Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-12
IS QUEEN OF SHIPS
New Cunarder and Sister Craft
Greatest in World.
|LUSITANIA NEARLY READY
Monster Turbine Steamer Will Soon
Leave Liverpool.
TWENTY-FIVE KNOTS AN HOUR
Test of Huge Vessel Demonstrates Her
Capacity to Make That Speed
Across Ocean.
TWENTY-FIVE KNOTS AN HOUR

When the new Cunard express steamship
Lusitania leaves Liverpool for this port
early in September her departure will mark
the greatest event ever recorded in the his
tory of the commerce of the seas. All the
marine experts Of the world and thousa nds
upon thousands of laymen will await the
conclusion of what Is thought will be the
fastest ocean passage by the largest steam
ship propelled by the greatest marine tur
Times.
Not "a but the" levathan of the sea
is this great liner, beside which the largest
steamships now in the transatlantic trade
seem small. Now in dry dock on the other
side, the official speed trials Of the Lusi-
tania will soon be held. Already, with her
bottom fouled with the cIingng mud of
the river Clyde, a measured mile test gives
her speed at twenty-five knots. and the
endurance tests to he run are expected to
demonstrate her capacity to make this
speed day after day on her regular trips
In the service of the Cunard line.
The product of Two years in the hands
of her builders Messrs John Brown &
Co, Ltd. of Clydebank, the great size of
the Lusitania may be realized when it is
known that with an ordinary amount Of
cargo and passengers the throbbing mass
of steel and fittings will, weigh more than
5000 tons. She is 80 feet in length, SO
feet in breadth and 90 feet in nodded
depth with a load draught of 81 feet y
inches The turbine engines which are to
drive the four propellers of the liner at a
twenty-five knot gait are to develop 10000
horsepower, or nearly 5000 horsepower
more than the great quadruple reciprocal
ing engines of the Kaiser Wilhelm II of
the North German Lloyd line. the highest
type of their kind in the world
1t is such figures these that mark the
Lusitania and her consort, the Mauretania.
which. exactly like her in every detail, will
f,Il. I1tx
the greatest interest. Other hitherto large
liners dwarfed by comparison, and
mOnarchS of the sea for some years to
come the two Cunarders will be. Wherever
they may be sighted they will be readily
known by their four big tunnels, each 100
feet in height, for no other merchant liner
has four tunnels, each of which, with a
diameter of "a feet. would easily make two
for an ordinary ship.
A Few Figures.
Built solely for passenger service, the
Lusitana will require 1900 tons of Goa, to
fill her bunkers. The hull of the ship,
which has an official measurement Of 81, $50
tons Of approximately forty-two cubic feet
to the ton. has space for only coo tons Of
dead weight cargo-hardly as much as the
smaller coastwise steamships that ply along
the Atlantic coast. Only express freight,
therefore, can be carried and this item Is
scarcely reckoned in the receipts to be taken
Il !,
agent of the Cunard line in this country,
said few days ago, the liner is for pas
sengers alone.
To build the I.usitania under the highest
specifications for express service required
such immense weights in material never
before went into the hull of liner. The
backbone" of the Lusitania Is a keel plate
nearly 100 feet long, five feet wide and
three and three-quarters inches in thickness,
which on the outside is flush with the bot
tom of the ship. OF the inside for the same
length is the vertical keel, five feet high
and one inch thick, and to this are attached.
directly or indirectly the frames and
beams which make up the skeleton of the
leviathan.
The Lusitania's ground tackle" is the
strongest yet made, to hold the 4J.OOO-ton
mass against the strongest tides and winds
when either at quarantine here an
chored in the swift tide of the River Mersey,
weigh ten tons. and the 1880 feet of
called cable" is composed of twenty-two
inch links, the iron of which is three and
three-quarters inches In diameter. each link
weighing about 100 pounds. These links
have been tested to a strain of $40 tons
each.
The carriage and housing Of $50 first
class, 800 second-class and more than
1,2UO third-class passengers have been
provided for and with officers and crew
the Lusitania will have more than 5000
persons on board. This complement is
not as large as some of the recent ships
more space has been given over to the
individual than ever before on liner.
The height between decks. ten and one
half feet. Is more than the height of the
rooms in modern dwellings and insures
roominess that will be appreciated by
ocean travellers.
Modern Conveniences
There are two electric elevators in the
center of the ship for the use of passen-
gers, and six others are installed for the
handling Of mails, baggage and express
matter. The provision for natural light is
very complete, there being 200 windows
and sidelights. including 500 ventHating
lights. For artificial illumination there
are 5000 electric lights the current for
which is furnished through 200 miles of
wire some of these wires being one and
one-half inches in diameter. A complete
system of telephones in all parts Of the
liner is installed, and as easily as the
passenger from his stateroom sends his
order to the stewards the lookout far up
in the crows nest forward tells the off,
GERS on the bridge what is ahead.
To be unsuitable so that passengers
oan be carried in perfect safety, the ma
rine architects designing the hull made
the top of the vertical keel the top mark
for the double cellular bottom that ex-
tends not only beneath the Lusitania, but
well up on the bilges, or turns. Of the
bottom, SO that In the event of either of
the great biige keels affixed to the outer
skin being torn off and the skin injured
the inrushing waters would reach only
the compartments Of the double bottom,
and not the working and living parts of
the liner above. BY the system of d.
vision the Lusitania will have IT'S water