SMALLER OCEAN CARRIERS AND CROSS-CHANNEL STEAMERS
Although it is true, as I have already pointed out, that the North
Atlantic has been the cockpit wherein the great steamship competition
has been fought out, yet it is not to that ocean alone that all the
activity has been confined. Because of the limitations which the Suez
Canal imposes it is not possible to build steamships for the Eastern
routes of such enormous tonnage as are customary for the North American
passages.
In the course of our story we have seen the beginnings of the principal
steamship companies trading not merely to the west, but in many other
spheres. In tracing the history of steamship companies as distinct
from that of the steamship herself, we are immediately confronted with
difficulties, for the company may be older than steamships of any
sort; or, again, the company may be of comparatively modern origin,
yet from the first possessed of the finest steamships, of a character
surpassing their contemporaries. For instance, one of the very oldest
lines is the Bibby Line to Rangoon. This was founded as far back as
1807, yet it was not until 1851 that it adopted steam. The White Star
Line, as we have seen, was previously composed of sailing vessels, and
its first steamship, the _Oceanic_, did not appear until 1870, but
when she did make her appearance, she surpassed anything else afloat
by her superior virtues. To take, therefore, a chronological survey
of the establishment of the steamship organisations would be to
convey nothing satisfactory to us in our study of the evolution of the
steamship, but nevertheless, we may pertinently set forth some of the
more venerable but no less active steamship lines of the present day.
[Illustration: THE “MOOLTAN.”
_From a Photograph. By permission of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam
Navigation Co._]
In addition to those already mentioned whose coming certainly was
intimately connected with the evolution of the steamship, we might
mention Messrs. George Thompson and Company’s Aberdeen Line, which at
one time was famous for its fine fleet of sailing ships. This line was
established in 1824, the year of incorporation of the General Steam
Navigation Co. Six years later the Harrison Line arose, though the
Allan Line, which dates back to 1820, did not run its first steamer
until 1854. The well-known Hull firm of Messrs. Thomas Wilson and
Sons appeared in 1835, and the African Steamship Company three years
earlier. In 1849 the City Line, now amalgamated with the Ellerman
Line, was founded, as also were Messrs. Houlder Brothers. The Anchor
Line came in 1852, and the Castle Mail Packets Company, which is now
amalgamated with the Union Line to form the Union-Castle Line. The
British East India Company dates from 1855, and the Donaldson Line
a year earlier. The year 1856 saw the inauguration of Messrs. J. T.
Rennie and Sons’ Aberdeen Line to South Africa, and in 1866 the Booth
Line was first started, whilst the Collins Line had been formed in
1850, the Inman Line the same year, the North German Lloyd in 1858,
the Compagnie Transatlantique in 1861, the National Line in 1863, and
the Guion Line (originally Williams and Guion) in 1866. Some of the
last-mentioned are now extinct, and have been dealt with in another
chapter. Within the last few months the P. and O. Company have absorbed
the Lund Line, and the shipping interests of the late Sir Alfred
Jones have been consolidated by Lord Pirrie, whose name is so well
known by his close connection with the firm of Harland and Wolff.
During 1910 another Atlantic service was inaugurated by the appearance
of the Royal Line, which the Canadian Northern Railway Company is
running between Bristol and the Dominion. Their two ships the _Royal
Edward_ and the _Royal George_ were originally built under different
names for an express service between Marseilles and Alexandria, but
that venture was not found profitable. They have recently been modified
to suit the North Atlantic route and are representative of the finest
examples of the modern steamship, though not so large as the biggest
liners. Propelled by turbines driving triple screws, they have all the
luxury of the most up-to-date ships, with lifts, wireless telegraphy,
special dining-room for children, cafés and many other up-to-date
features. The Royal Line is thus another instance of a new steamship
organisation stepping right into the front rank at the first effort.
