The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-09
LATEST IN SHIPS
The Contract Between Fight ing and Merchant
 Vessels.
MUCH DONE AND STILL AT IT
Steps That Have So Far Been Taken Toward Possible
 Achievement.

the way in which developments in fighting and merchant shipping are re- ceived by the average man, says a writer in the London Express. Every new battleship or cruiser design is regularly heralded as the Hast word" beyond which the wit of man can no. further go. Even eminent naval of ficers and architects declared, that the Nile, built in 1888, marked the climax of battle ship development, while the advent of the Drake in 1901 was very widely held to write "inis' to the armored cruiser. Yet. we have ad- vanced from the 12,000 tons of the Nile to 1S,000 in the Dreadnought and from 14,100 of the Drake to It, 25O in the Inflexible; and considering the energy with which improvements are being sought both at home and abroad, he would be rash man who would say that the highest possible point in size and power has been reached even in these leviathans.
 With merchant ships and passenger liners the case is different, though WHY IL SlOulu Dt IO t1il tCll. EluC- cessive Atlantic record breakers have never inspired this belief. They are recognized, as all creations of science should be, merely as steps in a pro- gress of which no man can see the end and the twenty-five knots of the regarded as the ne plus ultra of trans Atlantic speed than is the Nulli Secundus of aerial navigation,
 What for many years must remain the goal of marine architects was laid down more than twenty years ago by one of the most prominent ship de- signers of the day. Sir William Pearce had just designed the Umbria and Etruria, which shattered all previous records by crossing the Atlantic at an aevrage speed of nineten knots. and in an address delivered shortly after to one of theNlearned societies of Glasgow he declared that he was ready, then and there, to produce q vessel which should accomplish the voyage at a speed of forty knots. If this could be done it would reduce the Lusitania's $ time by 50 per cent 3te.
 It Is not surprising that Sir Will liliam Pearce's statement was received with good deal of skepticism. Even in these days the realization of such a feat seems sufficiently far off, and in 1885 twin screws were only just com ing into prominence, while the tur- hine, for marine purposes at all events were unknown. The difficult ties to be overcome were therefore, l tremendous, and in order to combine
 requisite horsepower with ca pacity for paying its way as an ordin- ary cargo and passenger ship, it would said Sir William, be necessary to give 1.-the vessel a length of 1,500 feet and beam of 150 feet--just about twice the dimensions of the Lusltania The cost of such ship would have been l fabulous.
 1 The progress of the last twenty years, and most of all the adoption of the turbine as a marine engine, ena- bles us to look upon Sir William l Pearce's boast with more credulity than was possible when he made it. If for the next thirty years we ad- vance at the same proportionate rate as we have done for the last twenty, 4O-knot liner should be crossing the Atlantic in three days by 1940.
 The evolution of marine architect ure has been phenomenal. The last wooden liner was built in 1859, and the last iron liner in 1883. The last paddle ship was the Scotia, of 1864; and the Etruria, of 1885, was the last single-screw ship. Now that the tur- bine has so completely vindicated it. self, 1t cannot be many years before we come 10 the last of the reciprocat- ing-engined ships. and with the un. hampered development of the turbine forty knots will be comparatively easily realizable.
 There is at present no seagoing ship afioat which can do more, than 34 knots an hour. The torpedo-boat de stroyers Viper and Cobra, the first tur- hine-engined warships ever built, eacf did well over S6 knots, but were both ' lOSL dl Stts dllu SllltC tilpSN oicootSAk the admiralty has Been content with comparatively moderate speeds. There is now building. however, destroyer which bids fair to break all records The Swift, vessel of 1,S00 tons-foul times the size of the average destroy er-now completing at the works oi Messrs. Cammell, Laird x Co, al Birkenhead, has contract speed oi l 36 knots. This alone is sufficiently remarkable for a. vessel of her size but it is an open secret that the build CTS and designers hope to get 42 or Al knots out of her.
 The displacement of the Swift is lit 1 tie more than a twentieth of the Lus- itania's, but her engines will develop i 90. 900 horsepower as compared with the liners 72,000, and she will cost as much as four or five ordinary destroy CTS.
 Of course the Swift could not cross the Atlantic at 36 knots, or anythinl like it, since her oil-carrying capacity is limited to 1S0 tons. but the maya architect, if left to himself, would have no difficulty whatever in produc- | ing a ship capable of doing it.
 The trouble with such d ship would not lie with the naval architect. but with the civil engineer Waters now ] traversed in. perfect safety by the the Lusitania and her sister would become perilous, all existing wharves and docks would be useless, and fire quent docking is vital to a ship which i is to maintain her speed.