Part 12 (2/2)
With a straight stem, an elliptic stern, two huge funnels, and a couple of pole-masts--intended more for signalling purposes than for canvas--the _Campania_ looks thoroughly business-like, and has none of the over-elaborated get-up of the _Great Eastern_, with her double system of propulsion and small forest of masts. The bulwarks are close fore and aft; and from the upper deck rise two tiers of houses, the roofs of which form the promenade deck and the shade deck. In the structure of the hull and decks enormous strength has been given, with special protection at vital parts, as the vessel is built in compliance with the Admiralty requirements for armed cruisers. Below the line of vision are four other complete tiers of beams, plated with steel sheathed in wood, on which rest upper, main, lower, and orlop decks. The last is for cargo, refrigerating-chambers, stores, &c.--all the others are devoted to the accommodation of pa.s.sengers.
The _Campania_ is fitted to carry 460 first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, 280 second-cla.s.s, and 700 steerage pa.s.sengers--in all, 1440, besides a crew of 400. She has cargo-s.p.a.ce for 1600 tons, which seems a trifle in comparison with her size, but then it is to be remembered that the fuel consumption of those 96 furnaces is enormous, and requires the carrying of a very heavy cargo of coals for internal consumption.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The _Campania_.]
The accommodation for pa.s.sengers is probably the most perfect that has yet been provided on an ocean steamer, for here the experience of all previous developments has been utilised. The dining-room is an apartment 100 feet long and 64 feet broad, furnished in handsome dark old mahogany, to seat 430 persons. The upholstery is tastefully designed, and the fittings generally are elegant; but the peculiar feature is a splendid dome rising to a height of thirty-three feet from the floor to the upper deck, and designed to light both the dining-room and the drawing-room on the deck above it. The grand staircase which conducts to these apartments is of teak-wood; the drawing-room is in satin-wood relieved with cedar and painted frieze panels. The smoking-room on the promenade deck is as unlike a s.h.i.+p's cabin as can be imagined; it is, in fact, a reproduction of an old baronial hall of the Elizabethan age, with oaken furniture and carvings. The other public apartments, library, boudoir, &c., are all more remarkable for quiet taste and artistic effect than for the gorgeousness of gilded saloons affected on some lines, but the prevailing feeling is one of luxurious comfort. The staterooms for first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers occupy the main, upper, and promenade decks, and they are as much like real bedrooms as the old type of 'berths' are not. Besides the single bedrooms, there are suites of rooms for families or parties, finely appointed with ornamental woods, rich carpets, and with bra.s.s bedsteads instead of the old wooden bunks.
All the sleeping-rooms are as light, lofty, and well ventilated as the sleeping-rooms on the old liners were the reverse.
The first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers are placed amids.h.i.+ps; the second-cla.s.s are placed aft; and the steerage, forward. The steerage accommodation is superior to anything yet provided in that cla.s.s; while the second-cla.s.s accommodation is quite up to the usual first-cla.s.s, with s.p.a.cious, beautifully furnished staterooms, a handsome dining-room in oak, an elegant drawing-room in satin-wood, and a cosy smoking-room. Indeed, some of the second-cla.s.s apartments look as if they were intended to be utilised for first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers in times of extra pressure.
These are details of interest to possible pa.s.sengers and to those who have already experienced the comforts and discomforts of the Atlantic voyage. But the great interest of the s.h.i.+p, of course, is in her immense size and enormous power. The navigating-bridge from which the officer in charge will direct operations, is no less than sixty feet above the water-level, and from there one obtains a survey unique of its kind. The towering height, the vast expanse of deck, the huge circ.u.mference of the funnels, the forest of ventilators indicative of the hives of industry below, the great lighthouse structures which take the place of the old angle-bedded side-lights--everything beneath you speaks of power and speed, of strength and security.
The following table shows at a glance how the _Campania_ compares with her largest predecessors in point of size and power:
Tonnage. Length Breadth Horsepower.
in feet. in feet.
Great Eastern 18,900 682 82 7,650 Britannic 5,000 455 46 5,500 Arizona 5,150 450 45 6,300 Servia 8,500 515 52 10,300 Alaska 6,400 500 50 10,500 City of Rome 8,000 545 52 11,890 Aurania 7,270 470 57 8,500 Oregon 7,375 500 54 7,375 America 5,528 432 51 7,354 Umbria 7,700 501 57 14,320 Etruria 7,800 520 57 14,500 City of Paris 10,500 560 63 18,500 Teutonic 9,860 582 57-1/2 18,000 Normannia ---- 520 57-1/4 16,350 Campania } Lucania } 12,950 620 65 30,000
As to speed, the record of course has been broken. In 1850 the average pa.s.sage of a Cunarder westward was thirteen days, and eastward twelve days sixteen hours; in 1890, the average was reduced to seven days fifteen hours twenty-three minutes, and seven days four hours and fifty-two minutes, respectively. The fastest individual pa.s.sages down to 1891 were made by the _Etruria_, westwards in six days one hour and forty-seven minutes; and by the _Umbria_, eastwards in six days three hours and seventeen minutes. But these were beaten by the _Teutonic_, which reduced the homeward record to five days and twenty-one hours; and by the _City of Paris_, which reduced the outward pa.s.sage to five days and sixteen hours. Roughly speaking, these new Cunarders are about ten times the size and forty times the power of the pioneers of the fleet, and the _Campania_ will run every twenty minutes almost as many miles as the _Britannia_ could laboriously make in an hour.