If it is alleged that some of the older lines engaged on the South
Atlantic and Eastern routes have not shown that same progressive
spirit which the North Atlantic companies have exhibited, at least
recent ships have shown that everything is being done which can be
expected, short of reaching the mammoth dimensions of the Atlantic
liners. Passengers voyaging to Australia, India, South Africa, and
South America, for example, realise that they are destined to remain
at sea for a long period, and the question of the utmost speed is not
of primary importance. Owing partly to the American spirit of speed
and the much shorter distance which separates the two continents, the
voyage between England and New York has become rather an elongated
channel passage than a journey in which one settles oneself down for
weeks, and the incentives to make it shorter still are never for a
moment wanting.
The recent additions to the P. and O. fleet are indicative that
progress is not confined to any one route. A new epoch in the history
of this company began when the first of their “M” class was added.
Reckoning them historically from 1903 these are the _Moldavia_,
_Marmora_, _Mongolia_, _Macedonia_, _Mooltan_, _Malwa_, _Mantua_, and
the _Morea_. The smallest of these, the _Moldavia_, is of 9,500 tons;
the largest are the last three mentioned, which are of 11,000 tons, and
though wireless telegraphy has not played the same conspicuous part as
on the Atlantic, yet this is now being installed in all the P. and O.
mail steamers on the Bombay and Australian routes. Two new steamers,
also of the “M” class, are being built, to be called respectively the
_Medina_ and the _Maloja_, which will be thus fitted. It is no doubt
owing to the slowness with which Australia, India, and Ceylon have
adopted land installations that a corresponding reluctance has been
found in the case of the steamships to adopt what is so significant
a feature of the modern steamship. The illustration facing page 216
shows one of this “M” class, the _Mooltan_, coming to her berth in the
Tilbury Dock, whilst the opposite illustration will afford some idea of
the starting platform in her engine room. Her measurements are: length
520·4 feet, beam 58·3 feet, and depth 33·2 feet; her tonnage is 9,621,
with an indicated horse-power of 15,000. She was built in 1905 by
Messrs. Caird and Company, of Greenock. It was owing to the increase in
size of the new P. and O. ships that the comparatively recent transfer
was made of the company’s mail and passenger steamers from the Royal
Albert Dock to Tilbury.
[Illustration: THE STARTING PLATFORM IN THE ENGINE ROOM OF THE
“MOOLTAN.”
_From a Photograph. By permission of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam
Navigation Co._]
The Union-Castle fleet is composed partly of those ships which
belonged at the time of amalgamation to the old Castle Line, and
partly of those which were of the Union Line. In addition to these,
new steamships have been since brought out to swell the list. The
depression in South Africa consequent on the Boer War necessitated
a careful consideration before the addition of other mail steamers,
but the _Balmoral Castle_ (_see_ opposite page 220), which was
completed in 1910, and her sister the _Edinburgh Castle_, are the
largest and most powerful vessels employed in the South African trade.
This _Balmoral Castle_ has a gross tonnage of about 13,000, with an
indicated horse-power of 12,500, and is fitted with twin-screws.
Fitted, of course, with water-tight bulkheads and cellular bottom,
every modern improvement has been taken advantage of in her internal
arrangement with regard to the service for which she was built. The
_Balmoral Castle_ has a deck space larger than that usually given in
this line, the first and second class having practically the whole of
the boat deck; whilst by joining the poop and promenade deck the third
class have their deck space doubled. She is installed with the modern
loud-speaking telephones between the bridge and engine-room and the
extremities of the ship. Wireless telegraphy has not been installed,
but a room has been specially built and equipped if it is decided
hereafter to adopt this apparatus. On the fore-mast head a Morse
signalling lamp has been placed for long distance signalling, and a
semaphore after the Admiralty pattern on the bridge for short distance
signalling. She is propelled by two sets of quadruple-expansion
engines, and has ten boilers.
The White Star Line, in addition to their regular mail and passenger
service across the North Atlantic, have three special freight and
live-stock steamers--viz. the _Georgic_, of 10,077 tons, the _Cevic_
of 8,301 tons, and the _Bovic_ of 6,583 tons--all of these having
twin-screws. Besides these they possess four ships engaged on the New
Zealand route, five on the Australian trade, besides two smaller ships
for freight.
