Which Is the Largest Ship In the World ?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 424, 4 August 1928, Page 26

Which Is the Largest Ship In the World ?

HHICH is the largest ship in the world? The question is caus- ) some controversy in shipping circles due to the conflicting claims of British and American ship-builders. The honour seems to lie between the White Star’s Majestic and the United States Shipping Board’s aptly-named Leviathan. A dispute has existed for some years as to which of these ships is the largest in the world. It is strange that such a dispute should remain unsettled for so long. The question seems on the surface to be an easy one to settle. Size is a matter of mere measurement and these two ships have been measured to the last inch. What factor then causes the, argument to remain in being? It is a question of relativity. The British measure their ships in one way and the Americans have a different basis of measurement. The Leviathan is actually eight feet shorter than the Majestic, the latter having a length of 915 ft. But when it comes to measuring up the gross tonnage of the two ships, there is a difference caused by the different systems of measurement prevailing in the two countries. If measured according to the British rules the tonnage of the Leviathan is 54,282, but when measured by the American rules her tonnage works out at 59,957. The Majestic if measured by British rules, as she is, has [ a tonnage of 56,551, but if measured under American rules she would have a tonnage of 61,206. Consequently there can be no doubt that the British ship is the larger of the two and therefore the largest ship in the world since on the American’s own system of measurement she is 1,249 tons larger than the Leviathan, in addition to being eight feet longer. Not only therefore is a British ship the largest in the world, but the fastest ship in the world also belongs to the British register, the famous Mauretania. This ship is the wonder ship of the world. She is the oldest fast

liner on the Atlantic run, having been launched over 20 years ago. She was built on the Tyne. When she was put in commission she soon showed herself to be the fastest ship afloat, and was able to show a clean pair of heels to all her competitors. The remarkable thing is not that she beat all competitors 20 years ago, but that she still retains her unrivalled supremacy. Only a few weeks ago she set up a new record for the return passage across the Atlantic. This wonder ship, in 27 consecutive runs across the Atlantic in all weathers during one year, maintained an average speed of 25.5 knots. Her highest mean speed for the passage is a shade over 26 knots, and during 24 hour bursts she has touched over 27 knots. In 1910 she crossed the Atlantic in four days, 10 hours, 41 minutes. Fourteen years later she went from Cherbourg to New York, 3,157 miles, in five days, three hours, her best day’s run being 642 knots. The highest day’s run ever achieved on the Atlantic or any other ocean was made, by the Mauretania 17 years ago, when she covered 676 knots, over 27 knots an hour for 24 hours.

The next largest and fastest ship is the Cunarder Berengaria, which, with the Majestic and Leviathan, forms the trinity of great ocean liners. A tribute must be paid to the German shipbuilders, however, for all three of these ships were built by German yards, and were commandeered after the war. The Leviathan went to America, and the Majestic and Berengaria to Britain. They are the Big Three of the Ocean, the finest, the most magnificent ships afloat. But neither Germany nor any other nation has yet produced a worldbeater like the magnificent Mauretania, which for 20 years has held the Blue Riband of the Atlantic. At an age when other ships are growing old and decrepit, she proceeds to astonish the world by setting up fresh records. There has never been seen her like before, and there is reason to believe that such a ship will never be built again.

Money in Muskrats

RELATIVE OF BEAVER PROVIDES MUSQUASH FOR MILLIONS OF FUR COATS AND WRAPS

Cross-section of a muskrat lodge showing course of underwater passage turning gradually upward until it emerges above the water-level before entering the living quarters of the rodent. ■ NQUESTIONABLY the most valuable pelt known to the fur trade, not for its intrinsic value, but because, after suitable treatment, it can be utilised in so many ways, and because the prolific habits of the animal renders it so unfailing a source of supply, is that of the Canadian musquash, commonly called the muskrat. This little rodent, kin to the beaver family, inhabits a wide section of North America, British Columbia being one of its particular habitats. And it is in British Columbia that farsighted trappers and business men have foreseen the possibilities of the musquash in the true proportions and have established the greatest musquash fur farm in the world. Away in the hinterland, 40 miles from Quesnel, in the natural surroundings of the animal, 11,000 acres has been encircled by wire fencing and there are tended and brought to maturity some 10,000 muskrats. The name muskrat is incorrect, for the musquash, although a species of rodent, is not a true rat. The musquash is an inhabitant of swamp lands, but any and every swamp is by no means suited to his particular demands. In order to insure his food supply a regular, even if slow, current must pass through the slough of his choice. Stagnant water he eschews. He must have quantities of natural food, for he is a great eater, and the delicacies which he prefers flourish only in running water. For food, the animal depends principally upon sugar-cane grass, wild rice, pond lilies, arrow-head, cat-tails, and bullrush. It is strictly a vegetarian. Swan Lake, where the musquash farms have their headquarters, has proved an ideal spot for the “little beaver.’* When winter comes, and the surface of the water is frozen, the musquash lives under a hard blanket for several months. The secret of this seemingly impossible feat is that they are equipped with two sacs which enable them to breathe freely under the ice. When the air they have in these sacs is completely nitrogenised, the muskrats come to the underside of the ice and exhale, the nitrogenised air forms bubbles on the ice; through the porous _ ice this air becomes reoxygenised, is re-inhaled into the sacs, and the animals have enough to last them for another 20 minutes. Muskrats mature and reproduce in four months. One female lias been known to mother 36 young in one season. When spring arrives, farmers prepare to trap the musquash, which are not difficult to snare, but are hard to hold. Special traps, the main feature of which are high or double jaws, solve this problem. The traps are set at the feeding grounds, where grass or other vegetable matter floats on the surface of the shallow water. At times the musquash feeds in the marshes, and in these cases they leave trails on which the traps are set. The lure used on the traps is the