dTHE IMPERATOR.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1813, 28 July 1913, Page 5

dTHE IMPERATOR.

THEBIG LINER DESCRIBED.

DEPARTURE ON HER MAIDEN VOYAGE. The new Hamburg-Amerika liner Iniperator left Spithead oil June 11 afternoon on her maiden voyage to. New York. According-to the latest official figures from 'Hamburg, tho vessel is 920 ft. 6in. in length over nil, including the figure-head, or 911 ft. ■without it; 880 ft. long between perpendiculars, measured on deep load line; 98ft. broad; and 63ft. deep from the upper edge of tho upper deck beams to the upper edge of tho keel amidships. Her displacement, fully laden, is 57,000 tons, her draught 35ft. Gin., l:er dead-weight capacity 12,000 tons, and her gross register tonnage 52,117 tons. On the basis of this last figure 9he is 6793 tons larger than the White Star Olympic, which at present, of ships actually in commission, is her nearest rival.

It is a natural consequence of he? enormous size, states "The Times," that her accommodation gives the impression of great spaciousness, an important factor in this effect being that the height-between her decks is no less than Oft. As is now i usual in large liners, most of her public rooms are grouped together on one deck. Thus lier topmost deck but one, known .as B deck, contains a drawing-room forward, a lounge, which, though it is 72ft. long, 58ft. wide, and 18ft. high, is without visible supporting pillars, a winter garden from which a few steps lead upwards to a Ritz-Carlton restaurant, and a grill-room aft. The smoking-room, however, which has be;n carried out by Mr. W. E. Thornton Smith, of London, in the Tudor style with red brickwork mads of bricks from a Buckinghamshire cottage, is placed on the highest or boat deck, and the main dining-room, which stretches the whole width of the Ship, is on the F deck, though it has a jrallery with a number of tables on deck E, ana its dome extends up through deck D. Reference should also be made to the swimming pool on decks F and G, the design of which, with its Pompeian pillars and ornamental cascades of running, water is remarkably effective.

Precautions fop Safety. The vessel has a double bottom, extending the greater part of her length, and a double skin from Tier collision bulkhead to the forward bulkhead of the Btokehold. Her watertight compartments are unusually numerous, and the bulkheads, the opening on which are controlled from the bridge on the Stone-Lloyd .system, are taken up far above the waterline. . Her boat installation presents points of interest and novelty. In the first place there are 83 lifeboats, including two motor boats, which can hold 5500 people. Her total complement of passengers and crew being 5200, there is ample accommodation for every soul on board, with a considerable margin. In the second, place most of the boats have been removed from their time-honoured position on the highest or beat deck. That deck, in fact, contains only a dozen under davits, and most of the remaindor are on the niter part of the lower promenade or 0 deck. Here a number of them are housed under davits of a special form on a portion of covered deck, which experience shows is but little used by passengers, the residue being placed on tlie open deck, where they are handled by electric cranes. Besides the boats, lifebelts are provided for evory passenger and all the crew, and among other precautions for safety may be mentioned an Anscliutz gyroscopic compass, a searchlight of 50,000 c.p. on the foremast, and a wireless telegraph installation sufficiently powerful to keep the Ship always in touch with both sides of the Atlantic. The five dynamos are m the engine-room; but on. the boat deck there is an emergency generator driven by an oil motor, which can be used to, supply current for the lighting of the alloy-ways and other imoortaut peaces, and also for working the bridge apparatus and the •,virek. s s apparatus. The- designed spercl of the Imperator is 22-\ knots, but on Ivrr voyage from Hamburg she touched 23*, although even then her turbines vero not run up to their maximum speed of revolution. She_ has four four-bkded screws, each 16ft. 6in. in diameter, carricd 011 four shafts. One of

tlio main shafts is driven by a highpressure turbine, and from it the steam pass?s to an intermediate turbine driving fcho other inner shaft, the exhaust being divided between the two low-pressure tuv.biues oil tlie outer shafts. The total power at full speed ahead is calculated at 62,000 h.p., while the astern turbines, mounted on tho same shafts, can exert 35,000 h.p. Steam is generated at a pressure ot 2281b. per sq. in., in 4G single-ended watertubs boilers arranged in tour stokeholds.