We have already mentioned the _Ivernia_ and _Saxonia_ as belonging to
the intermediate, economical types which the Cunard Company own in
addition to their bigger liners. They also carry on a Mediterranean
service from New York to Gibraltar, the Italian and Adriatic ports,
to Algiers and Alexandria. The North German Lloyd Company also own a
number of smaller steamships employed in intermediate service to ports
other than those served by their fast liners, the largest being of
about 6,000 tons.
The American Line, which was formerly the old Inman organisation, own
besides the _Philadelphia_, already discussed, the _New York_, the
_St. Louis_, and _St. Paul_, but the last two, each being only 11,629
tons, are the largest of their small fleet. Besides the Anchor and the
Allan Lines and the new Royal Line the Canadian Pacific Railway now
maintains a long connection by steamship and railway from Liverpool
right away to Hong Kong through Canada. The _Empress of Britain_, with
her quadruple-expansion engines and twin-screws, is one of the finest
steamships on the Canadian route.
[Illustration: THE “BALMORAL CASTLE.”
_From a Photograph. By permission of the Union-Castle Mail Steamship
Co._]
We could continue to deal singly with all the steamship lines which
have now sprung into existence, with the fine ships of the Atlantic
Transport Line, whose _Minnehaha_, in the spring of 1910, had the
misfortune to run on to the Scillies during her voyage from America
to this country. We might instance the Holt Line, the Nelson Line,
and other enterprising organisations, but such matter would hardly
come within the scope of our subject, which shows the manner in which
the steamship has developed into so useful an institution. Since we
have now been able to witness the manner in which the steamship has
been adapted for service across the deep, wide ocean, let us, before
we close this chapter, take a glance at the way in which she has
also become so indispensable for those shorter but no less important
cross-channel passages.
[Illustration: THE “CAMBRIA” (1848).
_From a Painting. By Permission of the London & North Western Railway._]
[Illustration: ENGINES OF THE “LEINSTER” (1860).
_From the Model in the Victoria and Albert Museum._]
At an earlier stage we saw that the cross-channel steamship service
owed its inauguration almost exclusively to that shrewd Scotsman,
Napier, who, after devoting a great amount of patient study to the
subject, evolved the _Rob Roy_. But we must not omit to give credit
also to others whose work in this connection has been of such historic
importance. From about the second decade of the eighteenth century
there had been a service between Holyhead and Dublin, carried on by
means of sailing packets, as there was, indeed, between Scotland and
Ireland, as well as England and the Continent. Then had come the first
steam service when the _Talbot_, of 156 tons, built in 1818 at Port
Glasgow, for David Napier, began running in the following year between
Holyhead and Dublin. In 1819, also, was inaugurated the Liverpool and
Dublin service, and in 1823 one of the oldest steamship companies
still in existence, the Dublin Steam Packet Company, was formed. It
must be recollected that the journey between London and Dublin was a
long and tedious one, for there was no railway, and considerable sums
of money were expended in order to improve the road between Holyhead
and the English capital. The sailing packets took on the average about
twenty hours to cross the Irish Channel. The _Royal William_, already
alluded to when we discussed the first Atlantic steamers, was one of
the early steamships of this City of Dublin fleet. In 1836, when George
Stephenson proposed the construction of the Chester and Holyhead
Railway, he intended that the company should also provide ships between
the latter port and Ireland, but the various steamship companies
opposed this until 1848. The London to Liverpool railway was opened in
1838, and so, since the Liverpool to Dublin route was the quickest way
to get from London to Ireland, Holyhead was given the cold shoulder for
the next ten years. But when the continuous railway was opened between
London and Holyhead, the popularity of the Welsh port returned, and
the directors and principal shareholders of the Chester and Holyhead
Company, who had formed themselves into a small independent company,
ordered four new vessels, the _Cambria_, the _Anglia_, the _Hibernia_,
and the _Scotia_. Of these the first is illustrated herewith. These
ships were 207 feet long, 26 feet wide, and 14 feet deep, with a
draught of 8 feet 10 inches. They had a gross tonnage of 589, carried
535 passengers, and possessed the remarkable speed of 14 knots.
