24 Alec Wilson on 



example of the class of decoration a private sitting room on 

 the " Andes " was shown. This room was carried out most 

 consistently in one period. In fact, any artist wishing to design 

 an Irish saloon must adopt a similar method. He must design 

 electric fittings, furniture, upholstery, wood carving, pictures, 

 ornaments upon walls and deck overhead, ceiling, even the 

 very carpet must be in keeping. 



Enough has heen said to show the immensity of labour re- 

 ([uired upon the ship in addition to the actual work done upon 

 the stocks. Before following one of these boats to sea on her 

 first trip some notice may be taken of the more famous ships de- 

 livered from the yard. 



One talks sometimes rather loosely about "epoch-making" 

 ships. Very few boats indeed are entitled to the name. Bell's 

 " Comet " of 4 H.P. in 1812 was the only steamer that ever marked 

 an e])Och in any real sense, l)ut there are other ships that marked 

 Avhat may fairly be called epochs in the history of steam driven 

 ships. One was the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co.'s little 

 ' Sirius,"the first vessel to cross the Atlantic under her own steam. 

 Somebody ought to rescue the shaft of this little boat, which 

 is said to l)e still doing duty in a mill near Ballycotton Bay. 

 Another ei)0ch-maker was the first Cunard boat, the first boat 

 of the first regular Atlantic service and the first of a fleet which 

 still retains the place it won two generations ago. In the " 'fifties " 

 Biunel made an epoch with his amazing " Gieat Eastern," 

 the giant failure which so nearly succeeded, and which at any 

 rate laid the first successful Atlantic cable. For forty years she 

 set a standard of size, and each successive increase in tonnage was 

 called the biggest "since the '^^ Great Eastern."''' With the 

 second ^^ Oceanic," however, the " Great Eastern" was definitely 

 surpassed, and from the " Oceanic" of 1899 the " Great Eastern" 

 epoch may be said to have closed. The first " Oceanic " also 

 certainly marked an epoch in her day, as did the Inman sister 

 ships, ''City of Paris" and '' City of New York" (now the 



