SA-HISTORY-L Archives

From: ivytrott <>
Subject: Fw: CURRENTS 18 SEP 1901
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 06:18:33 +0200

On the slim pretext of a mention of the Cape of Good Hope I could not resist
sending this on.... I am sure it will give some pleasure, and I wonder if
the race had a mention in our press of the time. Ivy Trott.

Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 2:13 AM
Subject: CURRENTS 18 SEP 1901


> "Currents" is a posting of century-old shipping news based on extracts
> from the British weekly "The Shipping World & Herald of Commerce" and
> (occasionally) the U. S. monthly Marine Engineering. Editorial comment
> is bracketed [thus]. Today's post is from Vol XXV, issue No 433,
> London, Wednesday, 17 Sep 1901 of Shipping World.
>
> "THE NEW YORK TO YOKOHAMA RACE.
> Two ships, says Leslie's Weekly, are to race from New York to Yokohama.
> Of course everybody has heard that ships - especially steamships - never
> race, and many person will wonder, therefore, what it means. It is more
> nautical to say that the rival captains will crowd on all sail, and do
> their best to outstrip each other. This, in fact, may be depended upon,
> for one of the vessels is the British bark BRILLIANT, of 3,600 tons, the
> largest sailing vessel that ever entered New York harbour, while the
> other is the bark ACME, Captain Lawrence, of about 3,000 tons, flying
> the stars and stripes. The vessels are both new, and are the first of a
> great fleet the Standard Oil Company is having built on the Clyde and in
> Maine for its export trade. The BRILLIANT carries 1,750,000 gallons of
> oil, and the ACME 1,500,000 gallons. The race has an international
> interest, and the respective merits of rival American and British
> builders will be decided to some extent by the result. The ships will
> go around the Cape of Good Hope and traverse the South Seas between New
> Zealand and Australia to Japan. A shorter route is through the Straits
> of Sunda and the China Sea, but this a bad season to undertake it. A
> good passage can be made by the former route in from 120 to 140 days. A
> new record may be made when the ships reach Yokohama. The interest in
> the outcome is not confined to New York, but extends to Maine, where
> Captain Lawrence is known as an expert and daring skipper, and to the
> Clyde, where Captain Colinshaw, of the BRILLIANT, is well known."
>
> "The New York Herald records an interesting coincidence in connection
> with telegraphy between this country and America. As the Cunard
> steamship LUCANIA is the first to make use of the Herald's new wireless
> telegraph station on Nantucket Shoals, it is interesting to recall the
> fact that the first and only news messages sent over the old Atlantic
> cable, in August 1858, were sent from Mr. Cunard to Mr. MacIver, in
> Liverpool, and concerned two vessels of the Cunard Line. Up to that
> time nothing had passed through the cable except working signals, and
> after this message and an interchange of official congratulations the
> cable broke down. Nearly half a century later the Cunard Line is the
> first to avail itself of the new wireless method for the benefit of its
> passengers and their friends. It is an interesting coincidence."
>
> "The directors of the Cunard Company, having satisfied themselves of the
> utility of the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy by it trial on the
> LUCANIA, have now decided to fit the system on the whole of their
> Saturday mail boats between Liverpool and New York."
>
> "Not content with their two services from Liverpool to Boston and
> Portland, [Maine] the Dominion Line is displaying much enterprise in the
> establishment of a new service between Boston and Mediterranean ports,
> including Gibraltar, Naples and Genoa. I gather from Messrs. Richards,
> Mills & Co., here that the COMMONWEALTH, a twin-screw vessel of 13,000
> tons, will inaugurate the new service sailing form Boston on November
> 27, and two voyages of the vessel in January and February will be
> extended to Naples and Alexandria. The CAMBRONIAN [sic, CAMBROMAN] has
> also been fixed to sail in this new service. The Dominion Line
> evidently intend maintaining their position in the North Atlantic
> services, for they have now building the COLUMBUS, a twin-screw ship of
> 13,000 tons, for the Boston service, and the LABRADOR, also a twin-screw
> of 10,000 tons. for the Portland service.
> [In 1902 Dominion Line was scooped into the I. M. M. empire and had its
> ships scattered to more prestigious lines, chiefly White Star.
> COMMONWEALTH became White Star's CANOPIC and was broken up 1923.
> CAMBROMAN, built for the Warren Line, lasted with Dominion until broken
> up 1910. COLUMBUS made two voyages for Dominion before being
> transferred to White Star and renamed REPUBLIC. She was sunk 23 Jun
> 1909 in collision with the Italian FLORIDA. LABRADOR is a ship I cannot
> trace under that name, at least in a cursory reading of Bonsor's North
> Atlantic Seaway.]
>
> In this connection another local line, that of Messrs. Allan & Co., is
> continually receiving new tonnage to their already large fleet, the
> latest addition being the IONIAN, launched at Belfast on Thursday last.
> This vessel, in tended for the Canadian trade, has been specially
> designed to meet the requirements of a modern first-class passenger and
> cargo vessel, engaged in the Atlantic trade, and is 470 ft. long, 57 ft.
> in breadth, and 40 ft. moulded depth. [IONIAN was transferred with the
> rest of the fleet to Canadian Pacific Ocean Steamships in 1917. Mined
> and sunk off Milford Haven 21 Oct 1917.]
>
> Still another new Canadian liner, namely, the twin screw ship LAKE
> MANITOBA, for Messrs. Elder, Dempster & Co.'s Beaver Line service. This
> vessel left the builder's hands on the East Coast on Saturday on her
> passage to Liverpool, and she is advertised to sail in the