Instead of the slow passages of the old sailing packets these four
ships lowered the average voyage to 3 hours 34 minutes. In 1859 this
Chester-Holyhead railway was amalgamated with the London and North
Western Railway, and in 1863 the latter introduced a new type of craft,
with the same speed as before, but of 700 tons. Both a day and a night
service were presently instituted, and this service has continued to
be one of the most efficient and the fastest of all the cross-channel
ferries from this country. Of four new vessels which were built for
the Holyhead-Kingstown service in 1860 we may mention the _Leinster_.
She was a large vessel for those times, with a displacement of 2,000
tons, and constructed of iron. The illustration facing this page shows
a capital model of her engines, which were of the oscillating type, and
since we have previously described this kind it is hardly necessary
to deal with them now, further than to remark that they gave the ship a
speed of nearly 18 knots.
Coming now further south, it will be remembered that Napier’s _Rob
Roy_, which had first plied between Greenock and Belfast in 1818, was
in the following year transferred to the Dover and Calais route, and
was thus the first regular steamship to open the mail and passenger
service between these ports. This was followed for a long time by
other steam “ferries,” some of which were Government mail packets, and
others were privately owned. The General Steam Navigation Company,
which had been formed in 1820, and commenced its steam coastal trade,
was not long before it had inaugurated a service between London and
Hamburg, and by 1847 it had steamships running between London and the
following ports:--Hamburg, Rotterdam, Ostend, Leith, Calais, Havre,
as well as from Brighton to Dieppe, and Dover to Boulogne. These were
all paddle-steamers until the screw was introduced in 1854. In April
of 1844 their paddle-steamer _Menai_ was advertised to leave Shoreham
Harbour, calling at Brighton Chain Pier--or rather Brighthelmstone, as
it was then still known--and thence proceeding to Dieppe. She was thus
the first channel steamer to run between these places.
It was not until the old stage-coach had given way to the railroad that
the numbers of travellers between England and the Continent increased.
By June of 1843 the South Eastern Railway had reached Folkestone, and
in February of the following year it had also joined Dover. The London,
Chatham, and Dover Line was of later date, and did not reach Dover
until 1860, where they were able to put to the best use their capable
fleet of passenger boats which steamed to Calais. But in 1845 the
South Eastern Railway had, like the Chester and Holyhead Line, formed
themselves into a separate company, to run a line of steam packets,
owing to the fact that the successors to the _Rob Roy_ were deemed
unsatisfactory, and endless objections were made by the complaining
passengers who reluctantly crossed the choppy waters of the English
Channel. Previous to this date the South Eastern Railway were wont
to hire steamships to carry their passengers between England and the
Continent to Boulogne, Calais, and Ostend. When their line had joined
up Dover they started running from there to Calais with their own
boats in two hours, twenty-eight minutes, calling at Folkestone on the
way for twenty-eight minutes. The first of these steamboats were the
_Princess Maud_ and the _Princess Mary_. The run from Dover to Ostend
took four and a half hours.
In 1848 the Admiralty, which had been responsible for the steam mail
packets service (as also we have seen earlier in this book they had
charge of the transatlantic mails), handed over their charge to the
Post Office. But neither of these Governmental branches was able to
make a success of this, and after a time the Post Office withdrew
their mail packets and in 1854 put the carrying out to contract. A
Mr. Churchyard was accepted as the contractor, and his agreement
continued until 1862. It will be recollected that two years previous
to the latter date the London, Chatham and Dover Company had connected
their line to Dover, and they obtained the contract in succession to
Churchyard for carrying the mails from Dover to Calais. At the same
time the South Eastern Railway Company withdrew their steamboat service
to Folkestone. It should be mentioned that the General Steam Navigation
Company had also withdrawn from this route owing to the competition on
the part of the railway companies, who were in a superior position by
being able to run their passengers on both their own railways and their
own steamboats.
