SHIPBUILDING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 317, 2 June 1911, Page 5

SHIPBUILDING.

MONSTER OCEAN LINERS. By cable.—Press Association.—Copyright London, May 31. The White Star liner Titanic has been launched. Harland and Wolff arc building an Hamburg-American liner larger than the Titanic. The 50,000-ton liner which the Ham-burg-American Line is building will be the biggest ship afloat. That she will not remain so long, however, is a matter alTeady decided by the programmes of other firms, such as the Cunard Line, for instance, who were months ago preparing plans for a 00,000-ton vessel. Nor docs the future give any prospect of these vessels marking a limit; indeed, the 1000 ft. ship and the 100,000-toimer will, in the opinion of experts, be the product of the twentieth century. It is barely ten years since the 20.000-ton liner, with a 22-knot speed, held the record for displacement and speed. A few years later Germany produced a vessel of similar displacement, but capable of maintaining a speed of 23 knots. Then, strange to say, the craze for speed abated to some extent. Liners of 18 and 19 knots have since appeared, but the displacement has been doubled and nearly trebled. The Olympic, the biggest vessel now in active service, has 45,000 tons displacement, representing such an increase in size that no dock in the world is capable of accommodating her. This fact brings one to an intervs'.'ng point made by a writer in the "Wood's Work." For the last twelve years, 1» says, two of the main branches of civil (■rrincering have been running a groat rac,. The ship designer has set the pace, am! the harbor engineer lias to toil after him. The ship designer has by no means reached his limit, but few harbors can accommodate the Europa, which is probably the vessel mentioned in the cables recently. Yet this leviathan is to be superseded by even larger vessels. Undoubtedly the harbor engineer will have to follow so long as the increase in tonnage does not overstep the mark of commercial practicability. Still, in the light of the progress that has already been made, the accommodation of even the 100,000-ton liner does not seem impossible.