speed only will be aimed at in the immediate future, and every effort
will be devoted to economy of fuel, comfort, and safety, with a fair
carrying capacity. This latter policy is one which may possibly
prevail at least for a time, as it has powerful supporters in
Liverpool; but he could not help thinking that very high
speeds--higher than we have yet attained--must eventually gain the
day. He also thought that they were on the eve of important movements,
which will indicate what the next step in the passenger trade is to
be; for it must be remembered, among other things, that none of our
present English transatlantic liners, even the latest, have yet been
fitted with the latest modern improvements for economy of fuel or
quick combustion, such as triple expansion engines or forced draught.
They must, therefore, be at some disadvantage, other things being
equal, compared with the ships of the future possessing them. The
Great Eastern steaming up Milford Haven about twenty-five years ago
between two lines of the channel fleet of old--two and three decked
wooden line-of-battle ships--the whole fleet saluting with yards
manned, was a sight to be remembered. More than this, that ship, with
all her mournful career, has been a useful lesson and a useful warning
to all naval architects who seriously study their profession--a lesson
of what can be done in the safe construction of huge floating
structures, and a warning that the highest flights of constructive
genius may prove abortive if not strictly subordinated to the
practical conditions and commercial requirements of the times. The
Sirius and Great Western crossed the Atlantic in 1838, and in 1840 the
first ship of the since celebrated Cunard Company made her first
voyage. This was the Britannia, which, with her sister ships, the
Arcadia, Caledonia, and Columbia, kept up the mail service regularly
at a speed of about 8½ knots an hour. The Britannia was 207 ft. in
length between perpendiculars, and 34 ft. 4 in. extreme breadth, 22