The general character of these early cross-channel steam-craft was
very similar to that of the _Cambria_. Some of the steamboats employed
on this Dover-Calais route have been marked by the possession of
exceptional features. It was in 1875 that the _Bessemer_ was designed
with the object of making the dreaded passage across the Straits of
Dover less disagreeable and free from the infliction of sea-sickness.
To this end she was given a unique apparatus which was to swing with
the motion of the vessel, and in such a manner that the passengers
would always be kept on a level, however much the ship might roll.
She was built double-ended, so that she would not have to be turned
round when she reached the French port. But emphatically she resulted
in a complete failure, for not only was this ingenious deck found to
be unworkable, and had to be fixed, but the _Bessemer_ collided with
Calais Pier, and succeeded in knocking away about fifty yards thereof.
[Illustration: THE “ATALANTA” (1841).
_From a Painting. By permission of the London and South Western Railway
Co._]
[Illustration: THE “LYONS” (1856).
_From the Model in the Victoria and Albert Museum._]
[Illustration: THE “EMPRESS” LEAVING DOVER HARBOUR.
_From a Photograph. By permission of the South Eastern and Chatham
Railway Co._]
Another ingenious vessel on this service was the _Castalia_. She was a
twin-ship composed of a couple of hulls. Those who crossed in her about
the year 1876 found her very comfortable, and she was so steady that
comparatively few of her passengers were sea-sick, but her drawback
was that she was not fast. The genesis of this double-hulled ship was
in order to obtain greater steadiness, and the experiment was first
tried by fastening two Woolwich steamers together, having first removed
the inside paddle-wheels. Following up this, the same principle was
exemplified in a ship called the _Express_, which had been constructed
for a firm that became financially embarrassed, and she was accordingly
taken over instead by the owners of the _Castalia_, and became
the famous _Calais-Douvres_, which most of my readers will well
remember. She was certainly a fast ship, but her life was not devoid
of adventures. In May, 1878, she collided with Dover Pier through her
steering-gear going wrong, her main engines having previously broken
down. She was subsequently repaired and did well until 1887, when, worn
out by active service, she was withdrawn, having proved an expensive
boat to run, and obtained an unenviable reputation for a large coal
consumption. The _Castalia_ was withdrawn in 1878, and became a
floating small-pox hospital on the Thames, where she remained for about
twenty years, and was finally towed therefrom to Dordrecht by one of
that fleet of Dutch tugs which we shall mention in a later chapter as
being famous for the towage of big docks. In the course of time new
and improved Channel steamers continued to be put on this Dover-Calais
route, and in 1899 an amalgamation of interests owned by the South
Eastern and the London, Chatham and Dover Railways took place, so that
now the two fleets are under one management. Within recent years they
have shown a very enterprising spirit by leading the way in placing
turbine steamers on their route, and the illustration on the opposite
page shows their turbine steamer _Empress_ clearing out of Dover
Harbour. In general character we may take the appearance of this vessel
as typical of the more modern cross-channel steamers which now ply
also on other routes owned by the various railway companies. The fine
service of steamboats, for instance, possessed by the Great Western,
Great Eastern, the Midland, the London and North Western, the Great
Central, and the London and South Western consists rather of miniature
liners of a very up-to-date type. Not merely wireless telegraphy and
turbines have been introduced into the cross-channel steamers, but
every conceivable regard for the comfort of the passengers has been
taken commensurate with the size of the ships, and the special work
which they are called upon to perform.
We have addressed ourselves especially to the services between Dover
and Calais and between Holyhead and Dublin, for, owing to their
geographical character, these two are naturally the most important and
the most historic. The custom of railways being owners of steamships
has continued, the chief exception being the Great Northern Railway.
The Newhaven to Dieppe route is of comparatively modern origin, and
it was not until 1847 that the London to Newhaven line was completed.
During the following year there were three steamers running to Dieppe
from this port, but at first the London, Brighton and South Coast
Railway was thwarted owing to legal difficulties, and properly their
service dates from 1856, for at one time they were compelled to run
a service under different ownership from their own. The model shown
opposite page 226 shows the packet steamer _Lyons_, which was built in
1856 for the Newhaven-Dieppe service. She was a paddle-boat of 315 tons
displacement.
