THE CUNABD COMPANY. Ill 



sharply after laziness or awkwardness. The same organisation of crews is applied to fire 

 duty. Some have charge of the buckets ; others fetch and join the hose, or take care of 

 the jets; others are ready with wet blankets to throw over the flames; but the essential 

 matter is that each man has his place and his duty. So for manning the pumps and 

 other essential matters. These drills over, the inspecting party proceeds to make a complete 

 tour of the vessel. The store-rooms are visited, and the steward cautioned never to use 

 any other light than a closed and locked lamp. The supply of rockets and other signals 

 is examined, the steering and signalling apparatus tried, and only after everything has 

 been found in order is the word given for the ship to embark her passengers and proceed 

 on her course. " If the smallest defect/' says the Times, before quoted, " is discovered in 

 any part of a ship, no question is raised whether it will bear one voyage or two voyages 

 more, but the order, ' Out with it ! ' is given at once." The reign of order is as complete 

 as on board a well-regulated man-of-war. On the many other great steam-ship lines 

 more or less of the same inspection occurs, and on some, 110 doubt, the precautions taken 

 are nearly as careful. The Cunard Line is generally admitted to be, however, pre-eminent 

 in the care taken of life and property on board, the fact being that the company has never 

 lost a ship on the Atlantic. The illustration on page 109 shows one of their finest ships, 

 the Scotia. 



From the Mersey alone there are ten distinct fleets sailing to America, including 

 such magnificent steam-ships as those of the White Star and Inman Lines. In the former 

 the luxurious saloons are placed amidships, the motion being less felt there. The Inman 

 Line has made the quickest passages across the Atlantic on record, and has carried as many 

 as 50,000 steerage passengers in one year. In 1856 and 1857 this line carried 85,000 

 passengers, of both classes, to and from the United States, or about one-third of all those 

 crossing " the Great Ferry " for those years. The shortness of time to which the Inman 

 steamers have reduced the passage across the Atlantic was conspicuously shown by the 

 voyage of Prince Arthur in 1869, who attended service at Queenstown on the Sunday 

 morning of his departure, and was landed at Halifax in time to attend morning service 

 at that place on the Sunday following. Their ship, the City of Berlin, of 5,500 tons, 

 is the largest vessel afloat except the Great Eastern, and has accommodation for 1,700 

 passengers. The White Star Line has two vessels of 5,004 tons each, the Britannic and 

 Germanic. These few facts will indicate although we may not be able to grasp them 

 in their entirety the immense growth of the ocean steam navigation in a period so short 

 as that which has elapsed from the first steam-voyage across the Atlantic. 



