DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF PASSENGER STEAMERS. 301 



are built up from experience, and unless he is already changing long previous practice, or has 

 the vision to see how it may be changed to advantage, one ship cannot be very much of an 

 advance over another. 



It is doubtful whether in this country or any other the possibilities of comfort, service, 

 convenience and entertainment of passengers on shipboard have been developed to anything 

 approaching a maximum. Quite possibly some genius of an operator will some day appear 

 who will develop a dining-room service, a room service and a deck service, and will provide 

 for the comfort, convenience and pleasure of his passengers in a way that will quite astonish 

 all of us. He will cause, or permit, an arrangement of the ship and its service features which 

 it will be delightful to contemplate. However, it will only be through the cooperation of an 

 operator and designer, each with sense and imagination, that any such happy culmination is 

 likely to be made possible. 



The Society should feel indebted to the author for a paper which furnishes considerable 

 information for future reference and suggests many lines of interesting thought. 



The Chairman : — If there are no further remarks, I will ask Mr. Rigg to close the 

 discussion. 



Mr. Rigg : — I thank you, gentlemen, for the reception you have accorded my paper, 

 and in reply I will endeavor to be as brief as possible without being so brief that I do not 

 make myself clear. Dr. Sadler's point as to giving deeper study to passenger ship design is 

 well taken. Undoubtedly airship development must be taken into account in the long run ; at 

 present it is not in any way a rival for transatlantic passenger carrying, but it is now a rival 

 to cross-channel ship service in Europe. Regular lines from London to Paris and London 

 to Brussels are running. To what extent these lines are commercially successful is not 

 known to me — but, judging by recent experience, the cross-channel steamers still have plenty 

 to do. Recent large airship experience is not encouraging to transatlantic flight enthusiasts. 



Saving one day in five is evidently worthy of consideration, and that is what a 30-knot 

 ship does as compared with the present maxima. For a surface ship to cross the Atlantic 

 in thirty-six hours is not yet in the realms of practicability, involving, as it does, about three 

 times present top speeds. 



Mr. Frear raises the question of the power given for the 700-footer on page 281 at 30 

 knots. On checking over the table I find that I was a little unfair to the 600-footer at 30 

 knots in the matter of displacement-length ratio, which had the effect of running the power 

 up unduly. The figure of 137,000 originally given has been modified to 132,000. This bal- 

 ances the curve better, one object of which was to show the undesirability of trying to push 

 the 600-footer at 30 knots on account of the high residuary resistance. The term "fuel 

 saving at high speed" does need qualification ; it would be better to have said "comparison of 

 powers necessary for varying lengths at high speeds." Commander Kawahigashi also refers 

 to this table; the low power at 30 knots for the 700-footer is that the residuary resistance 

 is coming down to a practical amount at this length. These figures were based on experiments 

 carried out in the Washington tank, but not on experiments for these particular vessels, 



Mr. Amott asks if the design for the 1,000- footer ever got beyond the initial stages. It 

 did not, but the initial stages were carried well along, though by no means up to the point 

 of commencing to order material ; the general arrangement plans were completed and some 

 work done on weights and stability. I believe also that some experimental tank work was 

 started. 



