Undoubtedly one of the most remarkable craft afloat is the Russian
Czar's steam-yacht the _Livadia_. To a Scotch shipbuilding firm belongs
the credit of having constructed this unique and splendid vessel, and it
is certainly a feather in the cap of Messrs. Elder and Company, the
well-known Glasgow shipbuilders, from whose yard the _Livadia_ was
launched in July 1880.
One would imagine that the highest point of comfort and luxuriousness
has been reached in the accommodation offered by the _Livadia_; but this
is far from being the only or even the chief respect in which the vessel
is remarkable. She is notable from a purely nautical point of view--
being the outcome of principles that may be said almost to revolutionise
all pre-existing ideas of shipbuilding, though something like the same
principle may be found in the circular ironclads of Admiral Popoff.
Hitherto the plan which naval architects have followed, where the
desideratum was exceptional speed, was to give the vessel in course of
construction length in combination with as fine lines and as perfect
proportion as possible. But in the case of an imperial pleasure-boat,
like the _Livadia_, it was an object to obtain an ampler and more
drawing-room like accommodation than is compatible with length,
narrowness of beam, and fine lines; and the constructors of the Czar's
new yacht have succeeded in securing not only this internal spaciousness
and comfort, but also a satisfactory degree of speed.
It was to the united exertions of Admiral Popoff of the Russian navy,
and Dr Tideman of the royal dockyard, Amsterdam, that the design of the
_Livadia_ was due. It is not easy in words to convey a distinct
impression of this curiously-shaped craft, but our description will, we
hope, give the reader a pretty correct idea of the vessel.
The constructors of the _Livadia_, it is believed, chose a turbot as
their model for the hull; and in thus taking a flat fish as a suggestion
for their vessel, the builders, as a recent writer on the subject points
out, followed no extravagant, though certainly a novel, fancy. In broad
terms the _Livadia_ may be described as a wide and shallow oval in
shape, half submerged, while over this turbot-shaped raft a
superstructure is erected, somewhat similar in appearance to an ordinary
vessel, and comprising large, lofty, and sumptuous saloons and other
apartments.
The _Livadia_ is 260 feet long, 150 feet broad, and 50 feet deep. She
is 11,609 tons burden, and her displacement 4000. The two leading
merits of the _Livadia_, due to its peculiar construction, are--first,
that its frame can support a superstructure of almost palatial
proportions such as would founder any other vessel; and second, that its
great breadth of beam keeps the ship as steady as a ship can possibly
be, while, at the same time, its lower lines secure a very good degree
of speed.
The _Livadia_ possesses powerful propelling engines. There are three
sets of these, each with three cylinders, the diameter being sixty
inches for the high pressure, and seventy-eight inches for the low, with
a stroke of three feet three inches. As much strength and lightness as
possible have been secured for the propellers by constructing them of
manganese iron; while steel has been largely employed for the engines
and boilers, which are, for their weight, the most powerful possessed by
any vessel. The estimated horse-power is 10,500, and the ship, under
favourable conditions, can make fifteen knots an hour.
The double water-tight bottom of the _Livadia_ is three feet six inches
deep at the centre, and two feet nine inches at each end. In this
turbot-like lower part is the machinery, and it is the receptacle also
for coals and stores of all kinds. The twofold bottom of the ship
comprises forty compartments, and the whole is sufficiently strong, it
is believed, to withstand the heaviest weather to which the yacht is
likely to be exposed, as well as the strain of her powerful machinery.
The entire length of the upper part of the ship, in which are the
imperial apartments, and the quarters of the officers and crew, is 260
feet, and the breadth 110 feet. The crew all told numbers 260. The
private apartments of the Czar himself are forward on the main-deck,
well away from the heat of the engines and the smell of the machinery.
A visitor to the ship is chiefly struck, perhaps, by the height to which
the decks rise above the hull, the uppermost compartment of all being
fitted out as a reception saloon, in the centre of which a little
fountain rises out of a bed of flowers. This portion of the vessel is
forty feet above the level of the sea. The apartment is luxuriously
appointed in the fashion of the reign of Louis XVI. The drawing-room is
furnished in a style of equal sumptuousness, in the Crimean Tartar
style; but the rest of the imperial apartments are in a simpler order of
decoration. Behind the funnels there is another deck-house, containing
the captain's quarters and rooms for the Grand Duke Constantine. It
will thus be seen that the _Livadia_ is literally a floating palace,
equipped and decorated with that almost Eastern love of sumptuous
display which characterises the Russians as a people.
All the three screws with which the _Livadia_ is furnished are wholly
submerged in the water--another novelty in the construction of the
vessel. One or even two of these screws might suffer serious injury and
the ship still remain manageable.
It is not wonderful that the launch of a craft, at once so splendid and
so curious, should have caused much interest and excitement in the
neighbourhood in which it took place. A distinguished company witnessed
the ceremony, while the crowd which lined the banks of the river Clyde
numbered 10,000. A short service was conducted by three priests of the
Greek Church, and the bows of the vessel were then sprinkled with holy
water. After the conclusion of this ceremony, the yacht received her
name from the Duchess of Hamilton, and was then launched. The launch
was a complete success, the _Livadia_ taking the water in gallant style,
though the task was one of more than ordinary difficulty from the
circumstance of the great breadth of the ship's keel-less bottom, which
much increased the friction to be overcome. At the luncheon which
concluded the day's proceedings, Mr Pearce, the chairman, who
represented the firm of Elder and Company, stated that the principle
adopted in the building of the _Livadia_ would probably be more useful
in the case of ships of war than of merchant vessels, but that builders
of the latter might also derive valuable hints from the construction of
the new ship. Whether this will prove to be the case time has yet to
show.
A most interesting discovery of a Norse war-ship has recently been made
at Sandefjord in Norway. The vessel, there can be no doubt, is one of
the kind in which those formidable buccaneers, the Norsemen, used to
harry the coasts of Great Britain and France ten hundred years ago. It
was found buried in the ground, and seems to have been the sepulchre of
some great Viking chieftain, who had probably many a time sailed forth
in it to the terror and detriment of some less warlike and powerful
neighbour.
The ship is unusually large, and very completely equipped. Its length
is about seventy-five feet; and sails, rigging, a number of shields and
other instruments of battle, were found on board.