New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-06-07
The Aquitania
LETTER OF IMPRESSIONS WITH INTENDING
sENeERs DOMESTIC NOTES.
Copyright. 1914. by George w smalley1

of gloom. Pearl white, cream white,
ivory white, pale gray white. white and
many other shades, but only here and
there touch of more sombre hue.
The great spaces stretch endlessly
past YOU. The ships interior, you may
say, was put UP to auction. Decora-
tors Of English and European reputa-
ton were invited to compete with
each other. Each was on his mettle.
For sumptuousness Of design the prize
must be given TO the dining saloon:
treated in Louis Seize style. Next to
that and in contrast l should put the
library, where symmetry, delicate truth
Of proportion, delicate ornament are
kept rigidly yet gracefully down to the
business of ornament, which is TO be the
handmaiden of architecture and by no
means to flaunt as the mistress Of the
higher art. The lounge may come next,
in its rather freehanded treatment of
precedents dating from Sir Christopher
Wren. In each of the three the
furniture covers, the carpets and cur
tains are an integral part Of the dec
orative scheme. Gliding is freely but
not exuberantly used where it belongs.
The companion ways and staircases are
made a meeting ground OF competing
methods: and the eye never wearies Of
the gilt bronze ratings.
AS for cabins or staterooms or regal
suites"-a phrase which need not be
perpetuated-it is but a choice. Moth
ing has more modern note than the
two hundred single cabins. Time was.
not so very long ago, when there were
none, and men--to use Burkes phrase
-pigged together within the same walls
If not in the same truckle beds. The
horrors Of the middle passage or of the
Pullman night service go out on sea
before they do on land. The ingenuity
by which inside rooms on the c deck
have direct communication with sun
and air is one of the novelties which
prove how little there is left Of that
old Cunard conservatism which for so
many years delayed progress. There
was long period when the red fun
nels OF the Cunarders were the beacon
lights of the North Atlantic. They
meant safety. They did not always
mean comfort. The Aquitania is a
white flower Of Revolution. I take it
the policy Of this great company may
now be summed up: Nothing rejected
because it is new; nothing adopted
merely because it is new; which we
shall all accept as a wise and sane
policy.
| leave TO others comparisons be-
tween this ship and her two German
and one White Star rivals. 1t cannot
be said that any one Of these three
has been lucky from the beginning.
Those who like German ideas of art
and of comfort may be commended to
the Imperator and the Vaterland. The
Olympic was an early attempt at big
ness and luxury; and is not Mr.. Roose-
welt, fresh from his experience of the
River Of Doubt somewhere, if any
where, in South America, sailing these
northern seas on an suspicious errand
to Madrid? Messages came to us yes
terday from the olympic announcing
his presence Messages were sent to
the great explorer by some Of his
friends on the Aquitania, TO which no
answers seem yet to have been re-
turned.
AS l cannot begin to touch on the
points l wish to and ought to, leave
the Aquitania to speak for herself.
Built and engined, as the Lusitania
was, by the great Clyde firm Of John
Brown & Co., she is, for the present,
the last word in mercantile marine ar
chitecture. Good authority asserts,
and | have no doubt truly, that as n
sea resisting structure of steel she has
no superior, perhaps no equal. The ex-
perts and professional writer's give full
and very interesting details: Of which
the public is no judge. The passenger
wishes TO know about matters that al
feet him daily and directly. In such
matters he j. himself an expert. He
will like to hear that no vibration is
discoverable in any part Of this floating
city where passengers belong; nor, 30
far as l know. anywhere else. AS to
motion there has been no test. The At
lantic has been a level plain. But the
notion OF a vessel that is free from
motion always is a chimera. When
the Atlantic withdraws itself from
under the forefoot Of ship, big or liz
tie. that ship will pitch. With heavy
beam sea she will roll; and with
beam sea under the counter she will
both roll and pitch.
1t is known that there have been
strikes among joiners and other sorts
Of workmen on the Aquitania during
her construction. The strikes have put
her some six months back. and but for
the indomitable determination Of the
Cunard company would have delayed
her sailing far beyond the appointed