GREAT STEAMSHIPS. 3 



lunatic had it been published before the age of steam, while in the first days of that 

 great power which has now revolutionised the world it would have been regarded as absurd. 

 The wooden Cunarder which, forty years ago, conveyed Charles Dickens on his first trip 

 to America took double the ordinary time occupied now in making the voyage ; and as a 

 journalist has said, between such a vessel " and such ships as the Arizona (Guion line), 

 the Germanic (White Star line), the City of Berlin (Inman line), and the Gallia (Allan line), 

 there is undoubtedly not less difference than between the Edinburgh or Glasgow mail-coaches 

 and a modern express train/' The Arizona has made the round trip that is, the voyage 

 from Queenstown, Ireland, to Sandy Hook, New York, and back again in fifteen days. 

 The Inman line has been specially celebrated for quick passages, whilst their "crack" 

 steamer, the City of Berlin, has made the single trip outwards in seven days, fourteen 

 hours, and twelve minutes, and inwards in seven days, fifteen hours, and forty-eight 

 minutes. The City of Brussels and the City of Richmond have done nearly as well, while 

 other steamships of the same line have made the trip in a very few hours and minutes 

 more time. Think of considering minutes in a voyage of 3,000 miles ! The magnificent 

 steamship named after the Orient Company has made the voyage from England to 

 Australia in thirty-seven and a half days, or not very far from half the time occupied by 

 other steamships a few years ago. This grand vessel is said to be only exceeded in size 

 by the Great Eastern ; she has a displacement of 9,500 tons and indicated horse-power of 

 5,400, and carries coal enough for her entire voyage some 3,000 to 4,000 tons. But she 

 is not to remain unchallenged, for, at the time these pages are being written, the Barrow 

 Shipbuilding Company is constructing for the Inman line Atlantic service a still larger iron 

 vessel, with engines of 8,500 horse-power, capable of propelling her at the rate of sixteen 

 or seventeen knots ; she will have four masts and three funnels. And yet another vessel of 

 equal or greater power has been put on the stocks for the Cunard Company. Again, the 

 largest steel steamship, or ship of any kind, has been launched at Dumbarton. She is 

 intended largely for the cattle trade between the River Plate, Canada, and England. She is 

 over 4,000 gross tonnage, and has been christened the Buenos Ayrean. The sums of money 

 invested in the construction of these superb vessels are enormous. The Orient is said to 

 have cost, without her fittings, little less than 150,600, her engines alone involving the 

 expenditure of one-third of that amount. And yet a third-class or steerage ticket to 

 the Antipodes by her costs .only fifteen guineas, while the emigrant can go out to the 

 United States or Canada by almost any one of the finest steamships of the various Atlantic 

 services for six guineas. 



Many routes might, of course, be taken round the world, England being the eventual 

 goal in all cases. As quaint Sir John Mandeville says, in the first chapter of his " Travels " : 

 <( In the Name of God Glorious and Allemyghty, he that wil passe over the See to go to 

 the City of Jerusalem, he may go by many Weyes, bothe on See and Lande, aftre the 

 Contree that hee cometh fro : manye of hem comen to an ende. But troweth not that I 

 wil telle you alle the Townes and Cytees and Castelles that Men schaslle go by : for then 

 scholde I make to longe a Tale ; but alle only summe Contrees and most princypalle Stedes 

 that Men schulle gone thorn-h. to <ron the riffhte Way." 



o * o o / 



"Although," says Mr. Simpson, the popular artist, in his work entitled "Meeting 



