Steamship

a ship propelled by steam. If nothing be said to the contrary, the term is understood to mean an ocean liner or ocean "grayhound." For some account of the development of the steamboat, the reader is referred to the article under that head.

A modern steamship of the first class is a stupendous affair. A particular account of one of the large steamships may serve for a general description of them all. Very little wood enters into its construction. The skeleton is a framework of steel girders, one-seventh of a mile in length and seven stories high. This frame is covered with large steel plates from an inch to an inch and three-eighths in thickness. Placed on edge, end to end, they would make a steel wall five feet high and eight miles long. Once afloat this steel palace is moved by two mammoth engines with a strength equivalent to that of 30,000 horses. There are fifteen boilers, heated by ninety-six furnaces. Two hundred and fifty tons of coal are a ship's daily allowance. The ship's smokestacks rise straight up to a distance of 128 feet, like the giant trees of California. If laid on the side ten horsemen could ride through them abreast.

Enormous polished pistons of solid steel one foot and a half in diameter driven by a steam pressure of 192 pounds to the square inch convey the power of the engines to the crank shafts. These shafts lie side by side and run to the heel of the ship where they terminate in outside screw propellers. These propeller shafts are hollow tubes of steel made in sections. They are 225 feet long and require three-fourths of a million pounds of steel in their construction. Each propeller or screw has three blades. They are made from an alloy of manganese and copper, the toughest metal known. Each blade weighs ten tons and costs $6,000, the manganese bronze being worth $600 a ton. Pistons, shafts, and propellers move noiselessly or with a low rhythmic movement seemingly at a very low speed. The piston stroke is six feet; the crank shaft turns seventy times per minute, or a little oftener than once per second. Although the ship with its cargo weighs over 35,000 tons and sinks thirty-two feet in the water, it is driven forward thirty feet by each revolution and is propelled across the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool in less than five days.

Far up a narrow stairway forty feet above the surface of the water and protected by a warning, "Passengers not allowed," is the captain's room. The machinery of the ship is controlled from this point by automatic devices. Dials indicate the condition of affairs. A touch of a lever here, and the ship turns to the right; on moving another lever, it turns to the left; turn the indicator forward and the ship increases its speed; turn it backward and the ship slows down. In three seconds' time the officer on watch can reverse the direction of the engines and bring the ship to a standstill in about two and one-half lengths, that is to say, about one-third of a mile. By touching a lever in case of a collision, doors can be closed automatically, dividing the body of the ship into eighteen separate water-tight compartments. Twenty seconds are sufficient to close these doors and five of these precious seconds are spent in ringing bells to warn persons to get out of doorways. Signals may be given which man the fire hose and lower the lifeboats.

The devices for controlling a steamship are remarkable. The rudder, weighing fifty-three tons, is controlled by a pair of engines, only one of which is in actual use. The other stands under full steam. In case one engine fails, its mate can be thrown into instant operation by a single movement of a lever. If both engines break down, the rudder can be connected with a capstan, operated also by an engine. If the rudder should break, the steamer is provided with enormous drags which may be thrown out to retard the ship's motion on either side, just as an oar or a hand thrust into the water on either side of a skiff will cause it to turn in that direction.

There are over 100 independent engines in such a ship. They work capstans, cargo hoists, steam winches, and elevators. The need of powerful auxiliary engines may be known from the fact that the links of the anchor chains weigh 200 pounds each. An electric plant, larger than is needed in a city of 3,000 inhabitants, lights the ship, turns fans, hoists ashes, lifts provisions, warms the staterooms, heats water, ventilates the barber shop, and turns the kitchen spits on which fresh meat is roasted. The chief engineer must see that feed pumps, circulating pumps, ballast pumps, fresh water pumps, brine pumps, evaporating pumps, filtering pumps, and a dozen others are kept in order. Some idea of the amount of machinery in a modern steamship may be had from the fact that fifty gallons of lubricating oil are required daily.

With all the labor-saving appliances, both steam and electrical, which the ingenuity of man has been able to devise, the services of 1,000 men are still needed. The engineer has 200 men under his direction. Three shifts of twenty-five men each bring coal to the furnaces; thirty men are required to shovel it in. Thirty-five "greasers" oil the machinery. The ship's purser and the chief steward look after the housekeeping of the ship. They employ 100 dining room stewards, half as many bedroom stewards, nine stewardesses to look after the needs of women passengers, cooks, scullions, errand boys, storekeepers, linen keepers and bootblacks, an army of 200 or 300 in all.

When the 1,500 passengers go aboard an ocean liner in New York harbor, they hardly realize that the steward has already taken on 31,000 pounds of fresh beef, mutton, and lamb, 2,000 chickens and ducks, 1,000 head of game according to the season, 800 bushels of potatoes, 150 barrels of flour, 6,000 pounds of ham and bacon, 10,000 eggs, 64 sacks of sugar, with fresh fruits and other vegetables in quantities to correspond. Not less than 3,000 quarts of milk and cream, 5,000 pounds of butter, and 3,000 pounds of ice cream are put in cold storage, and all for a week's voyage. Some standard articles, such as salted meats and flour, are kept aboard in quantity; but ordinarily the steward expects to balance his accounts and lay in a fresh supply at the end of each trip.

With its machinery, ingenious contrivances, discipline, facilities and comforts for passengers, speed and fixed schedules, the modern steamship is a marvel which must be seen and studied to be appreciated. It starts on its voyage with little more commotion than an ordinary ferry boat, and with the aid of a tug glides into dock at the other side of the ocean as quietly and modestly as though nothing out of the ordinary had been done.

The prominent lines of steamships are owned in England, Germany, and France. They are manned by officers and crews of corresponding nationality. A modern ship, complete in every respect, cannot be built for less than $4,500,000 or $5,000,000. Passengers fare one way costs from $60 upward. Berths on the finer ships must be engaged weeks in advance.

The first steamship to cross the Atlantic ran from Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool in 1819; making the trip in twenty-seven days. The Savannah, as the ship was called, used steam during a part of the voyage only, and was wrecked off Long Island on the return voyage.

Persistent efforts have been made to lower the time required to cross the Atlantic.

TRANSATLANTIC RECORD.

The passenger business of the great steamships is growing rapidly. Transatlantic lines carried passengers:

The amount expended in 1909 by the Atlantic tourists--American tourists--was about $170,000,000.