The age-herald., 1898-01-09

North German Lloyd fleet, the Kaiser Wh- helm der Crosse, and of the records of their maiden trips. is interesting.
 The Great Western had length over all of 2S6 feet, breadth of beam 8 feet inches, depth 3S feet ? inches, tonnage 13l0; the Kaiser Wilhelm Der Crosse has a length of 649 feet, beam 6G feet, depth 43 feet, and tonnage 14,050 The Great Westerns maid en trip consumed something over fifteen days; that of the Kaiser Wilhelm Der Crosse 3 days % hours and 35 minutes. The former burned GOO tons of coal during the passage; the latter 800 tons day. The greatest number of passengers carried by the Great Western on a single trip was 1o2; the Kaiser Wilhelm has accommodations for ,440 passengers and a crew of 460-a to- tai of 190).
 The year 1S4O and the immediately sue ceeding ones were notable in the history of steam navigation. Samuel Cunard, of Hal flax, N. S., with George Burns, of Glas- gow and David McIver, of Liverpool, found- ed the Cunard Line and established steam traffic between the two continents; and the Great Western Steamship company built the Great Britain, and so revolution ized steamship construction and the appl cation of the propellng power. In 1Sl0 the English government entered into a contract with the Cunard company for carrying the mails-the consideration was $40o, ,0C0 year and the Acadia, Britannia, Columbia and Caledonia were put afioat The first, the Britannia, was paddle wheel steamer with a wooden hull, but, nevertheless, great wonder in her day. She sailed from Liver pool on Friday, July i, 1S0, and arrived in Boston in Il days and hours. She carried ninety cabin passengers-steamers carried no steerage passengers in the early days who were subject to almost all the dis comforts of the old ocean clippers.
 The Great Britain, built by the Great Western Steamship company and launched on July 19, 1S43 proved to be a great eX- DnrimnOt III tually the ruin of her owners. She was the first large steamship with a hull of iron, and the first screw steamer of any con siderable size. She had length of 322 feet over all, beam of 51 feet, and a tonnage of 34i3; the diameter of her screw was 15 feet and inches. She left Liverpool for New York on August 26, 1S45, and made the passage in fourteen days and twenty-one hours, two days more than the Great West ernS best westward record She was a bit ter disappointment to her owners, and was altered and fitted with a new screw, but never distinguished herself. In 1S45 she overran her reckoning and was stranded on the Irish coast The disaster completed the ruin of the Great Western company. The stranded ship was sold. was repaired by her purchasers, and piled betweensLiv- erpool and Australia for many years. Only so short time ago as 1886 she stranded on the FaullSland Islands, and was wrecked beyond repair.
 
 about 1S45. In that year F. B. Forbes, of Boston, built the Massachusetts and E5ith for transatlantic trade In June, 1S47, the Pacific Mail company established the pioneer line between New York and South ampton with the Washington. In 1850 the government subsidized the Collins line, and number of vastly improved ocean steamers were built. This line was the first considerable competitor of the Cunara Line, and in 1851 reduced the time of pas fo al,a ole lax Tn f1,p Inman Line now the American Line. built a number of screw steamers In 1856 the Anchor Line was established, and the Ham burg-American company built it's first steamship. In 1857 the North German Lloyd entered the field. The Bremen, the first of the companys great fleet to cross the Atlantic, carried only twenty-two cabin passengers. In 1861 the French Compagnia Generale Transatlantque was organized, and in 1863 the National Line The Guion Line became an aggressive competitor for patronage in 1866. In 1870 the White Star Line launched the first vessel of the new type, extreme length in proportion to breadth, with twin screws, and luxurious appointments, and gave a decided impetus to the development of every phase of stem ship travel.
 The Thingvalla Line was established a few years later. Other companies organ ized were the Atlantic Transport Line, the Prince Line, for service between New York and the Mediterranean; the Lamport and Holt Line, the Mediterranean and New York Steamship company. Limited. and the Wilson Line. Improvements in cohstruc tion and equipment followed one another in swift succession, until at the present day, the discomfort, danger, and tedium of the transatlantic voyage have been we'll nigh annihilated and 1t almost seems that human ingenuity can devise little more so long as steam remains the motive power.