necessitated the adoption of a different type of boiler,
with a cylindrical shell and flues. Thus the type which is known as the
“Scotch” boiler was introduced about the year 1870, and is still in use
even on the _Mauretania_. It was not until this type was adopted that
the compound system began to make progress. At the same time it is only
fair to state that the latter method had been introduced by the Pacific
Steam Navigation Company as far back as 1856, and by the National Line
in the early ’sixties. But it is when we come to the pioneer steamship
of the White Star Line that we see the real influence which was at
work to make the final cleavage between the old-fashioned steamship
and the new type of liner. That flag which is now so familiar to all
who travel across the Atlantic used to fly at the masthead of a fleet
of sailing clippers. In 1867 the managing owner of the White Star Line
retired; Mr. T. H. Ismay took over the control and began by introducing
iron for the clippers instead of wood. Two years later and a fleet
of steamships, especially constructed for the American passenger
trade, was ordered to be built. The order was given to that famous
Belfast firm, Messrs. Harland and Wolff, who have built the White
Star steamships ever since. In August of 1870 was launched the first
_Oceanic_, which made the old-fashioned rub their eyes in surprise
and shake their heads in distrust. For the _Oceanic_ simply threw
convention to the winds and set going an entirely new order of things
in the steamship world. From her have followed most of the modern
steamship improvements up to the coming of the turbine. Some idea of
her appearance may be gathered from the illustration facing this page,
but in the fewest words we will now endeavour to indicate some of her
especial characteristics.
[Illustration: THE “OCEANIC” (1870).
_From a Painting by W. L. Wyllie, R. A. By Permission of Messrs. Ismay,
Imrie & Co._]
When she came into the Mersey that memorable day in February of
1871 her immense length in comparison with her beam was instantly
noticeable. I have already explained the value of length in ocean
travel, but here was a ship with a beam exactly one-tenth of her 420
feet length. Sir Edward Harland knew what he was about when designing
so novel a craft, and in spite of the general comments that the
_Oceanic_ would prove a bad sea-boat, and unfit to face the terrors of
an Atlantic winter’s gale, she showed that science in ship-building
is of more avail than the blind following of an existing convention.
Nor did she encumber herself with the usual heavy, high bulwarks that
we noticed in the _City of Paris_, but, instead, she substituted iron
railings, and for a perfectly sound reason. The old method gave to
a ship a false security, for it could not altogether prevent a sea
from coming on board, and when the latter had come over the ship the
bulwarks tended to keep it there, whereas the _Oceanic’s_ railings
allowed the sea to flow off immediately and freely, as she shook
herself and rose to the next wave. The long, narrow wooden deck-house
that we also noticed on the _City of Paris_ was also discarded, but
another deck of iron was added. With her, too, disappeared most of
the objections to the propeller--at any rate, in the higher-priced
accommodation, since the saloon passengers for the first time were
placed not at the stern of the ship (where the vibration and jarring
of the propeller were most felt), but amidships and forward of the
machinery. The saloon extended the entire width of the ship,
whilst the numerous state-rooms were forward and abaft of the saloon.
Furthermore, to an extent that had never been known on an Atlantic
liner, the use of glass side-lights was employed, and these were made
much larger than was customary, so that the interior of the ship was
rendered much lighter, as it was also made more airy.
The _Oceanic_ also introduced an improved type of water-tight doors.
The old-fashioned candle-lamps which lit the rooms were replaced by
oil-lamps, and instead of the old-fashioned form for seating, the
passengers had the comfort of revolving arm-chairs, which have since
become such features of ocean travel. On deck, her forward and stern
ends were fitted with turtle decks, so that a wave sweeping over this
dome-like shape could swish across it without doing the damage it
could have effected on the first _City of Paris_, for instance. The
importance of this in a following sea of any size is obvious, and we
must remember that whereas to-day the stern of a modern liner towers
high above the waves, and can usually defy them, yet in those days the
_Oceanic_ and her contemporaries were still of modest altitude. From
the illustration before us some conception of the bow turtle deck,
painted white, may be gathered, but a much better idea may be seen of
a similar arrangement at the stern of the _Britannic_ (facing page
154). The addition of that extra deck of iron in the _Oceanic_ shows
the commencement of the many-decked modern liner, to which attention
was drawn in the German liner and her successors, so that in the
_Mauretania_, as we look down on her decks, she seems to be built up
over every possible inch of space that is permissible.
