speed, Elegance and Luxury : 345 



marc\ of approximately 60,000. The Germans derived litde benefit 

 from these great ships for the fortunes of war placed them in the 

 hands of the allies and they became respectively the Cunard vessel, 

 Berengaria, the United States liner, Leviathan, and the White Star 

 liner, Majestic. 



In the period between World War I and World War II the Ger- 

 mans, the French and the British recommenced a competition to 

 build larger and more effective ocean greyhounds. One of the char- 

 acteristics of this period has been the loss of interest in steam propul- 

 sion and the gradual acceptance of the motor or internal combustion 

 engine for even large ships. Particularly in 1929, the North German 

 Lloyd launched the motor vessel Bremen which directed attention to 

 the motor ship by establishing new transatlantic records. 



In the matter of size the British established a record with the 

 development of the Queen Mary of 81,235 tons. The French Line 

 capped this with the large and striking steamer Normandie of 

 83,423 tons. The sad end of the ill-fated and mismanaged Normandie 

 is so well remembered as to require no special treatment here. The 

 loss of the Normandie serves, however, as a reminder that though 

 the French Line, in the period between the wars, succeeded in devel- 

 oping some handsome and luxurious vessels like the lie de France, 

 the Patapar and others, her vessels during this period met with a 

 shocking succession of disasters both in port and on the high seas. 

 The Normandie was exceeded by the Queen Elizabeth of 85,000 tons, 

 launched in 1940. At the present writing, the Queen Elizabeth is 

 and will probably for some time remain the largest and most elabo- 

 rate vessel afloat. 



There is a general relationship between the size of the vessel and 

 the speed at which it travels. The large vessel had some distinct ad- 

 vantages in being able to operate at absolutely higher speeds without 

 a too great relative increase in space and cost. Still, a detailed exam- 

 ination of the Atlantic record will show that on the one hand rela- 

 tively small vessels have maintained good operating records and on 

 the other hand that many very large ships have been built and oper- 

 ated without any pretense at reaching maximum speeds. 



The following set of records are not complete but they do illus- 

 trate how the time required for transatlantic passages has steadily 

 decreased over the last half century. In 1888 the City of Paris, estab- 

 lished a transatlantic record of six days. In the same year the White 

 Star liner Teutonic lowered the record to five days and sixteen hours. 

 This held until 1894 when the Cunarder Lucania dropped it to five 



