344 • The Atlantic 



had some of the disadvantages of the steam yachts but also such grace 

 and beauty that they are still remembered. They passed to American 

 ownership in the year 1893. 



Quite different in character was the first of the large German Uners 

 that was built in 1897; this was the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse that 

 reached the size of 14,350 tons. This represented a very large ship for 

 that time though she was still short of the tonnage of the Great East- 

 ern by over 4,500 tons. In fact, the tonnage of the Great Eastern was 

 not equaled by the famous White Star ship Oceanic which was built 

 in 1899 and was only exceeded by the Celtic built for the same line in 

 the year 1900, which represented 20,000 tons. Though the Kaiser Wil- 

 helm and White Star liners were built in the closing years of the 

 nineteenth century, they do not seem to belong to that period but 

 rather to the twentieth century with the passion for size and speed. 



The year 1906 was a significant year for new Atlantic liners. The 

 development which the Germans had started with the Kaiser Wil- 

 helm they continued in ships like the Kronprinz Wilhelm and the 

 Deutschland and capped this in 1906 with the elegant and luxurious 

 Kronprincessin Cecilie. This also was the year that launched the fabu- 

 lous Cunarders, Mauretania and Lusitania. These were designed as 

 sister ships; their length was 762 feet, their beam 88 feet and they had 

 a depth of 57 feet. Their object was to achieve great speed as well as 

 great size. They averaged 32,000 gross tons and despite the fact that 

 they were sister ships there were some slight differences between 

 them because they were built in different yards. Each was equipped 

 with four turbine engines and direct drive to four screw propellers. 

 These ships accomplished their purposes in the sense that both of 

 them soon hung up record crossings of the North Adantic as we shall 

 see in a moment. 



Apparently the White Star Line had doubts about being able to 

 compete with the new Cunarders on the basis of speed and decided 

 instead to build vessels of record-breaking size. In 191 1 this resulted 

 in the launching of the Olympic and Titanic, each of 45,000 tons. 

 Apparently the German lines despaired of competing on the basis of 

 speed alone so they followed the same line of reasoning that had 

 been adopted by the White Star Line. The Hamburg-American Line 

 in particular adopted a policy of developing large vessels which were 

 expected to attract the travehng public because of their size, sea- 

 worthiness and general comfort. Thus, in the years immediately pre- 

 ceding die outbreak of World War I, they developed the Imperator, 

 of approximately 52,000 tons, the Vaterland of 54,000 and the Bis- 



