Smyrna times., 1883-02-14
For the Smyrna Times.
The Fastest Ship Afoat.

The Fastest Ship AfOat.
The Guion steamship Alaska having
frequently made the run between New
York and Liverpool, England, in Z
days and 5 hours is entitled to the
right of being called, The Grey
of the Atlantic" although to attain this
speed it has been found necessary to
use propelling force of 1000 horse
power through her engines acting on
the screw.
The Greet Eastern a much larger
ship afforded the spectacle of maxi
mum of carrying capacity with mini
mum of steam power, and was a failure
from this cause alone. No matter how |
useful she was found to be in laying the |
Atlantic cable, and as transport, the |
intention was for her to make the
passage of the Atlantic in an even
days. So, as the Great Eastern has
been relegated to obscurity, the Alaska
steps to the front and under her i'm
mense power fails to make it under 7
days.
According to the Liverpool Mercury
this same company (Guion) are now
building in Great Britain a steamship
to be in service next Summer whose
indicated horse power of $4,000 is done
solely to lower the record Of the
Alaska, and make the trip in 6 days
either way. This ship will be called
the Oregon, and is of the same size
and lines as the Alaska with
1000 more horse power. With this
quick dispatch, these ships make
according to their own company's re-
ports from 100000 to 100000 each,
which equals $5OO,OOO a year, gross
earnings, nearly one-half of which is
profit.
Their enormous first cost renders ii
out of the question for even houses like
the Cunard or Guion to build and equip
one or more such ships, and hence
their almost unlimited amount o.
capital is derived solely from the great
banking and other corporations o
England who select these house flag
to invest their surplus capital. 1t il
done in this way and in no other, nov
let us see what this means of pent VI
force equal to $4,000 horses or q pOwe
that is equal to what the same numbe
of horses, were they all together cOul
raise q certain height, say in one min
ute, a weight ofnearly 100 tons density
The Oregon is to have IL boilers tn
area of whose crate surfaces will rC
quire consumption Of 300 tons of Coz
per day of "a hours, and as one ton {
coal will evapOrate nine tons of watt
into steam, 300 tons of steam wi
pass through her engines every
hours. This gives thrust of 81 tor
per revolution to the screw, it having
pitch of 40 feet. We are now beSinnil
to see what 1900 horse power mean
or what power it takes to drive sh
across the Atlantic and come prompt
to her dock Z" by my lady's watch "
!. days.
fit takes 300 tons of coal for o.
:. days use, imagine string of railrO
:. trucks holding 1900 tons for 6 da
use and then, to handle this bulk
! that time seems more wonderful.
! The day has gone past perha
" never to return when the beauti
clipper ships of Donald NJ. Kay a
George Steers will again hold
supremacy Of the seas for Amer
under their white wings Of canvass.
Speed now means plenty of capi
= and plenty of coal, and if AmeriC
commerce or ship-building Is not
stored to what it once was by otl
more foreible means than the late sh
ping bill passed by Congress, the b
1852. thing we can do is to go on rail-rC
building and let our English cous
have the sea and the profits. Here,
,s., are thirty-eight empires merged in
possessing a wealth of mineral {
IpW other resources that the rest of
nav" world is envious of with no oC
sion to call upon other nations
what we need to build ships either
wood, or iron, or steel, and yet c
gress, to relieve American ship build
n and revive its commerce, passed
act, % articles of which related to
" sailors slop chest" and two to all
M ing a rebate on material entering
the construction of ships, when
truth is, we don't need to import 8
thing to build ships. What we wal
dlu such powerful syndicates of car
like the owners of the British oC
steamships to order the ships, and
TOr" will come without any help from
gress. Time and again has it
g in demonstrated that American manu
turers can go into the markets of
[orse world and undersell in the woods
metals, and how could it be done i
4tf raw material had to be imported.
- once again, we had better confine
efforts to admiration, in, that
nations can build such magnif
:. and ships as the Alaska and Oregon,
session not forgetting, however, that muc
= N -, c.. tKav,, to do even vet b