THE TALL SHIP PASSES

Hokitika Guardian, 5 June 1920, Page 4

THE TALL SHIP PASSES

(Rv Ralph Harold Bretherton in “Daily Mail.”

The new Cunarder Scythia, for all her 20,000 tons, is to have only oiie funnel. Had she been put into the water before the war she would certainly have had two, not necessarily because her furnaces needed them, but because a liner of her size might look odd ith only one. and , some of us, perhaps, are rather wondering just how the Scythia will look with but ohe lonely funnel in all her length of over 600 ft. V Time'was when we expected a liner to have two funnels and four masts. Then there was a change in the case of the fastest boats to four funnels and two masts. And by the number of her funnels we came to judge the speed, magnificence, comfort, and safety of the ship.

The shipping companies knew this. The public liked funnels and the public should have them. One famous liner at least was fitted with an unnecessary fourth funnel simply for appearance sake.. Without it she could not have hoped to compete with other ships of her class.

But now the funnels are to go, as the

masts have already begun to go,

early liner was masted and rigged in a nianifer that suggested no great faith in steam. We need not he so very old to remember how in our childhood’s days we used to see about the shipping offices and railway stations pictures of liners with an extraordinary low freeboard, battling, with sails set on a long array of tall masts, through a splendidly rhythmic sea. Now a pole at each end, to hear aloft flags, lights, and the aerial of the wireless, is all that a liner has. These poles still fake backwards oldfashionedly. The rake gives an appearance of speed, though it is hard to say why. Though the Mauretania lost never a knot of her speed she would certainly look a slower boat if she were suddenly to set her masts upright.

There is no doubt about it, the liner has had hitherto to keep up appeaarnces. The mere cargo-boat has not. She has for years been steadily scrapping all that makes a ship dapper and smart. Long ago she rid herself of the affection of the rake. Then in some cases she abandoned masts altogether and planted her decks with stumpy derricks. And any old funnel, she decided/would do for her, and it might lean forward towards her bows instead of leaning hack for anything that she eared. And to- , day she plunges down Channel looking ’ like a wharf that has broken adrift and j may at any moment take a dive under. |l Now, with the rest of us, the liner Is j wondering if appearances can be kept up at the present high cost of things. A row of stately funnels, set at a jaunty angle and painted in the company’s

colours, rimy look well enough, but if one is all that she really needs, then one only, will she have, lor economy’s sake. And so the tall ship passes. Hulls are larger and sejjstaiul l higher, but the old-top-hamper that made a ship tower proudly upon the waters is going. Tlidt well-worn simile of a forest of masts is llow untrue of many of our ports. And as funnels become fewer all hut the biggest ships in dock will lie hidden behind file sheds and warehouses.