But the _Oceanic_ was something more than a comfortable boat and an
ingenious example of the naval architect’s originality; she was also a
“flyer.” With her four-cylinder compound engines she was able to reel
off her 14¼ knots on an average. There were two high-pressure cylinders
and two of low-pressure, the high-pressure cylinder being above the
low-pressure and driving the same crank. Her indicated horse-power was
3,000, and her tonnage came out at 3,808 gross. She even attained to
14¾ knots, and showed herself to be the fastest liner afloat, faster
even than the Inman liner _City of Brussels_. It is a proof of the
excellence of her design and the perfection of her build that on her
sixty-second voyage in October, 1889, after she had been transferred
to the Pacific service running between San Francisco and Yokohama, she
made the quickest passage on record across the Pacific.
[Illustration: THE “BRITANNIC” (1874).
As she appeared as a transport during the South African War.
_From a Photograph by F. G. O. Stuart, Southampton._]
[Illustration: THE “SERVIA” (1881).
_From a Painting. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._]
The owners of the _Oceanic_ followed up their success by the
_Britannic_ and the _Germanic_ in 1874. A photograph of the former is
here reproduced as she appeared when leaving Southampton during the
Boer War for South Africa, acting as a transport, with British troops
aboard. From this picture it will be noticed that she is purely a
steamship, but when launched she was rigged as a four-masted barque
with yards and sails, but, following the fashion of the _Oceanic_, the
bowsprit had been discarded. At one time the _Britannic_ was given a
curious arrangement by which she could lower her propeller so that it
was almost level with the keel, and being placed thus low it was hoped
that all tendency to race when the vessel pitched would be eradicated.
To this end a hollow recess was made in the hull at the stern so that
the shaft could be made to work up or down as desired. But the results
were disappointing, so that after giving the method several months’
trial it was discarded. Both the _Britannic_ and the _Germanic_
were larger craft than the _Oceanic_, and had a tonnage of just over
5,000 tons, and a length of 468 feet, with 45 feet beam. They also were
fitted with compound engines, which gave 5,000 indicated horse-power,
and a pressure of 75 lbs. to the square inch. The _Britannic_ broke the
record again by her speed of 16 knots, but the year after her launch
the Inman Line, with the _City of Berlin_, also developed 16 knots, and
wrested the record from the White Star boats by crossing the Atlantic
in seven days fourteen hours. She was a much larger ship than those
other two, had a gross tonnage of 5,491, and was 520 feet over all.
This ship is interesting as having been the first Atlantic liner to be
fitted with electric light, which was installed in 1879. The White Star
Line, however, had endeavoured in 1872 to instal in their _Adriatic_
a system of lighting the ship by gas generated from oil. But the
rolling of the ship and other causes led to so much leakage that it was
discarded.
In the year 1879 the Atlantic competition was further accelerated by
the advent of the _Arizona_, which belonged to the Guion Line. This
company had been formed in 1866, and was originally known as Williams
and Guion. In 1879 the _Arizona_ further reduced the Atlantic passage
by eight hours, but in the same year, whilst bound eastwards, she had
the misfortune to run at full speed into a great iceberg, and her
bows were altogether crumpled up; she would have foundered, but her
water-tight bulkhead happily kept her afloat so that the ship was
able to reach St. John’s, Newfoundland, her nearest port. It was such
incidents as this which caused the adoption of efficient water-tight
compartments on most steamships of any size, and the influence of the
British Admiralty on our national shipping was in the late ’seventies
and the early ’eighties decidedly powerful. By their instructions
every steamship on their list available for transport duties was to be
divided up in such a manner that if any one of her compartments should
be opened to the sea in calm water this loss of buoyancy would not
imperil the ship’s safety. As a result the shipbuilders took the hint,
and greater attention was paid to so important a point.
The _Oregon_, another of the Guion Line’s famous steamships, was
purchased by the Cunard Company, and showed her marvellous turn of
speed by making the run from Queenstown to New York in six days, nine
hours, fifty-one minutes. She distinguished herself by keeping up what
was then the unheard-of average passage of six days fourteen hours.
