The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22
OUR STEAMBOATS, ARE SLOW.
WE HAVE NONE TO MATCH THE
ENGLISH FLYERS.
Boats IN Abroad on Regular Schedule at
Speeds Exceeding 40 Knots-Some or
Our So-CalIed Flyers Are Not So Fast
by Observation-Disclosures and Dutch Boats.

Speeds Exceeding 40 KnOts-Some or
Our So.Called Flyers Are Not So Fast
by Observation-Disclosures and Dutch BoAts.
America has always been firstin the size
and magnihoenoe OF its river and u
boats, but always behind England In the
speed maintained by such boats on regular
schedule. An American steamboat may
have a nominal speed capacity Of 20 miles
an hour, but the schedule she runs on may
be only fourteen or sixteen miles an hour,
and she may very seldom get In on schedule
time On the other hand a corresponding
English boat would be able to make twenty
four or twenty-six miles an hour and very
often would be run to within q mile or 90
Of its possible limit Of speed on regular
schedule, and everything possible would be
done TO get 1t in OF time.
In the summer the New Yorker has q
choice Of eighty local boat lines: thirty
Eve on the Sound, twenty-five up the Hud-
son and twenty down the bay. Boston
comes next with forty-fve. Then comes
Baltimore with thirty, many lines to the
Eastern shore being served, however, with
small and irregular boats. Then come
Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago with
about twenty-five lines each.
The many passenger lines on the Great
Lakes are fully equal to the best on the
Atlantic. Coast. The run between Detroit
and Buffalo Is the longest one night run In
the country and the fastest.
Looking. to Great Britain for q COM
parison we SEQ at once that the local Chan
mel lines are somewhat smaller boats as q
rule, and not 30 luxurious as our best, but
all faster and more powerful. For ex-
ample, the great Priscilla, largest Of all
out steamboats,, has a total length Of 4io
feet and $500 horsepower, while the En-
press Queen, the largest paddle steamer In
the Irish channel, has 10000 horsepower
and is only 3t5 feet long.
This means that she can run twenty-five
miles an hour and she makes on her daily
schedule about twenty-five miles while the
Priscilla's schedule TO Fall River Is between
! sixteen and seventeen miles an hour, and
she could be pushed probably to twenty.
The Belgian Government paddle steamer
running from Ostend to Dover, Princess
Clementine, Is 1851 feet long with e,2oo horse
power, has run twenty-seven miles an hour
and maintains a regular schedule Of more
than twenty miles an hour. The Sound boat
Pilgrim, 800 feet long, has 8 800 horsepower
and makes only fifteen miles ar hour.
The Dutch line boats between Greensboro
and Flushing are fully as fast as the Princess
Clementine, making the run OF l26 miles
at the rate Of nineteen miles an hour. The
best Of these boats are $40 feet long and OF
1000 tons burden, and 9,00o horsepower
each, enabling them to mako twenty<ex
miles an hour when necessary to maintain'
the train schedule in stormy weather.
Possibly the fastest regular boat schedule
in the world is maintained on several tKips o
day between Holyhead and Dublin, sevNnty-
seven miles. The distance Is a In an aver
| age Of 210 minutes, or more than twenty
two miles an hour. The run Of the Richard
Peck to New Haven is the same distance, but
takes 315 minutes when on time, OF at the
rate of less than fourteen miles an hour.
II we had a boat going to New Haven In
ono hour and a half less than the Peck
we would nave the speed OF these English
boats; and yet the Peck is allied a flyer
and does pass most OF the other Sound
boats,
The distance from Dover to Calais Is
twenty-five miles and the regular boats
have been making the trip in a few minutes
over the hour and are now cutting this
down to an even hour. The Sandy Hook
run OF the boats Of the Central Railroad of
New Jersey, the one fast run we have In
New York Harbor, takes one hour and a
quarter. The distance is twenty miles. AT
best the boats make less than twenty miles
an hour,
The fastest excursion service by water
for pleasure or holiday travel is from Glas-
gov to the many beautiful resorts Of the
west Of Scotland and north Of Ireland.
Many very fast day excursion boats are
operated here, a speed Of twenty miles an
hour or more being often maintained.