LARGEST SHIP IN THE WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 3, 28 January 1909, Page 4

LARGEST SHIP IN THE WORLD

OVER 000 FEET LONG. WONDERFUL CRANES. (By Frank Bullen.) BELFAST, December 5. I have spent the morning wandering .u-ounil ihe Queen's Island shipbuilding yard of Messrs llarlaud and \\ old', m company with the visible motor ttlcrcoi. the Right Hon. A. M. Carlisle. Through the courtesy of Messrs lsuiay, luirie and Co., 1 have been permitted a peep behind the scene of their latest stride forward, and the sight is an intoxicating) one. First of all a glimpse is caught of the iLaurentic fitting out and the Mcgautic .to be launched this week—two vessels (for the White Star Line) of 14,700 tons each, wherewith to inaugurate their entry into the trade of our vast North American dominion, Canada. Of course in size, though Jar ahead of any vessel that now plies up the St. Lawrence, they are nothing spocial for the White Star Line, but, as is iiUmgj they mark an epoch in ship propulsion, in that they combine the reciprocating engine with the turbine, a new development making for economy with power to which builders and owners have pinned their faith and shown it by tneir works. AN AMAZING ERECTION. But now the eye is caught by an amazing erection, a web-work oi steel girders nearly 300 ft high, 300 ft wide, 850 it long, and costing a quarter of million of money. It extends over the length and breadth of the two great berths whereon are being laid the keels of the coming vessels, two .;crths thai, have been tornied out of tnree whereon .such vessels as the Adriatic, Baltic and Celtic have been built.

The foundation of these berths, being -slobs," a beautiful word that tunuoys I its own meaning, has had 10,000 exira piles driven into it, and ferro-concretfc, at the rate of 2000 tons each twenty - four hours, is being laid, in order t hat the floor may bear being depressed unevenly by a weight, of 70,000 tons. But that gantry enthralls, fascinates. With its twenty-nine electric cranies lifting from five to forty tons, and its .•anti-lever arm reaching out 137 feet in any given direction, designed by Hairland and Wolff, and built by the builders of the Forth Bridge, Sir William Arrol and Co. COMPARISONS -WITH GREAT

I i EASTERN. Vast as the preliminary outlay is, tlie Olympic and Titanic, could not come into being without it, for they siniplv dwarf all that have ever gone before, even those marvellous vessels the Lnsitania and Muritauia. **& so the Great Eastern, leviathan born out of due time, since even now she dominates the imagination of many, 1 will lie pleased to compare her principal dimensions with these latter-day wonders. She is &">,UOO" tons displacement, they (10,000 ; she drew wluen laden 30 feet, they 37 feet; her length, 1 think, was about 000 feet, their between !100 and 1000 (exact figures are not available in this particular) ; he ]; combined horsepower was 3000, theirs 30,000—for they are not to be considered last, ships, only they will not steam less than twenty-one knots.

They will each liave four funaols and, one mast. In thisj connection lam nuzzled about the exhibition of the aftermast head-light, which, though not com- • pulled by the Board of Trade, is in the opinion of all mariners 1 know an absolute necessity in ships over 300 feet loag. Their stern fra.mes, east in one. vast forging, will each weigh 300 tons, the rudders each 100 tons 15 cwt., and, for a swift transition, the main dining saloon will scat 000 dinners at once.

I'M, FLOATING CRANE. One thip.g l W as cxanoM auout—the mighty floating crane which Messrs Ilarland au'i Wollf have had constructed in liermar 1V at enormous cost to lift a weigh' „ yf ]7J tons froui any position to au >' 'position afloat. Why in Ucrmany '! eß \ius<: no British linn could, or would, undertake such a job, mid Harland and V . oil! must have up-to-date tools, this f me, like all others, having electrical motor power.

I must point to a portent, for it >-s nothing less. Here is, beyond question, the greatest shipbuilding works in the | world, having at the present time thirteen vessels in hand, ranging from 00,000 tons. The men are working day and Iriglit, the yard is being exploited to its utmost capacity, no spectre ot unemployment looms before its army of employees. Yet every pound of coal, as well as of material, has to be imported. There are no coal and iron mines, founilaries, etc., behind it to draw from as so , many yards that have sulfcred and do ' suffer from lack of work. A I'KOUD RECORD.

Into the economics of the wonder I cannot enter. I cau only point to it and say, What does it mean ? Moreover, it is an open secret that the baroor or civic authorities of Belfast have for some occult reason or other never been quick to grant the absolutely '.necessary faculties for extension, etc., to this great firm ; indeed, the question has been seriously considered of moving the vast ■plant to more'congenial surroundings.

Another matter which should never be lost sight of in considering the work of this wonderful lirui in connection with Itlie progress of the White Star line !s that they have worked together upon a basis of mutual confidence, an utter absence.of contracts, and of any kind of hitch ever si-ace they commenced building the pioneer Oceanic in 1870. It is a. splendid record of commercial integrity of which any linn might well be proud, and one. cannot but rejoice that, it has been so well and amply rewarded. . To conclude with »■ comparison. In walking through the great drawing otlic'e, which scores of lmsy draughtsmen | were preparing every detail of the growing Titans without, my guide showed j-nus alongside the lingo model of the later ship'a model of one of their earliest —a liny steamer of ii tons, nestling under the miartcr of the u'O.OOO-tou vessel,