But, like the _Arizona_, this _Oregon_ was born unlucky. Off the North
American coast she was run into and sunk by a sailing ship, though the
passengers and mails were happily saved. The _Oregon_ had a tonnage of
7,375, and was driven by direct-acting inverted engines which developed
the remarkable sum of 13,500 horse-power, and produced the equally
wonderful speed of 18 knots per hour, thus earning for her the name of
the “Greyhound of the Atlantic.”
We wish to call the reader’s attention now to the _Servia_, of which
an interesting picture is reproduced opposite page 154. In her
was embodied the result of another scientific discovery which has
revolutionised the construction of the deep-sea ship, whether propelled
by steam or sails. As iron had superseded wood, so now steel was to
take the place of iron as the material of which to build the hull.
So thoroughly, indeed, has this practice spread that during the year
1909, with the exception of a few small wooden vessels whose aggregate
tonnage does not much exceed a thousand, the entire amount of new
British shipping in that year was constructed of steel, and iron was
not used at all for the hull. Such a fact is highly significant of the
value of the newer material. Although as far back as 1873 the French
had used this in constructing parts of their warships, it was not
until four years later that the British mercantile marine began to be
interested in it. But at length the Cunard Company were convinced of
its superior virtues over iron, and ordered the _Servia_ to be built
of this material. When she made her appearance in 1881, she was the
largest and most powerful ship, excepting the _Great Eastern_, that
had ever been launched; her measurements were 515 feet, breadth 52
feet, depth 37 feet, with 7,392 gross tonnage. She lowered the Atlantic
voyage once more to seven days, one hour, thirty-eight minutes, her
speed being 17 knots, though it was not until 1884 that she really
showed her full abilities. We may sum up the advantages which were
now recognised in mild steel as consisting of, firstly, a saving of
25 per cent. in weight, just as we saw that iron exercised a similar
superiority over wood. “Mild” steel is very ductile and can easily be
fashioned into the required shape suitable for a steamship without
risk of cracking. Iron is comparatively brittle, and steel is more
uniform in quality. The latter will also endure a greater strain on its
elasticity, and this had already been appreciated by the Royal Navy
years before commercial shipbuilders realised its full value. Although
the first cost of a steel-built ship was greater than one constructed
of iron, yet that extra cost was found to be over-balanced by other
considerations. Just as iron was stronger than wood, so steel was
proved to be stronger than iron: consequently, the weight of the ship
was diminished, which meant that the ship could carry a greater amount
of fuel or cargo, or allowed of her being fitted with more powerful,
though more weighty, engines. Steel is now very much cheaper than
wrought iron, and is used not merely for the plates of the hull, but in
almost every portion of the ship’s construction. Even in sailing ships
the yards, masts, and rigging are to a large extent now made of this
material.
[Illustration: THE “UMBRIA” (1884).
_From a Painting. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._]
[Illustration: THE “ORIENT” (1879).
_From a Painting. By permission of Messrs. Anderson, Anderson & Co._]
The same builders who had been responsible for the _Oregon_ were
commissioned to build two of the most historic Cunarders, whose names
are almost as familiar as the Atlantic over which they voyaged for
so many years with a regularity and reliability that would be hard
to beat. In 1884 the first of this famous couple, the _Umbria_,
was delivered, followed early the next year by the _Etruria_. An
illustration of the former, as she appeared when originally rigged as
a barque, will be found facing this page. Both ships were identical in
their main features, and are interesting in many ways. Their masts were
of steel, as well as their hulls. At the stern we can see the idea of
the turtle deck, as inherited from the _Oceanic_, slightly modified so
that the upper part has become available for a short promenade deck for
second-class passengers, and the graceful overhang at the stern also
is indicative of the rapid advance since the clumsy after-end of the
steamship gave her a far less yacht-like appearance. There is also a
promenade deck extending for nearly 300 feet amidships for the use of
the first-class passengers, on which a large teak deckhouse encloses
the entrances to the saloon, ladies’ saloon, captain’s room, and chart
room. Above this house comes the officers’ lookout bridge and house
for the steersman, and over this, again, is the flying bridge. Forward
there will be seen the large top-gallant forecastle, which extended
for over 100 feet aft from the stern. The engines were, of course,
compound, with one high-pressure cylinder and two of low-pressure.
