CHAMPION OF THE SEAS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 16 September 1907, Page 2

CHAMPION OF THE SEAS.

BRITAIN'S SUPREMACY REGAINED. LUSITANIA'S RECORD-BREAKING • VOYAGE. New York, September 13. 1 The Lusitania nrrivej at Sandy Hook and -crossed the bar at three minutes i past nine on the fourth day's run. She put up 593 knots, dospito the fog, and averaged 23 knots. The Lusitania beat the land-to-lajid record by 5 hours 44 minutes, the averago speed being 22.87 miles per hour, compared with the Deutsehland's record in 1000 of 23.14 miles from New York to Plymouth. ENGINES WORK PERFECTLY. TREMENDOUS RECEPTION AT NEWYORK. Received Sept. 15, 4.0 p.m. New York, September 14. I The Lusitania's average speed .was 23.01 knots. The passage from Queenstown to Sandy Hook occupied 4 days 20 hours. The engines worked perfectly, and

were never slowed down during inter- i mittent fogs lasting two and a-half { The Lusitania received a tremendous i reception. She was the first big liner : : to enter New York through the now Ambrose Channel, which saves five miles steaming. . . xl , . I The coal consumption during the trip J 1 was under 1000 tons. WORLD'S MOST SPEEDY AND LUXURIOUS STEAMER. TURBINE'S TRIUMPH. Referring to the Lusitania, a London paper received this week had the fol j lowing:— i A vast ship that is so splendid a palj! ace of luxury that one can scarcely .* realise that one is not in a magnificent'l ly appointed West End hotel—that is ■a first impression of the Cuuard Comn pany's new leviathan, the Lusitania, a the largest, most powerfully equipped vessel of her kind in the world. Every detail of this mighty ship has been artfully designed to beguile passengers that they arc on terra finna, and not crossing the wide Atlantic at all. Even when her massive 785 feet is being thrust through the. waves at over twenty-five knots by the 68,000 horse-power of her tremendous turbine |j engines, only the faintest tremor of her decks tells you that she is forging s .. ahead. One can promenade her acre and a half of upper deck when white crested waves are tumbilng away from her lean, tall sides and detect not the suspicion of a rise, or fall. Her stability is little short of marvellous. Even off the gloomy Skerries, on the south-west coast of Ireland, when a heavy Atlantic ground bwoll rolled powerfully beneath her !j keel, she was perfectly steady. ]j How can one describe this groat wonder that has-been created by the greatest geniuses of shipbuilding and deeor- (] ation? When a double-decked trafcnway :s car could be driven comfortably down d any one of her four gigantic funnels,

description seems woefully inadequate to estimate the colossal proportions of this giantess of the seas, whose gross tonnage is 32,300, whose framework is locked together by 4,000,000 rivets, anld which can stow away easily between her spacious decks a complement of 3027 passengers and crew. A stroll of three times round her promenade deck* , r . and you huve walked a mile.

THE LARGEST VESSEL AFLOST.

SOME PARTICULARS.

A London correspondent', under date 2.-nd August, writes:—

A week-end cruise round Ireland Eae just been made by the new four-screw Cunard liner, Lusitania, which started from Greenock on Saturday and reached Liverpool on Monday. This new steamer is for the present the "lait word." in British naval architecture; her engines are of the turbine type. In no sense was the 900-mile run round Ireland itself intended as a speed trial'; rather was the cruise an exemplification of the possibilities in the way of luxurious ocean travel which the Lusitania, and her sister-ship, the Mauretanfa hold out. At her steam trials on Saturday morning she ran at a speed of 25.0 knots over the measured mile on the Clyde, thus giving good augury than she will succeed in maintaining the average speed or 24y 2 knots in moderate weather, which is required" By the tonus of the Cunard Company's contract with the Government. It is about four years since the Cunard Company entered into an agrcofnent with the Government to buila, two steamers which would win hack for Great Britain the honor of possessing the fastest vessels plying on ffle Atlantic. Of these tha Lucitania is the first to he ready, (but the Maurefania will be trendy in a short time. When the decision to build these giants was arrived at, two questions at once arose for anxious consideration. The design and 'dimensions of the hulls and tho character of the propelling machinery. The first was settled after a long series of private investigations with tank models, supplanted by experiments car- - ried out under Admiralty auspices. T n regard to the second, the Cunard Com- ! pany appointed a committee of experi- ■ enced engineers to enquire into the advisableness of employing turbine niacin- ' nery; as a result turbines of the Par- '■ sons type were selected. The construe- : tiou of the Lusitania has taken pla.-e ' at Clydebank, and her launch, was s\u- ' cessfully made rather more than a year ; ago.. ) With the exception of the Maure- ' tania, which has been built on the Tyne, ' ;he Lusitania is by far the largest and ' most powerful vessel afloat.for her gross tonnage of 32,500 is more than 7000 * tons in advance of her nearest rival in * size, and the horse-power of 08,000, > which was recorded on her late trial, is * io less than 2(1,000 horse-power ahead l; if her nearest competitor in point of I a power. ( i Spaciousnes is everywhere the chame- f -eristic of the Lusitania; it is pre-emin- f

ently apparent in the first-class, dining saloon, which occupies the whole width ti of tlio ship—Bßft. Hero, as almost every- ii where else, it is patent that the decora- c< tion of the vessel has been entrusted to master minds The dining saloon is arranged with a central opening in the ceiling, which brings to view an upper dining saloon, itself crowned by a dome, which sheds a soft light upon the scene below. The principle of separate tables s is adopted, so that passengers may dine ° in large or small parties, as they pre-

fer. 'Moreover, if they wish, they can dine a la carte; they can, in advance, construct their own menu. The freedom of the restaurant is to bo associated iu future with dining saloon traditions. The dining-rooms have open fireplaces, and one can dine there in a room which suggests life ashore, even to the curtained windows. In time of war, according to tile contract of the Cunard Company with the i Government, the Admiralty will be able to avail itself of the services of the ' Lusitania. She is fitted to carry two i Gin guns on each side of the forecastle, 1 and four on each side of the promenade i desk, or twelve in all. These have central pivot mountings, with roller tracks \ on the docks, which are specially 1 strengthened for the purposo.

ANOTHER LEVIATHAN. Although the world's leading shipbuilding engineers considered the two I now Cunarders would represent the latest in shipping achievements for some years to come, the belief is already dispelled, and happily by another Eng- T lish company, the White Star Company v having given an order to Harland Mil '■ Wolff, the Belfast builders, for »°C * 840 feet m length and. of 40,000 tons c -50 feet longer and 5000 tons greater n Imijdon than the Lusitania. d rr e

(By Cable.—Press light).