Between England and the Channel Isles connection in the pre-steamship
days was kept up by sailing cutters. After that the Admiralty conveyed
the mails from Weymouth to Jersey and Guernsey by ships of the Royal
Navy, and one of these--the _Dasher_--was until recent years employed
in watching the oyster fisheries off Jersey. But in 1835 a steam packet
service was started from Southampton to Havre, twice a week, and
between the Hampshire port and the Channel Islands, which was owned
by the South of England Steam Navigation Company, while a rival came
forward in the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, which ran
to the Channel Isles. One of the earliest steamers belonging to the
former company was the _Atalanta_, of which we give an illustration
opposite page 226. She was afterwards lengthened, and as thus altered
she appears in our illustration. Her days were ended as a coal hulk in
Jersey.
From 1838 to 1845 the mail service between England and the Channel
Isles was carried on from Weymouth, but in the latter year this service
was transferred to the South Western Steam Packet Company, and remained
exclusively with the Southampton steamers until 1899, when the joint
running of the Channel Islands service by the steamers of the London
and South Western from Southampton, and of the Great Western Railway
from Weymouth, once more caused mails also to be carried from Weymouth.
It was in the year 1860 that the South Western Railway, following
the prevailing custom, took over their fleet from the South Western
Steam Packet Company, and under the railway ownership this service has
continued ever since. The origin of the Weymouth service was on this
wise. An opposition company had been floated by the Channel Islands
merchants under the title of the Weymouth and Channel Islands Steam
Packet Company, and this continued until 1888, when the service was
taken up by the Great Western Railway Company. For a time the keenest
competition between the two railway companies as steamship owners
continued, but after eleven years an amicable arrangement was come to
whereby they agreed to work a joint service, which agreement is still
in force. To-day, notwithstanding the losses which have been sustained
by sad disasters involving loss of life, notably the memorable instance
of the _Stella_, which foundered on the Casquets in March, 1899, this
fleet is able to keep up an uninterrupted service carrying passengers,
mails, and freight, whilst during the summer season extra cargo
steamers have to be put on for the conveyance of the big potato trade,
fruit and flowers. These vessels, by reason of their route, cannot be
expected always to avoid accidents. Those who know the treacherous
character of the Channel Islands coast-line, and the continuous stream
of traffic which is going up and down the English Channel, will readily
appreciate what it means to take a small steamship from port to port
in thick weather. It was only in April of 1910 that one of the London
and South Western Railway boats, the _Laura_, while on her way from
Southampton to Cherbourg, collided when about twenty miles south of
the Needles, with a Norwegian sailing vessel named the _Sophie_, bound
up channel from South America to Hamburg. Here again the wireless
telegraph gear came in useful, for it chanced that the Royal Mail
Liner _Asturias_ was in the vicinity, and she at once telegraphed for
assistance. These Channel Islands steamers all carry sufficient coal
for the voyage there and back, with an additional amount adequate for
all ordinary contingencies. From Southampton also the same owners carry
on a steamboat service to Havre, Cherbourg, Honfleur, Roscoff, and St.
Malo; while from Jersey to St. Malo and from Jersey to Granville two
twin-screw steamers are employed.
Between Harwich and the Hook of Holland, the Great Eastern Railway
keep up an important steamship connection, and employ in their ships
not merely wireless telegraphy, but the submarine signalling which
is mentioned as being a characteristic of the modern Atlantic liner.
Their turbine steamer, the _St. Petersburg_--a sister ship to the same
company’s _Munich_ and _Copenhagen_--which was only put into active
service in 1910, began a steamship connection that is carried on
entirely by turbine craft. It is, indeed, owing to the advent of the
turbine that the notable improvements in our cross-channel steamers
have been made within the last few years. Not only has this system
obtained for the ships a greater popularity because of the absence of
vibration, but it has also enabled the owners to avail themselves of
the greater accommodation for cargo and passengers, as well as giving
greater speed to the ships under economical conditions of working.
