The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-24

While the reading public has been
tolerably informed ais to- the size and
speed Of the great ocean liners and
knows 81 how many feet each would
oyertop the Washington monument or
how many city blocks it would fill
there IS one feature Of the immensely OF
these ships Of which very little is
known even BY the most experienced
travellers. This concerns the business
management of these vessels, which in
the case of the largest liners has grown
to be an enterprise of vast proportions
requiring the services of hundreds OF
men.
For example, the operation of the
Oceanic; the largest steamer ever built,
which arrived in New York on her
maiden trip last week. involves a null
titude of activities and is managed on
a. scale that seems almost Incredible
to the 1andsmau. An inkling of their
proportions may be gained from tine
fact that it would take a miner twenty
five years Of steady work to get out the
coal required to fill the bunkers of the
Oceanic for a single trip. while the
food supplies that she demands TOR
each voyage would more than support
the miner and his family during the
whole of that time.
To appreciate the yastness of the
business operations connected with the
greatest ocean liner it is necessary to
rid ones mind of the idea that she is a
ship as our fathers understood that
term She is not manned by sailors,
and the seamen form an inconsiderable
number in the makeup of her crew.
Nor is she a floating hotel, as the
magazine writer is fond of calling her.
There is no hotel that compares with
,xxfsf Iy5x siafy fVf fc
activities. The Oceanic is an ocean
city nothing less. When she is at sea
she has population of 2,000-as great
as many town with county seat aspi-
rations can claim. A score of differ
emit trades and occupations are prac-
ticed on board her. She has indepen-
dent lighting, heating and refrigerating
plants, machine shops, a printing office,
a carpenter shop, in short almost all
the equipment of an up-to-date COM
munity, together with much that is
peculiar to herself.
I What a Single Voyage Means.
To all practical purpose each voyage
represents complete business venture.
All accounts are rendered separately
for each voyage. The crew from the
captain down are engaged at the Euro
pean port for each round trip. They
are technically discharged at the con-
c1usion Of the voyage and must sign
new articles before they are shipped
again.
AS soon as the liner ties UP at her
pier at the end Of one voyage the prep
arations for the succeeding one begin.
While cargo is being discharged from
one side great harges are pouring coal
into her bunkers from the other. The:
Oceanic has a coal carrying capacity
Of $500 tons and burns upward of 1000
tons ON each voyage. 1t requires the
service of sixty men working steadily
for forty hours to coal her and the.
operation costs about 81 1000. The coal.
itself costs about fifty times that
amount. In other words the coal bill
of a vessel like the Oceanic while she
lis at sea amounts to the tidy sum of
$1,000 per day.
While this operation is going ON the
ship undergoes a thorough cleaning
that makes her shine like a new dollar.
Painters, repairers and cleaners swarm
over her. Truckloads of provisions
amounting in the aggregate to half a
hundred tons are put on board. Every
piece of machinery, every plate and
rivet is carefully inspected and by the
time the cargo is shipped and passen-
gers come aboard matter of $4,000,
aside from the cost of coal and pro-
visions, has been expended in preparing
her for her voyage.
The Men Who Do This Marvel.
While the captain is of course the
supreme authority the actual manage
ment is conducted by three separate
departments. The first of these con-
Germs itself with the sailing of the yes
sell. and it is. presided over by the chief
navigator under the directions of the
captain. himself. The second is the
engineers department. This is under
the direction of the chief engineer, with
whom the captain seldom interferes.
1t is all important to the welfare and
progress of the ship, but the passengers
see practically nothing of its opera