Is it possible that within the next fifty years we shall be able to make the voyage to New York in three days? The old _Britannia_ took fourteen days to Boston, and it was not until 1852 that the ten days' record to New York was broken by the 'Collins' Company. If, then, in forty years we reduced the record from ten to five, who can say that the limit of speed has yet been reached?
SAILING-s.h.i.+PS.
A modern sailing-s.h.i.+p replete with labour-saving appliances is a veritable triumph of the naval architect's art, and an excellent object lesson on man's power over the forces of nature. If Christopher Columbus could revisit our planet from the shades, he would doubtless be astonished by a critical comparison between the tiny wooden caravel with which he discovered a New World, and a leviathan four-masted steel sailing-s.h.i.+p, now navigated in comparative comfort to every possible port where freight is obtainable. Wooden cargo-carrying craft impelled by the unbought wind are surely diminis.h.i.+ng in numbers; and in the near future it is not improbable that a stately sailing-s.h.i.+p will be as seldom seen on the waste of waters as a screw steams.h.i.+p was half a century ago. Even looking leisurely backward down the imposing vista of the last thirty years of the Victorian era, it will be readily perceived with what marvellous mastery iron and steel have supplanted, not only wood in the hulls, masts, and yards of sailing-s.h.i.+ps, but also hemp in their rigging.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Clipper Sailing-s.h.i.+p of 1850-60.]
A radical revolution has been effected in the form, size, and construction of these cargo-carriers during such a relatively insignificant interval, and the end is not yet. The old-fas.h.i.+oned type of wooden merchantman remained practically invariable for more than a hundred years; but change is all-powerful at present, so that a vessel is almost of a bygone age before she shall have completed her maiden voyage. It would appear, however, that the limit of size has been reached. s.h.i.+p-owning firms and s.h.i.+pbuilders will probably soon be compelled to keep the modern steel sailing-s.h.i.+p within more moderate dimensions. Vessels of exceptionally large carrying capacity are in demand owing to the fact that experience proves them to be the best kind for affording a fair return to the capital invested. Salvage appliances and docks do not keep pace with the requirements of such leviathans; so that underwriters evince an increasing dislike to big s.h.i.+ps, and the premium for insurance rises accordingly, to compensate for extra risk.
Many mariners and some s.h.i.+pbuilders were at one time quick to express a p.r.o.nounced opinion that it was quite unnatural for an iron s.h.i.+p to remain afloat. Wood was made to swim, but iron to sink, said these sincere but mistaken admirers of the good old days. Their misgivings have proved to be without foundation in fact, for iron s.h.i.+ps have ousted wooden craft almost utterly from the ocean-carrying traffic. Iron has also reached its meridian alt.i.tude, and steel is rapidly rising above the horizon of progress. The s.h.i.+pbuilding yards of Nova Scotia, Canada, the United States of America, and British Columbia, however, still launch wooden sailing-vessels, although in decreasing numbers, and, as a rule, of inconsiderable tonnage.
It seems scarcely credible that only as recently as 1870 there were not more than ten sailing-s.h.i.+ps afloat of two thousand tons register and upwards under the red ensign of the British mercantile marine. To-day we have more than that number of splendid steel sailing-s.h.i.+ps, each having a register tonnage in excess of three thousand. During the twelve months of 1892 there were turned out from one yard alone on the Clyde, that of Messrs Russell & Co., no fewer than thirteen huge sailing-vessels, varying in register tonnage from two thousand three hundred to three thousand five hundred! One of the largest wooden sailing-s.h.i.+ps afloat in 1870 was the _British Empire_, of two thousand seven hundred tons register, which, under the command of Captain A. Pearson, was an ark of safety to the families of European residents in Bombay during the Indian Mutiny. She had been originally intended for a steams.h.i.+p, and this will account for her exceptional dimensions. The s.h.i.+pbuilding firm of A.
