Fights for the Blue Riband 157 



the horse-power being 14,000. She was 

 the third of a series of what came to be 

 called nine-day boats, and when the 

 Adriatic joined the Baltic, Cedric and 

 Celtic, in 1907, a quartet of very comfort- 

 able but rather slow liners was completed. 

 Until the loss of the Celtic by stranding in 

 1929 this quartet remained together on the 

 Liverpool-New York service, where their 

 steadiness and comfort proved very satis- 

 factory, both from the travellers and the 

 company's point of view. Not everyone is 

 in a hurry to get across the Atlantic, and 

 as these big White Star boats had plenty 

 of cargo capacity, they proved very profit- 

 able. 



The next step in the development of the 

 steamship now came about. This was the 

 invention, by Parsons, of the marine tur- 

 bine. To demonstrate its possibilities a 

 small ship was built the Turbinia which 

 reached a hitherto unknown speed. She 

 is now or rather part of her in the South 

 Kensington Museum. 