These vessels were built to the highest class and to be available for
Government service as armed cruisers in the event of war. Their average
speed was found to be 18½ knots, although the _Umbria_ reached over 20
knots during her six-hours’ trial on the Clyde. These two ships between
them broke up all standing Atlantic records, for in August, 1885, the
_Etruria_ crossed from Queenstown to New York in six days, six hours,
thirty-six minutes, although in 1892 the _Umbria_ did better still
by crossing the Atlantic at an average rate of over 19½ knots. Until
the coming of the _Campania_ and the _Lucania_, the Cunard possessed
in these the two fastest ships of their fleet. But it is certain the
company never owned two more satisfactory steamships, for they have
confessed that “no ships ever gave their owners less uneasiness than
these two, and none have done such an extraordinary quantity 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.”
As they got older, they actually became faster instead of slower, and
the _Etruria_ made her fastest westward passage in five days, twenty
hours, fifty-five minutes, with a highest day’s run of 509 knots. She
even maintained an average of 20 knots bound eastward. At the end of
1909 she was sold by the Cunard Company, and a like fate befell her
sister, the _Umbria_, which was sold to the Forth Shipbreaking Company
in April, 1910, for the sum, it is said, of £20,000. But the _Umbria_,
right to the end, continued to break records, even when she had been
long since outrun in matters of speed. For instance, in the year 1893,
two days before Christmas, whilst bound west across the Atlantic, it
was discovered that a serious fracture had occurred in the propeller
shaft. The engines were accordingly stopped, and after a time the
German steamship _Bohemia_ came in sight and took her in tow, but a
heavy gale sprang up and the tow-rope parted. The _Umbria_ lost sight
of her friend and drifted about the Atlantic for three days and nights,
but during this time Chief-Engineer Tomlinson pluckily succeeded
in repairing the shaft, and the _Umbria_, with her engines going
half-speed, made New York on the last day of the old year, to the great
relief of those ashore who had given her up for lost. Another record
of a totally different nature was made by her only a few weeks before
she was sold out of the Cunard Line. She reached Liverpool just before
midnight on Thursday, February 10th, 1910, and in spite of having
only just completed her round trip of the double Atlantic journey,
she was got ready at once to sail eastward again on the Saturday,
February 12th. We can gain some idea of the magnitude of the task when
we realise that in that remarkably brief time she had not only to be
overhauled, but to have her stores taken on board, to be supplied with
3,000 tons of coal and 450,000 gallons of water, to say nothing of the
many tons of cargo of all kinds. Some of the officers had barely time
to make a hurried call to see their wives before rushing back on board
to superintend this exceptionally fast “turn-round.” The measurements
of these two ships were 501 feet long, 57 feet broad, 38 feet deep,
with a gross tonnage of 7,718 tons; their builders were Messrs. John
Elder and Company, of Glasgow.
Before we pass on in the next chapter to witness the coming of the
twin-screw ship, and the disappearance of sails as the auxiliaries of
the steamship, we must glance at the progress which was going on during
the ’seventies and ’eighties in the steamships employed running, not
across the Atlantic, but to the East. Already we have seen something of
the origin of the Peninsular and Oriental Line, and the difficulties
which it had to contend with in its early career. Now, in 1877,
another steamship service to the East was started by the Orient Line,
which began by chartering from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company a
suitable vessel which should run from London to Sydney via the Cape of
Good Hope. This was the _Lusitania_--a very different ship, of course,
from the modern Cunarder of the same name--but in her own time this
_Lusitania_ was also famous. For many years, until, indeed, as recently
as 1905, the Orient and Pacific Lines worked together to maintain a
service between England and Australia. At first the sailings were only
monthly, but from 1880 they were fortnightly. Since 1905 the Pacific
Company has withdrawn from this trade.
