| Show c THREE DAYS TO CROSS Carl Sclmrzs Predictions Regarding Re-garding Ocean Travel THE STEAMSHIP OF THE FUTURE A New Steamer of the Hamburc Line to be Launched in May Great Speed is Expected Ex-pected of Her NEW YORK April 151891 Special correspondence cor-respondence of THE HERALD Men of millions lions who control therailroads of this country coun-try and the big steamship lines have entered en-tered in a great race for fast time Tho one cry is how can wo save time and the heads of the great corporations have taken the fever from the public and the strongest possible rivalry exists While now lines of transit with faster engines and more palatial pala-tial cars are being agitated and created in rapid succession on land the steamship men have not been idle The improvement in the transatlantic liner in ten years has been very great and as the travel goes on increasing new and faster ships ure being built The amount of capital invested In these great ocean transportation lines is enormous The first cost of one of the V 1 J CARL SChUltZ modern ships is very nearly if not quite two million dollars ana when one line alone runs half a dozen or more of these floating palaces it can readily be imagined that these companies must control large sums of money Besides the millions the steamship men have invested in ships more millions ihave i riUXCE BISMARCK THE FUTURE RECORD BREAKER have been invested in real estate docks and buildings on both sides of the ocean To protect these millions it is of course necessary to secure patronage and to do this they must make fast time To day the Cunard the Inman the HamburgArneri can Packet tho North German Lloyd the 1 White Star and the Transatlantique are rushing their ships across the Atlantic in the great race to save time and only day or two ago the dispatches announced that the Cunard line was about to build a quartette quar-tette of ships that will make the trip from New York to Queenstown in a little moro than five days This is even better than the Austin Corbin scheme runninglSOOO ton ailAmerican steamships from Mon tauk Point Long Island to Fivef ord Haven in live days and a half Now Carl Schurz who is president of the HamburgAmerican Packet company I knows as much about the great race among I the steamship companies as anyone on this Bide of the Atlantic This company is one of the prominent competitors in the great transAtlantic carrying trade and claims the distinction of having established the German interests in that business Over a hundred millions of marks have been invested in-vested in this companys ships and the Columbia Co-lumbia of this line holds today the record for the fastest maiden trip None know better than Mr Schurz editor diplomat orator soldier author and president of a great steamship line how rapid is the progress pro-gress in the art of ship building II am a great believer in fast time said geat t f I carried passengers without freight we couldnt afford torun them The problem we are endeavoring t solve is t build a ship that can make these fast trips and at the same time have room enough in her hold for freight and on her decks for passengers pas-sengers On these ships safety must be tho first consideration To realize the steamer of the future the company which I represent and I guess the heads ot the other great steamship lines also are sparing neither trouble nor expense ex-pense in Securing the latest phase of marine architecture perfect in the three requirements require-ments of modern travelsafety speed and comfort In our ships there arc two distinct dis-tinct sets of boilers two engines two shafts and two screws both sets working inde endently of each other and separated by one solid longitudinal bulkhead running from the keel to the upper deck and divid lag the vessel into two noncommunicating halves of which each is fully equipped to propel the ship You see an accident tome to-me side of the ship can I no manner affect the other whose machinery will continue to V7ork and propel the ship with the greatest great-est ease The watertight compartments will confine to one compartment any accident acci-dent that might happen How many lines have adopted the twin screw system Well our own the Inman and the White Star is all at the present time but ihave no doubt but that they will all be using it in the near future The ship of the future will to my mind have larger engines and have four of them with two set of twin screws You can readily see that to carry this extra machinery and at the same time not decrease the freight and passenger carrying capacity we must have some pretty big ships In the Normania our two engines make a total of 12500 horsepower horse-power BO if this horse power were doubled the force at our command would be very great And a to electricity as a motive power Mr Scuurz Oh you see I am not figuring on that but it will be all the better in case we can use electricity The question with electricity city is we do not yet know what it peculiarities pecu-liarities are and what it is capable of doing I should not be surprised to see it adopted in our Atlantic passenger ships almost at any time but there are certain problems to be solved in electricity before we can use it in big steamships as a motive power We must know that it is safe That is the very important question that has not yet been satisfactorily answered We must be able to secure it at a reasonable expense 1 dont suppose that any of the great steamship steam-ship lines Would hesitate at a low hundred I thousand dollars on every ship but the cost of the original plant is not the thing that they would hesitate at What could it be run for and what room would the manufacturing man-ufacturing paraphernalia take up in the ships hold I it would occupy more room than the machinery now in use that would be very bad but it is more than likely it would take much less space and every foot of space on a big ship has its value Even though electricity would cost us much more than the present system of motive power if we could make faster time and be assured that it was safe we would adopt it We cant experiment with electricity which is I an unknown power to a great extent yet on one of our big vessels ou in the middle i of the Atlantic where might kick up just Ian like I-an un horse I believo the time will come though when electricity will be used as tho motive