[270] These steamers are each 400 feet in length, 40 feet breadth, and 33 feet depth from upper deck. They measure 4000 tons gross. They can accommodate in their cabins, which are fitted in first-class style, 250, and in the steerage 900 passengers. [271] The _Victoria_ is 361½ feet in length, 40½ feet beam, 24½ feet depth of hold to main, and 32 feet to spar deck; her measurement is 3287 tons gross. She has compound engines of 500 nominal horse-power, with cylinders of 57 inches and 108 inches diameter respectively, having 4 feet length of stroke of piston, and six boilers with eighteen furnaces, consuming, when at full speed, “14 knots per hour on the measured mile, 45 tons of coal per day of twenty-four hours.” She has accommodation for 150 first-class and 900 steerage passengers, besides her crew, and also large cargo space. [272] The _Suavia_, which was built in 1874 by Messrs. Caird and Co. of Greenock, is 361 feet in length, 41 feet in breadth, and her depth to the upper spar deck is 34 feet. She measures 3623 tons gross, and has accommodation for ninety-two first-class passengers, eighty-two second-class and 930 third-class passengers, besides her crew of 120 men; she has likewise space for 2000 tons of cargo. The _Suavia_ is the twenty-second steam-ship built by Messrs. Caird and Company for the Hamburg American Steam Packet Company. CHAPTER VII. Royal West India Mail Steam Packet Company, 1841—Number of their ships—Conditions of mail contract—Large subsidy—Heavy loss during the first year of their operations—Capital of the Company—Liberal concessions by Government—Complaints of the public—Improved prospects of the company from improved management—Contract renewed, 1850—Its conditions—Fresh conditions, 1857—Contract again renewed, 1864—Further renewal, 1874—The steam-ship _Forth_—Losses of various ships of the company—Causes of these losses—Loss of the _Amazon_—Terrible sufferings—Loss of the _Demerara_—Additions to their fleet, and superior class of vessels. [Sidenote: Royal West India Mail Steam Packet Company, 1841.] [Sidenote: Number of ships.]