138 Book of Steamships 



aboard felt that the gallant ship must sink, 

 for her bows were stoved in for all the 

 world like a concertina, and the water 

 poured into her hull. But she was an 

 extremely well-built ship, and her bulk- 

 heads held up against the inrush of water 

 so that she was able to limp into harbour 

 and be patched up temporarily before 

 going home for rebuilding. 



In the past such a misadventure would 

 have doomed a ship, and in all probability 

 the shipowner would have scrapped her, 

 or at the best put her in service again 

 under an entirely different name. In 

 point of fact, the accident to the Arizona 

 did her and the Guion Company a tre- 

 mendous amount of good, because it 

 proved that it was possible for a well-built 

 liner to stand up to the worst that an 

 iceberg could do, always providing she met 

 it head on. 



A successor to the Arizona, the Alaska, 

 built in 1882, brought the Atlantic pas- 

 sage down to less than seven days, and it 



