THE SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 447 



Line. Indeed the whole fleet (forty-four ships) of the White Star Com- 

 pany was built by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, it was for the White Star 

 Company that the long type of ocean steamship, with saloon and first-class 

 passenger accommodation amidships was introduced in 1870. This, though 

 a great advance in ship construction, is only one of the improvements due to 

 the Belfast firm. Every demand, indeed, made by modern commercial 

 necessities and modern luxurious ideas has been met by Messrs. Harland 

 and Wolff. The world wanted big ships ; Queen's Island built the 

 " Oceanic " and " Celtic." Steady " railway timers " were required, and' 

 the " Majestic " and " Teutonic " were produced. In fine, Messrs. Harland 

 and Wolff have always shown themselves pioneer builders of vessels of 

 great size and extraordinary speed. 



The two great achievements of these shipbuilders, however, were the suc- 

 cessful launching and completion of the new White Star passenger and mail 

 steamers " Oceanic " and " Celtic." The " Oceanic's " dimensions even 

 exceed the " Great Eastern's." The " Oceanic " is 704 feet long, and at the 

 time of her launching was universally acknowledged to be the finest vessel 

 ever produced, and the crowning success of the century in naval architecture- 

 and marine engineering, reflecting the highest credit alike on the enterprise 

 of her owners and the capacity of her builders. The only matter for regret 

 is that Mr. Thomas H. Ismay, the founder, and until his death the head of 

 the White Star Line, should have passed away within a few months of the- 

 completion of this splendid addition to his already celebrated fleet. 



This splendid ship, huge though its size, has been surpassed by the 

 "Celtic," launched on the 4th April, 1901. The length of the " Celtic" is- 

 given as 700 feet over all ; she is, therefore, a few feet shorter than the 

 " Oceanic," though still ahead of the " Great Eastern." In breadth she is 

 75 feet — 7 feet more than the " Oceanic," but about the same amount less 

 than the " Great Eastern." It is this breadth of beam that makes her so- 

 much bigger than the " Oceanic," while she surpasses the " Great Eastern " 

 because a section of her amidships would be approximately a square, 

 whereas in Brunei's boat it was approximately a triangle. 



The " Celtic " has not been designed with any view of attaining high 

 speeds ; her claim to distinction lies rather in the fact that she is the biggest 

 boat that ever has been built or is now in process of construction. The only- 

 vessel in the past that approached her was the " Great Eastern," which had 

 a gross tonnage of 18,915 compared with her 20,880. 



Besides the vessels built for the White Star Company for their Atlantic 

 trade, the " Afric," "Medic," "Persic," "Runic," and " Suevic," have been 

 built for the Australian traffic of Messrs Ismay, Imrie and Co. So that 

 Messrs. Harland and Wolff have put a girdle round the earth for the White- 

 Star Company. The Queen's Island firm are the builders also of the 

 excellent vessels that are used for the African traffic of the Union Line, and 

 of some of the vessels used by the Atlantic Transport Company. 



It is well known that not a little of the success of Messrs. Harland and 

 Wolff is due to their astute and far-seeing manager, the Right Hon. W. J. 

 Pirrie ; an Irishman, of whom another great Irishman — Lord Dufferin — 

 said when the degree of LL.D. was being conferred on the Chairman of 

 the firm of Mes.srs. Harland and Wolff, " that he was a man who by his 

 talents and indefatigable exertions had so stimulated the activity of his 

 town that he lifted it from its former comparatively inferior position to that 

 of being the third greatest commercial city in the whole Empire." 



