The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-09-21
CUNARDBR LAUNCHED
Partial Description of the s. s. Maure- tania Which Left the Ways Yester-

s'HtAnA Descr1ptlDh OA tHS S' " %hA~a aHe-
 tania Which Left the Ways Yester-
 day.
 The Cunard Express Steamer yesterday Qseptember 2O) at Wallsend- onTyne, has been in progress since the autumn of 1904, and it is expected that she will be completed by the autumn of next year. Her builders, Messrs Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, are already represented in the Cunard fleet with the 'UItonia," l" ''Ivernia" and "Carpathia." which excellent vessels, however, are quite eclipsed by the work upon which this well-known firm are at present engaged. The yard of Messrs Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson lies on the left bank of the Tyne, at walIsend, between Newcastle and Tynemouth.
 The first portion of the work con- struotion was the laying of the keel plate. which is five feet wide and three and three and three-quarters Inches thick. and is flush outside with the bottom of the ship. Associated with this flat keel is vertical keel, five feet high and one inch thick, and to this vertebra are attached directly or in directly the frames and beams which make up the skeleton of the leviathar.
 The double bottom Is divided by a vertical keel five feet high, and trans verse frames, into compartments in which water ballast may be carried. The tops of these tanks are carried well round the turn of the bilge, so that should the bilge keels be torn away and the hull pierced the entering water would be confined between the inner and outer bottoms. This is only one precaution in the direction of securing unsinkabiIity. The lower deck Is made completely watertight. Below it are the lower orlop and orlop decks and above are the main, upper shelter, pro- menade, upper promenade and boat nine decks in all. Tt is necessary, of course, that there should be means of communication between one water tight compartment and those con tiguous, and on the ''MAURETANIA" these communicating doors at or below the water line are of a special type, and can be closed automatically from the navigating bridge, and that in a few seconds. Tn all, the "MAURETANrA' will have 175 water-tight compart- ments, so that it may be claimed for her that she is as unsuitable as a ship can be.
 DIMENSIONS AND SOME CoMPARI-
 SONS.
 The principal measurements of the ,"MAURETANIA" are:-
 Length .............790 feet Breadth. .....,.............S
 Depth (Molded) ........ 60 Gross tonnage. SS,200 tons Displacement tonnage. .45,000 B Load draught.. ...... S7 feet inches Height of tunnels. ........1 155 Diameter of tunnels. ..24 Height of masts. .218 "
 These figures convey but the bare idea of the great size.
 IA favorite standard of comparison in shipping is the leviathan of Brunei, the GREAT EASTERN" the mammoth steamer, which born before it's time, yet solved in her construction many of the most difficult problems with which the modern builders of big ships have to grapple; yet the 'MAURE- TAINA" dwarfs even the gigantic GREAT EASTERN" as the following figures show,
 'Great
 Eastern. Mauretania. Length. 692 feet 79O feet Breadth. " SS Displacement. .... .27, 900 tons 45,oO0 tons Paddle, screw and sail. Quadruple
 screws
 The ''Great Eastern" was an experi- ment, but there Is nothing of the ex- pertinent about the "MAURETANIA and her sister, the Clyde-built ship "LUsITANIA," The valuable data obtained from the running of the 20, ,000- ton turbine Cunarder, 'Carmania, has afforded a valuable object lesson in adapting the turbine system of propul- sion to liners of the leviathan class, de- monstrating the suitability of this type of propulsion to the largest type of veS- sel.
 PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION.
 The MAURITANIA" will be fitted with accommodation for 2S00 pas sengers, of whom 300 will be first class. 800 second and 1900 third. The crew will number over 800 so that the com plement of passengers and crew will be over 5000 The promenades and living spaces allotted to the passengers are designed on a most generous scale, the space allowed to each passenger being about 50 percent, greater than in any other of the recently constructed liners crossing the Atlantic. Tn the architec- tural treatment of the public rooms and cabins, the owners and builders aim at surpasang anything at present In the way of ship and comfort in the first, second and third class aocommo- dation.
 Among special features introduced into the new levfathan will be the en suite rooms, ten and one-hslf feet from floor to ceiling, the arrangement of the