Sewall & Co., of Bath, Maine, U.S.A., in 1889 built the _Rappahannock_, of 3054 tons register; in 1890, the _Shenandoah_, 3258 tons; in 1891, the _Susquehanna_, 2629 tons; and in 1892, the _Roanoke_, of 3400 tons register.
Several cities claim to be the birthplace of Homer, and there exists similar rivalry with respect to the first iron s.h.i.+p. This at least is certain, that the first iron vessel cla.s.sed by Lloyd's was the British barque _Ironsides_, in 1838. She was but 271 tons register. The Clyde stands _facile princeps_ in this most important branch of industry.
Vessels built on the banks of that river have rendered a praiseworthy account of themselves on every sea and under every flag. No other country, save ourselves, launched any iron or steel s.h.i.+ps of 2000 tons register or above, but preferred to obtain them from our s.h.i.+pbuilding yards. The so-called protection of native industry principle prevailing in America precludes s.h.i.+p-owners over there from taking advantage directly of the cheapest market. Several of the large sailers, however, built on the Clyde for citizens of the United States are therefore necessarily sailed under the British, Hawaiian, or some flag other than that of the country to which they actually belong.
The number of seamen carried per one hundred tons in the modern four-masted sailing-s.h.i.+p is cut down to the uttermost limit consistent with safety; and, as a consequence, dismasting and tedious pa.s.sages are not infrequent. The _Hawaiian Isles_, 2097 tons register, a United States s.h.i.+p under a foreign flag, bound to California with a cargo of coal, found it impossible to weather Cape Horn by reason of violent westerly gales. She was turned round, ran along the lone Southern Ocean, before the 'brave west winds' so admirably described by Maury, and eventually reached her destination by the route leading south of Australia. She was one hundred and eighty-nine days on the pa.s.sage, and no fewer than sixty guineas per cent. had been freely paid for her re-insurance. A similar s.h.i.+p, the _John Ena_, carrying a substantial cargo of 4222 tons of coal from Barry to San Francisco, also encountered bad weather, made a long pa.s.sage, and twenty guineas per cent. was paid on her for re-insurance. Another new s.h.i.+p, the _Achnas.h.i.+e_, 2476 tons register, got into still more serious difficulty under like circ.u.mstances. She had to put back to Cape Town, damaged and leaky, after attempting in vain to contend against the bitter blast off Cape Horn. There, her cargo was discharged, and she went into dry-dock for the absolutely necessary repairs. The _Austrasia_, 2718 tons register, was almost totally dismasted near the island of Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlantic, on her maiden pa.s.sage, while bound from Liverpool to Calcutta with a cargo of salt. By dint of sterling seamans.h.i.+p she was brought to Rio Janeiro in safety, returned to Liverpool under improvised masts, discharged her cargo, refitted, took in quite a different cargo at London, and sailed for California. The _Somali_, 3537 tons register, the largest sailing-s.h.i.+p launched in 1892, was dismasted in the China Sea. Everything above the lower masts had to be made for her on the Clyde; yet, within fifteen days of the order being received by Messrs Russell & Co., the spars and gear were completed and s.h.i.+pped for pa.s.sage to the _Somali_ at Hong-kong. Underwriters suffer severely with such s.h.i.+ps.
One of the largest sailing-s.h.i.+ps afloat is the French five-master, _La France_, launched in 1890 on the Clyde, and owned by Messrs A. D. Bordes et Fils, who possess a large fleet of sailing-vessels. In 1891 she came from Iquique to Dunkirk in one hundred and five days with 6000 tons of nitrate; yet she was stopped on the Tyne when proceeding to sea with 5500 tons of coal, and compelled to take out 500 tons on the ground that she was overladen. There is not a single five-masted sailing-s.h.i.+p under the British flag. The United States has two five-masters, the _Louis_ of 830 tons, and the _Gov. Ames_ of 1778 tons, both fore-and-aft schooners, a rig peculiar to the American coast. s.h.i.+ps having five masts can be counted on the fingers of one hand; but, strange to say, the steams.h.i.+p _Coptic_, of the Shaw, Savill, & Albion Co., on her way to New Zealand, in December 1890, pa.s.sed the _Gov. Ames_ in fourteen degrees south, thirty-four degrees west, bound for California; and two days later, in six degrees south, thirty-one degrees west, the French five-master, _La France_, bound south. Pa.s.sengers and crew of the _Coptic_ might travel over many a weary league of sea, and never again be afforded two such excellent object lessons in the growth of sailing-s.h.i.+ps in quick succession.
Some large sailing-s.h.i.+ps experience a decided difficulty in obtaining freights that will repay expenses, even ignoring a margin for profit, and we are reluctantly compelled to confess that the days of sailing-s.h.i.+ps are almost numbered. The cry for huge sailers is an evidence that steam is determining the dimensions of the most modern cargo-carriers under sail.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _La France._]
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