power on our great railroads and steamship lines But until we get it wo cannot stand idle but will go on improving and perfecting our machinery now in use We have landed passengers from New York in London in seven days and in Hamburg Ham-burg in eight days Ten years from now > ri 4JA M i 1i qLi i J ONE OF THE PRINCE BISMARCKS NEW ENGINES EN-GINES we may be ableto land passengers in London Lon-don say in four days and in Hamburg in five days I believe in last time and if we ii J 1 t = SCHUBZS IDEA OF THE STEAMSHIP OF THE FUTURE WITH MORE POWERFUL MACHINERY Mr Schurz I do not agree with those I who say there is greater danger in running a ship at a faster rate of speed than the sevenday or even the six day trip to the other side of the Atlantic I am of the opinion that wo will yet build ships that can make the run to Liverpool in three days It is not at all improbable And in fact I expect to see it before I die if we keep on improving at the rate we are going now and I am sixty years of age at that Twentyfive or thirty years ago we would have been ridiculed i we predicted that I ships could cross the Atlantic as they are I doing now in six days and fifteen hours Our statement would at least have been thought very greatly exaggerated And ten or fifteen years from now I shouldnt be surprised I steamships were run across the Atlantic in four days and as the ratio of advancement in ship building continues in say twenty years from the present time we might cross in three days What will be the necessary requirements require-ments for faster time Mr Schurzr Well In the first place i wo have higher speed we will need more powerful engines and machinery and that will necessitate larger vessels of course Ships must be run at a profit They are not being run for amusement and fast time alone We can build ships that we can make the run across t Europe in three or four days or say five r days but they would not be able to carry rpilht nn pnqpnlnr Al r I t I could cross the Atlantic in two days I would favor it And a to the danger of the apeeding of steamships There i just as much danger in running run-ning at the rate of fifteen or eighteen knots an hour as twenty knots the fastest runs yet made by our steamships are twenty five knots an hour tho possible speed of tho future There has been much talk about icebergs that have been floating in the path of the passenger steamers and of the alleged al-leged danger of fast running in connection with them but where a ship is provided with twin screws there is really little danger You will remember the Normanias experience She was headed right for a mammoth iceberg but with the twin screws and her powerful rudders she was turned right about when within a ships length of the berg Of course when I say I believe in faster time I want all the mechanical improvements to keep pace The passage of the postal subsidy bU which grants 4 a mile t firstclass American Ameri-can ships will no doubt stir up considerable consider-able capital for ship building on this side of the Atlantic I have heard of Mr Cor bins plan but I understand that gentleman gentle-man has not spoken on the matter as yet Many people though may not care to go down to Montauk Point to board their ship preferringNew York which will probably always be the central point for travelers tt T1 iThe travel to Europe is constantly increasing in-creasing Nowadays in the regular season I our ships are all crowded to their utmost I capacity People have got more monoy to I spend it would appear and these trips across the Atlantic are a good omen for the prosperity of America There are not only more people going over but there are more that are taking tne expensive lines The public in this way is giving great encouragement encour-agement to companies that are spending thousands and thousands of doilarn in perfecting per-fecting their ships But we have a treat in store for the public in May continued Mr Schurz The Prince Bismarck our new ship which is now being fitted out across the Atlantic will make herfirst run to this country early next month We expect she will eclipse all previous records The Emperor of Germany was shown over the Prince Bismarck Bis-marck the other day by the representatives of our company in Germany and ho expressed ex-pressed great delight with the vessel The Emperor spent an entire alternoon on the ship which is lying at the wharfs of the shipbuilding company Vulcan receiving the last of her furnishings The Prince Bismarck pleased the Emperor very much and he was particularly interested in her machinery which is the latest and most improved Her engines are larger and more powerful than any yet made for the Atlantic passenger steamers I do not care to predict what her time will be but tme you may rest assured it will not be behind the record of the Columbia The Prince Bismarck has three funnels and two masts which are low and without yards so as to offer the least resistance while their efficacy cacy remains unimpaired should their use ever required The Prince Bismarck will be 520 feet long 5S feet wide and a depth of 40 feet It will have 12000 tons displacement displace-ment and tho engines will have 16000 norse power There will be nve aecKs constructed con-structed solidly ot steel and teak wood tho upper decks ending in strong turtlebacks at the bow and stern One new ship will have twin screws and its entire working machinery will be duplicated It is not necessary to say that the workmanship on this latest addition to our fleet will be the finest in the world All the machinery is built with an excess of strength actually required The cylinders will be of extra large size fifty seventysix and one hundred hun-dred and eleven inches in diameter with a seventysixinch stroke Particular attention atten-tion has been paid to the reversing gear which is extra rapid and noiseless in its action The comfort and elegance that will be displayed on the Prince Bismarck wHIt surpass anything yet offered on any Atlantic Atlan-tic liner The large and luxurious saloons the ladies boudoirs music smoking and I staterooms generally are being fitted up in magnificent style We are building our staterooms larger with more luxuriant toilet conveniences and also larger beds The steerage on the Prince Bismarck will be unusally high well lighted and provided with a perfect system of ventilation CqiiTis J MAR |
