280 DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF PASSENGER STEAMERS. 



The days in port are somewhat indeterminate, due to uncertainty in time necessary 

 to load and unload. The times given are estimates only and are subject to change to suit 

 terminal conditions; they should be fairly close. Allowance has been made for docking, 

 overhaul, etc., also passengers and cargo are taken at only 85 per cent full, averaged over 

 the whole year. 



The compensations. coming to the fast boat show up in this table; she will carry more 

 than twice the people per year at, naturally, much higher rates per person. 



It is also clear that the 15-knot ship does not deliver enough extra freight to compen- 

 sate for the fewer and lower-rate passengers carried. With everything lined up properly, 

 the 30 knotter will make twenty-one round trips in a 300-day working year, i. e., a round 

 trip every two weeks. Two such ships, laying off during the two bad months to avoid the 

 worst weather, could command the cream of the travel. 



They are not excessive in size, and even if they only make twenty round trips per year, 

 due to miscellaneous bad weather and sometimes taking the longer southern route to clear 

 ice and fog, such ships equipped for first and second cabin only would each average 45,000 

 passengers per year, which at, say, $250 per person comes out at $11,250,000 against a 

 fuel bill of $3,800,000, which is not so hopeless. The obvious temptation is to pursue this 

 further, but I am afraid that I shall have to refer it to the Committee on the Thousand- 

 Foot Ship, due to lack of data on the cost of operating vessels of this size. May I commend 

 this 750 footer to that committee as a step well worth considering in our further progress 

 towards the solution of the problem of the modem Atlantic liner? 



A recent report credits the Aquitania with transporting a total of over 90,000 persons 

 east and west bound in her first full year on the New York run. She is rated at a capacity 

 of 3,238 passengers and 23 knots speed, and this is believed to be a record performance. 

 The speed stated is for coal burning; under oil she should be capable of about a knot more. 



Comparison with the figures given above indicates that 90,000 passengers transported in 

 a year is a very good performance. 



Another interesting angle to the speed question is that of increasing speed in vessels of 

 moderate dimensions. Now and then this question comes up; it is well known that speed 

 combined with reasonable comfort is associated with size in some way not strictly definable. 

 The Mauretania gives us one point, namely, a length of 760 feet and a speed of 26 knots; a 

 proportional length for 30 knots would be 1,000 feet. We now want to inquire if such 

 length is necessary for this speed. Sir W. H. White held, if I read his 1911 paper correctly, 

 that the Mauretania represented the maximum of length necessary for her speed, also the 

 maximum practicable speed for the North Atlantic. The Aquitania, which he did not live 

 to see go into service, represented an increase in length and a decrease in speed. The later 

 Paris represents a decrease in speed on the same length, the evidence thus not being 

 conclusive. 



A maximum speed-length ratio of unity has been a general guidance rule for ocean pas- 

 senger ships for many years. With lighter machinery, oil fuel and other advances, the speed 

 question again becomes one for renewed study and discussion. 



The following table shows the fuel savings possible for high speed, moderate dimensioned 

 vessels: 