One of the most notable cross-channel steamers is the Isle of Man Steam
Packet Company’s _Ben-my-Chree_, which can do 25 knots per hour and
carry 2,500 passengers. On this route the turbine has very decidedly
justified itself also. A breakdown causing the disablement of the
turbine steamer is as yet unknown, and it is worth noting that from
the now celebrated Channel steamer _Queen_, a turbine steamer of only
8,000 horse-power, which was ordered only as recently as the year
1900, to the _Mauretania_, with her 70,000 horse-power, is a step that
shows how thoroughly satisfactory the turbine has proved itself in so
short a space of time. In the case of a liner a breakdown is a serious
enough item, but in the case of a channel steamer it is an occurrence
of sufficiently grave a nature as to be guarded against with every
precaution. The chances of a shaft breaking in the case of a turbine
steamer are very remote, and will probably continue to be so, with the
steady nature of the working of the turbine, the worst likely accident
being the breaking of one of the many blades.
Moreover, the turbine has proved that it gives increased reliability
to the steamship, which, in the case of the short cross-channel
voyages, is a matter that cannot lightly be regarded. In the case of
the _Ben-my-Chree_ just mentioned, the mean time in performing the
distance from Liverpool Bar lightship to Douglas Head differed only by
a minute in one season from that of the previous year, a fact that is
highly significant. It is the time that is wasted in manœuvring to get
alongside the quay and clearing away that detracts from the smartness
of the voyage, although in this connection it may be stated that bow
rudders are in use in certain cross-channel craft in order to enable
this manœuvre to be accomplished with greater celerity.
It is curious how the channel service of a steamship line presents
difficulties and problems of its own no less than those demanded by the
ownership of ocean-going steamships. Obviously the short-voyage ship is
limited as to size. What she has to accomplish must be done quickly.
Not only must she get out of one harbour and into the other with the
greatest economy of time, but she must get up her full speed at once.
Then, again, owing to the demands of the passengers for special comfort
a great strain is put on the patience of those responsible, as well
as on the designer of the ship. Cross-channel steamers which have a
fairly long night passage require a good deal of their limited space
to be usurped by extra state-room accommodation, and the modern demand
for single-berthed cabins means rather more than the average passenger
realises. The figures work out something as follows in the case of a
four-berthed room the measurement of the space occupied comes to about
seven-eighths of a ton per passenger. In the single-berthed cabin it
becomes nearly two and a quarter tons per passenger. All this means
that the ship has less available space for earning her living, since
fewer passengers and less cargo can thus be carried.
Again, the passenger is spoiled nowadays. If a line has turbines and
wireless telegraphy, submarine bells, the latest conceivable luxury,
speed and other virtues, he is sufficiently well informed to appreciate
these things to the disadvantage of another service, scarcely less
efficient, but perhaps a little less advanced in accordance with
the very latest inventions and improvements. An old ship that has
done years of good service and earned a reputation for punctuality
and reliability has to be scrapped before her time just because a
rival service has held out the tempting bait of the latest steamship
features. On the other hand, there was room for an approach to be made
towards more satisfactory conditions. The short crossings on some of
the cross-channel steamers were in the past no unmixed joy. The bad
sea-boats which some of these proved themselves to be, driven at a
speed that made them vibrate from stem to stern, wet and generally
uncomfortable, badly ventilated and equally inefficiently lighted, they
certainly belonged to the days that are past. What the future has in
store this deponent knoweth not; but if the internal combustion engine
should ever become sufficiently popular for big ships, certainly in
no service is it likely to be more suitable than in the cross-channel
voyages, where speed is a vital consideration. But economy is equally
to be taken into account, if steamers are still to be regarded as
commercial, dividend-earning concerns, and not exclusively as objects
for the exercise of sentiment. We have, owing to the influences at work
everywhere, come to regard the virtue of speed as excelling everything
else. Whether this is deserving of all-powerful merit, or whether in
the future there may be a reaction and a desire to “go slow,” time
alone can tell. Perhaps such a condition might lead to an increased
tranquillity of life as a whole, but it would also put a brake on
progress generally, and on the steamship in particular.