The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-03-09
FAST OCEAN STEAMERS.
English Engineers to Try to outstrIp tho
Lucnnia.
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
LONDON, Feb. THE announcement that
Two new English passenger steamers, sim
liar 10 but speedier than the Cumpunia and
the Lucania, are to he shortly laid down is
pretty good evidence that even if Great
Britain is in some danger by reason of the
looked for combination of the French and
Russian navies, of suffering loss of prestige
as nghtlng mistress of the seas, it is not
proposed to allow any but English boats to
win the record for fast steaming on the At
lantic without II struggle.
1t was supposed that no further efforts to
decrease the time between New York and
Liverpool would be made on this side of
the water until it had been seen what the
ships to be built by the Cramps for the
American line would do but the Cunard
people have evidently determined not to
FISK any such experiences in the way of loss
OF customers as they had during the wears
after the White Star boats and the CITY of
Paris, the City of New York and one or
Two German steamers showed their heels to
the crack greyhounds of the Cunard fleet
Inc history of the struggle for speed ON
the transatlantic ferry would be an inter.
esting one. The first vessel to cross the
ocean was American built and made her
voyage as long ago as 1870 but there was
1888, and regular trips were not begun I'M.
I'LL Two years later, when, in 1910, the Bri.
tannla began to ply between Liverpool and
boston, making an average time of IA or Is
Gays. That was more than half n century
ago, and the effort for greater speed has
Deen kept up without ntermission ever
since. The result has been something to be
proud of, for the best boats now regularly
attain speeds that were thought possible
only to railroad trains not SO many wears
ago.
During the so odd years that ocean steam.
ing mas been improving, American built bot
TOMS nave held supremacy for but one brief
PERIOD although the American clipper Sims
were the fastest sailing craft ailoat. and
through them Uncle Sam was for mnny
years accorded the supreme place among
swift navigators. The Collins line of steam
ers was an American institution, chartered
ana subsidized in 1910, and its boats low
cred the average record of the best Cunard
boats of the periodic days 10 hours and DC
minutes-to II days 10 hours.
by 1881 the time had been cut down to q
days hours and 90 minutes, the remnant
then being held by the Arizona of the Guion
line This line, which WAS English, main
tanned its supremacy till 1885, at which
time the record made in 1884 was held Inv
Wv ~ SOii CIV doJ ~ hours ~ minutes.
1t was the Cunarder Etruria that lowered
that record to days hours 81 minutes.
and Cunard boats kept the record then till
1889, when the beautiful hull of the CITY of
Paris was pushed across the Atlantic in S
days ~ hours and minutes. The suprem-
acy was still in English hands, for the line
now known as the American was then the
Inman, and the contest that followed was
for three years more between English boats
only, the White Star and Inman lines being
the only competitors
When the Cunard company came to the
front with her present fast boats the Paris
then under the American flag. held the
honors at days IA hours and "a minutes
though the White Star boats Teutonic and
Majestic had each won the pennant and
Kept 1t for short time. The record is now
held by the Lucania at days 10 hours A.
minutes, and it will take good boat.
whether of Yankee or English build, to
best her. G. p. HoMEsTAN.