DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF PASSENGER STEAMERS. 275 



The Cunarder Albania is a case in point, she being a postwar ship and destined for the 

 North Atlantic service, the home waters of tlie de luxe liner. 



It should be noted that vessels carrying top-rate passengers only are not here specially 

 referred to; needless to say such ships are neither new nor rare, the old Atlantic Transport 

 Line between New York and London being a good example. 



If ocean travel is to get back to prewar peace and comfort, this experiment will be 

 watched as one of the means of bringing back in improved form the comfort, and indeed 

 the actual chance itself, of traveling to a great many people who cannot afford present first- 

 class rates but who still constitute a large body that is only too anxious to travel and will- 

 ing to pay fares a little nearer prewar best average rates. 



It should also be noted that the White Star Line has further extended the one-class 

 liner idea and have in service the Vedic, a ship carrying only third-class passengers and all 

 in cabins ; the best parts of the ship are theirs, and there is every facility for self-respecting 

 humans to travel in comfort and decency. Several other examples could be quoted, but the 

 above will serve. 



The one-class ship, or rather the ship with absent class distinctions, is something that 

 deserves to succeed, and let us hope to see it do so. 



Another point which should not be lost sight of is that the one-class liner works in well 

 with moderate first cost of ship. In these days the struggle is to keep first costs and passage 

 rates in some relation that will stay together in at least comparative peace. With only one 

 class of passengers per ship a smaller ship will answer our purpose; it is all available for 

 these passengers, and we are going to have less difficulty getting promenades in the open air 

 and deck area in the quarters. 



In fact, the one-class ship looks like one shrewd answer to postwar problems. 



LENGTH. 



In 1912 Mr, J. Foster-King presented some very interesting diagrams to the Interna- 

 tional Congress of Navigation in Philadelphia. These prewar indications of the trend are 

 extremely valuable at this time; the diagrams are produced to 1920 and thus enable perform- 

 ance and estimate to be compared. For the largest type of North Atlantic liner, the 1,000- 

 footer was indicated; in the Aquitania and Majestic (ex-Bismarck) we find prewar justi- 

 fication of the forecast. Coming down to the longest types for general first-class passenger 

 service and selecting some fourteen of the most noteworthy post-war designs actually 

 launched, we find an average length of 585 feet, the greatest being 650 feet and the smallest 

 505 feet — five only being 600 feet and over. Mr. King's curves gave 775 feet for Atlantic 

 liners, excluding the leviathans, and 650 feet for general first-class liners; it is clear that 

 the 1912 outlook has not been realized, a point also clearly brought out in several other 

 directions ; the fact that the 585-foot average includes several Atlantic liners tends further 

 to show the reduction, the figure with which it should be compared being- intermediate be- 

 tween 650 and 775, in a ratio difiicult to get at. It seems reasonable to say that large passen- 

 ger ships have been shortened by 100 feet from considerations arising out of the war. The 

 chief influence at work is the high cost of ships, which makes it a serious question with 

 owners as to whether they can charge passage rates high enough to realize on their invest- 

 ment without killing the business of passenger carrying by reason of the inability of people 

 in sufficient numbers to pay such rates. 