The pioneer of the Orient Line’s own ships--apart from chartered
vessels--was the steamer _Orient_, of which an illustration is given
opposite to page 158. She was built of iron, in 1879, by the same
firm who turned out the _Etruria_ and _Umbria_. Her measurements
are 460 feet long, 46½ feet wide, 36 feet 8 inches deep, with a
tonnage of 5,386, and 5,400 horse-power. She was given four decks,
of which two were entirely of iron, and sufficient bunker space was
provided to carry enough coals to enable her to steam all the way
to Australia round the Cape without having to coal _en route_. She
was also provided with a double bottom, which could be filled with
water as ballast, if desired. She was driven by inverted vertical
engines having the compound principle--one high-pressure cylinder and
two of low-pressure--and had a four-bladed propeller. Amidships, it
will be noted, is a white erection, which rises up from the ship’s
side and becomes the bridge-deck, extending right across the ship
and some distance both fore and aft. The origin of this development
in the steamship is as follows: Originally, in some of the early
ocean-going steamships, the openings on deck from the engine and boiler
compartments were merely protected by means of glazed skylights and
coamings, forming a hatch. Perhaps it was not a very seaworthy kind of
arrangement, but it is essential for plenty of air to get down below,
unhindered, for the proper burning of the furnaces, to say nothing of
a supply for the engineering section of the crew. However, during the
month of January, 1866, the steamship _London_, after encountering a
heavy gale in the Bay of Biscay, endeavoured to make for Plymouth, but
during the night a bad sea broke over her, destroyed her engine-room
skylight, extinguished the furnaces, and eventually the ship foundered.
From this incident was learnt the advisability of protecting this
opening with something more substantial. Its first form was, therefore,
to raise the sides of the hatchways from the ship by means of an iron
casing so as to be about eight feet above the deck and about level with
the captain’s bridge. From this it was a perfectly easy transition from
the bridge to the bridge-deck, extending it sufficiently to protect the
opening adequately. The same idea in a more elementary form will be
seen in the tug _Blackcock_ illustrated in Chapter IX.
[Illustration: THE “AUSTRAL” (1881).
_From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. Anderson, Anderson & Co._]
[Illustration: THE “VICTORIA” (1887).
_From the Painting by Frank Murray in the possession of the Peninsular
& Oriental Steam Navigation Co._]
[Illustration: THE “MAJESTIC” (1889).
_From a Photograph. By Permission of Messrs. Ismay, Imrie & Co._]
The _Austral_ shows another early steamship of the Orient Line.
Constructed by the same builders as the _Orient_ and _Umbria_, she
was launched in 1881, and it is a sign of those later times that
the yards have now disappeared, though she was schooner-rigged and
could set 28,000 square feet of canvas on her four masts. Her gross
registered tonnage worked out at 5,524. Built of mild steel with a
double bottom, the latter being subdivided into nineteen water-tight
compartments with thirteen water-tight bulkheads in her hull, the
_Austral_ was specially constructed to act as a cruiser, and to carry
guns in case of war. The year after she was launched the _Austral_ was
lying in Sydney Harbour with her port-holes left open, when, owing to
a heavy list, caused through unequal coaling, the water poured in, and
she sank in fifty feet of water, but was refloated again several months
after.
The four-masted steamship shown opposite page 162 is the _Victoria_,
one of the P. and O. boats of this period. Launched in 1887, the
_Victoria_ belongs to the company’s “Jubilee” class, and is now one
of the oldest boats in this line’s employ. Both at the bow and stern
there will be seen a modification of the turtle deck. A sister ship was
launched under the name of the _Britannia_. Their tonnage is, in the
case of the _Victoria_, 6,522, but the _Britannia_ comes out at three
tons more, the length being slightly over 465 feet, with a beam of 52
feet, and a depth of over 26 feet.
We have thus seen the liner in a condition of change, and it is only
from the close of the eighth decade of the nineteenth century that she
begins to take on a form more in accordance with a steamship able to
pursue her way totally independent of auxiliary sails. The experience
which we recorded as having happened to the _Umbria_ clearly marked the
way for the coming of the twin-screw ship. It was patent to anyone that
by this means an efficient safeguard would be obtained in the event of
a fractured shaft befalling the ship. If it was likely that one should
come to grief, it was highly improbable that the other would not be
available for getting the ship into port, and so enabling the owning
steamship line not merely to preserve their reputation for carrying
passengers, mails and cargo with safety, but to avoid the very costly
possibilities of having to pay salvage claims to the rescuing ship
that should happen to fall in with the injured liner and to tow her
home. As soon as the twin-screw became established there was virtually
little use for the sails, and so it was not much longer before they
disappeared altogether from the crack liner.