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14 MARINE REVIEW. [May 2, A LEVIATHAN LINER. LAUNCH OF THE WHITE STAR STEAMER CELTIC--SHE IS THE LARGEST VESSEL EVER.BUILT NOT A SMASHER OF SPEED RECORDS. The launch at Belfast on April 4 of the leviathan liner Celtic, de- scribed in part in a recent issue of the Review, is a development of the ocean steamship on which the White Star line and Messrs Harland e Wolff may be congratulated. Both have played conspicuous parts In the making of the modern liner, and it is only fitting that the new century should see them coupled in the production of the largest steamer in world. The Celtic is the largest vessel ever built, and her evolution makes one of the most marvelous stories ever written. Within fifty years we have passed from clipper ship, through wooden paddle boat and iron screw steamer, to the high-speed, luxurious twin-screw liner, and the face of half the world has been changed in the process. On both sides of the Atlantic wealth has increased enormously, and the limits of the world's play ground have widened. Formerly the American continent was little known to European pleasure seekers, and Americans were absorbed in the making of money. The people of the old world went to America to stay, and the traffic was all one way. The emergence of the United States as a great world power altered all that, however. With wealth came leisure and the desire to travel, and a great coming and going of the moneyed classes set in. Trade expanded rapidly, to the enrichment of British shipping. Emigration still is, certainly, on a considerable scale, the : draught of 36 ft. 6 in. will be 37,700 tons. How these dimensions compare with those of other well-known liners is shown in the tabulated statement below, but it may be noted incidentally that her displacement is 10,300 tons more than that of the Great Eastern, and more than double that of the heaviest warship afloat. Gross tonnage is used in the table, and the lengths given are over all. . Length. Breadth. Depth. Vessel. KG. in. Geta FEt.:In. Tons. Great: Hasten 33.78, 691 0 82 8 452 18,915 Britannic... 43... 468 0 Ay 3a 5,004 City. of Rome... 600 0 o2° 0 at 0 8,144 Alaska' co) 3. ee 520 0 50: 0) 388 0 6,400 Htrunia 24.255 50...-3 520: 0 oS 36 2 7,718 Panis. A. ites 560 0 63 22 B92 2 10,500 MeutOnic ) ek joe 0) ot 8 BU 9,984 Hurst. Bismarck... 3. 620. ..0 ot 66 Bor 8,874 ia Touraines...2. 540 0 56 0 34. 6 9,209 (Campania. 2 5. 620 0 65 0 43 0 12,950 K. Wilhelm der Grosse 648 0 66 (0) 43 0 14,349 Oceanic = 3.5... 4.... 105 6 68 0 49 0 1 ode Deutschland. 33. 686 0 67 0 40 4 15,500 (Celtic 455 Bckeee 700 0 75 0 49 vy 20,880 As will be observed, she is a few feet shorter than the Oceanic, with, however, 7 ft. more beam. She is, as the figures also show, the first ves- HI i i 3) Ml ir UM : | 'i i ! ig ~ i eS ae) tl inne aay = er Ti AT tn a Sa ie i lh 'a li At | (i ' we ys "if Hh a iia] ale ll, j j Pa yr ll oe -- THE CELTIC AS SHE WILL APPEAR IN A FEW WEEKS. but the growth of wealth has increased the love of travel, and perhaps as many well-to-do people now travel westwards as eastwards. The Atlantic passage has been reduced to five days and a half, and the standard of liy- ing afloat has been raised to that of the best hotels ashore. But prac- tically all this development has taken place in a quarter of a century, and both the owners and the builders of the Celtic were associated with its beginning. One hardly counts the Great Eastern now in tracing the development of the ocean steamship, for Brunel merely attempted to solve by bulk the problem which was solved subsequently by high pressures and surface condensation. There was no legitimate demand for a vessel of Fer size. The true line of progress was found by the late Mr. Ismay and the late Sir Edward Harland, when they produced the first Oceanic, which was, according to a distinguished American naval architect, a dis- tinct departure in "form, style and interior arrangement." And their successors have never left it. They have followed it on the soundest busi- ness principles, and by iudicious anticipation of the traveller's wants they have reached the Oceanic and the Celtic. The all-round efficiency of the Celtic has been carefully calculated, and the times are ripe for her. The fact that she has not the speed nor the costly furnishing of the Oceanic may surprise the uninitiated, but the reason will be perfectly obvious to the man who reads between. The purse of every traveller does not run to Oceanic rates, and there is a numerous and increasing class to whom an extra day in crossing on a great modern steamship is an attraction. COMPARATIVE DIMENSIONS OF THE CELTIC. The Celtic is 700 ft. long, her beam is 75 ft. and her depth 49 ft. She is 20,880 tons gross, and 13,650 tons net, and her displacement at a load From a drawing by R. Quiller Lane. sel to exceed 20,000 tons. The task of building such a vessel was neces- sarily very heavy, and possibly there are not half a dozen ship building yards in Great Britain which could have looked at it. But the great es- tablishment over which Mr. Pirrie presides is chiefly engaged in the pro- duction of big ships--the average last year was 11,300 tons, and in 1899 11,805 tons--and every appliance that can possibly facilitate labor is to be found in its equipment. The berth in which the Celtic has taken shape is that which was specially prepared for the Oceanic, and for practically two-thirds of its length the slip is on "made" land. The ground has been piled and cross-piled extensively, and over the foundation thus laid has been placed a solid floor of steel plates. The immense gantry which was used first in the construction of the earlier liner, and which was described at the time, was utilized to the fullest extent, and it is difficult to conceive how the work could have been carried out without it. The shell plates, of which there were 1,392, averaged 30 ft. by 5 ft., were 114 in. thick, and in some cases weighed as much as four tons. Long gap hydraulic riveters and electric drilling machines were used extensively, and their efficiency largely depended on the immense frame, which has been described as "the most gigantic machine tool ever devised." It may be noted in pass- ing that, as in the case of the Oceanic, machine riveting was adopted wherever possible in the keel, double bottom, hull and stringers; 167,095 rivets of 1% in. thickness were driven in this way. There are altogether nine decks in the Celtic, and as their arrange- ment in some way facilitates the task of describing the vessel, the names may be given. They are lower orlop, orlop, lower, middle, upper, bridge, upper bridge, boat and sun decks. With obvious exceptions they are all