> Liverpool-Canadian service on the 24th inst. She has been specially
> constructed for the carriage of first, second, and steerage passengers,
> besides having enormous capacity for perishable goods. She is also
> fitted with a lofty shelter deck for the carriage of cattle. The LAKE
> MANITOBA is 482 ft. long over all, 56 ft. broad, and 34.9 ft. deep, and
> has a d.w. capacity for 10,500 tons."
>
> "THE KRONPRINZ WILHELM.
> Previous to sending the latest addition to their fleet, the magnificent
> twin-screw steamer KRONPRINZ WILHELM, on her regular Atlantic service,
> the directors of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Company arranged a special
> pleasure cruise of the vessel which was attended by a distinguished
> party.
>
> The vessel left Bremerhaven on the 6th inst. ...The KRONPRINZ WILHELM
> first sailed to Bergen, and after spending a brief time there, left for
> the Firth of Forth on the 9th. Immediately on arrival of the ship in
> the Forth a pleasure steamer from Leith drew up alongside, took on board
> the whole of the 350 guests of the company, and steamed away with them
> to the Forth Bridge. They landed at Queensferry, where carriages were
> in waiting, and then drove through Dalmeny grounds to Edinburgh. Lunch
> was served at the Music Hall. Herr Plate, the president of the
> Norddeutscher Lloyd, occupied the chair....In the meantime about 400
> invited guests steamed out to where the KRONPRINZ WILHELM had brought up
> a little to the westward of the island of Inchkeith, and the whole ship
> was thrown open to them without reservation. The German guests having
> returned, the liner left during the evening of the 10th inst. for
> Bremerhaven.
>
> The new express steamer was launched on March 30, 1901, by the Vulcan
> Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Stettin. She is 15 ft. longer
> than the KAISER WILHELM DER GROSSE, hitherto the biggest steamer in the
> Norddeutscher Lloyd fleet. Her actual measurements are:-Length, 663
> ft.; breadth, 66 ft.; and depth, 43 ft.' and her draught is 29 ft.; her
> gross register tonnage is 15,000 tons, and her displacement when loaded
> is 21,300 tons. Externally the KRONPRINZ WILHELM resembles the KAISER
> WILHELM DER GROSSE to which class she belongs. Accommodation is
> provided for about 650 first cabin passengers, 350 second cabin, and 700
> steerage passengers. The first-class cabins and saloons are all
> amidships on the main, upper, and promenade decks. There are besides
> four cabins de luxe, consisting each of a parlour, bed-chamber, and a
> bath-room; and eight state-rooms, each having a bed chamber and a
> bath-room. In point of comfort the second class is similar to the
> first, though somewhat plainer. The dining-room of the first cabin has
> a seating capacity for 414 persons. From the dining room the passenger
> ascends wide carpeted stairs, leading to the drawing saloon, where a
> life-size portrait of Crown Prince Wilhelm, painted by Hans Fechner,
> first attracts attention. The other saloons are fitted out and
> decorated with its large and well-filled library cases, the neat writing
> desks, and the gold-embroidered portiers, as also the smoking-room
> executed in the Renaissance style. An especial adornment of the smoking
> saloon is a painting by Arthur Fitger, bearing the motto: "Our future
> lies on the water." The propelling machinery consists of two sets of
> six-cylinder quadruple-expansion engines developing together 35,000
> i.h.p., which it is estimated will communicate sufficient power to the
> four-bladed manganese bronze propellers to drive the ship at a speed of
> between 23 and 24 knots an hour. The coal consumption is 500 tons a
> day, which works out at one and one-third pound of coal per horsepower
> per hour....and the bunker space is sufficient for 4,450 tons of coal.
> The KRONPRINZ WILHELM is fitted with bilge keels to minimize rolling,
> and the ship contains quite a large number of modern scientific
> appliances for facilitating speedy communication between her various
> departments, and between passengers and staff. The captain is in
> telephonic communication with all the different departmental chiefs of
> the ship. The suites of rooms are in similar communication with the
> Chief Steward's office, which in this ship would compare with the office
> of a modern hotel. Access to the crow's-nest is not as usual by
> external ladder, but by a ladder within the steel foremast. Between the
> look-out in the crow's nest, and the navigation bridge communication can
> be made by means of a speaking tube. Every possible provision has been
> made to ensure safety. There is a double-bottom running the whole
> length of the ship, divided into twenty-four water-tight compartments.
> Fifteen transverse bulkheads are carried up to the upper deck, and a
> longitudinal bulkhead divides the engine room into two water-tight
> compartments. An electric indicator in the navigation room shows if any
> opening in the bulkhead is not closed, and an ingenious electrical
> contrivance enables the officer in command on the bridge to set in
> motion an automatic machine for closing simultaneously all bulkhead
> openings below the water-line. The steamer is supplied throughout with
> electric light, having as many as 1,900 incandescents, which take their
> electricity from four steam dynamos. All the clocks on board are
> regulated by electricity from the clock in the chart room, and the ship
> carries a complete Marconi wireless telegraphy apparatus." [KRONPRINZ
> WILHELM captured the Blue Riband and in World War I had a successful
> career as an armed merchant cruiser. Interned in the U.S. she later
> became the transport VON STEUBEN. She was scrapped 1923.]
>
> Charles Dragonette
> Alexandria, VA

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• Fw: CURRENTS 18 SEP 1901 by ivytrott <>