290 DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF PASSENGER STEAMERS. 



ment in deciding to finish the main program of wartime transports later converted to pas- 

 senger ships. In using the word shortage, care must be exercised to discriminate between 

 present and normal times. 



The strength of our position in cargo-carrying tonnage is not yet reflected in the pas- 

 senger-carrying trade, but with our operators in the passenger trades encouraged by the de- 

 livery of new ships and, by the reconditioning of captured vessels, the outlook for the future 

 is brighter tlian it has been for at least two generations. There is also some encouragement 

 for builders in that the void in their yards calused by the prevailing lack of cargo ship orders 

 may be partly filled by orders for passenger ships. 



Indications are not lacking that our Pacific and South American trades are soon going 

 to become well developed. On the North Atlantic we are not as yet adequately represented. 

 It is true that there are some ships under the flag, but these are not generally of such size and 

 type as to command an adequate share of the trade. 



The Italians and French have some excellent vessels in that run, notably the new Paris. 

 The Leviathan remains at her dock. Her long, idle spell is bad enough, but the lack of 

 policy which kept her not only tied up but out of condition as well is a severe blow to our 

 place on the Atlantic. The writer feels that the lack of enterprise in this direction is only 

 temporary; the world will not be content to go backwards in passenger liner de\'elopment 

 indefinitely. 



The Pacific has given one sign of renewed progress in the Empress of Canada. She is 

 almost as much a step in advance over Pacific Ocean average as the Mauretania was on 

 the Atlantic, though this may be held to be somewhat of a stretching of facts. Nevertheless 

 she is clearly a noteworthy vessel and brings cheer amid the dark clouds of the recent enforced 

 lack of advancement in design. Our new liners will not long occupy any leading place 

 among noteworthy ships, so that our hold on the trade will before long demand larger and 

 faster vessels. 



The laying down of a 30,000-ton passenger ship by Harland and Wolff for the Hol- 

 land-America Line is reported, this being the largest vessel commenced in Britain since the 

 war. The end of the retrogression in size appears to be in sight. 



In concluding, it seems to be a safe forecast to make that passenger ship construction 

 will figure somewhat prominently in our bigger and best equipped yards during the next 

 few years, particularly when it is remembered that a considerable number of ships now 

 running would, but for the war, have been out of service ere this and that they will need re- 

 placement just as soon as practicable. 



The photographs illustrating this paper are available through the courtesy of the New 

 York Shipbuilding Corporation, builders of the ships from which the views were obtained. 

 They can be considered as representative of all the ships, remembering that there are dif- 

 ferences in detail. 



The state-room view can be taken as typical for all the ships. The rooms mostly have 

 beds ; in the larger ships some rooms have regular bunks. 



DISCUSSION. 



The Chairman : — This paper, No. 10, on "Design and Construction of Passenger 

 Steamers," is now before you for discussion. Two words in the title of this paper, "design" 



