COST OF TRANSATLANTIC LINERS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 655, 28 March 1914, Page 7

COST OF TRANSATLANTIC LINERS.

The first cost of Transatlantic pasccngcr steamers has been increased cnormqusly during tho last forty years. In 1874 a 15-knot steamer cost £200,000 ; in 18S9 a 20-knot erteamer cost .Cb/S.QOO ; in 1893 a 22-1;::ot steamer cost about £550,000; in - L-30 the Oceanic, of 20.75 knots, with relatively good cargo capacity, cost £7.00,000 ; four years later a 23kno't r.tenmer, ot at; out the same dimtn'-dons as tho ■ Oceanic, cost ,',-800,000. For later ships authoritative figures have not heen publishd'i, :.v± certain stateznents indicate approximately the sums which have been nptnt- upon them. ■ The British Gov.'i-nr-. ,-::!■. granted to the Cunard Co:r.; an/ a loan of £2,600,000 towards th; construction of the Kusitiiiia and Mauretania, and it is ■.ulilesstr.od that the actual cost of tho two vessels exceeded that acount. The outlay on the Olympic h.-.« hern put at about t*ne and a ha'f ruiilion pounds sterling by men wiv> had exact knowledge • of what ,ehe lias cost. The Hamburg- American and Ounard steamships now binling would, on chis basis, represent an expenditure of about cne nnl three-quarter million poinds f:roil ! nr per ship. There can be no that experienced men who •■-'■••'!■:: the policy of these three r.'.-•;-. p.ship companies have reached th; c; nelusion that even such huge c.'!-.n.iiL:irc as these figures indicate will, on th:' whole, prove advantasp.o':s to the owners, and lead to increased revenue.—"Engineering."