Such steamships as the City of New York and the City of Paris, of
the Inman line (which is now controlled by American capital, and may
in a sense be regarded as an American enterprise), are designed so as
to carry about 500 first-cabin passengers each, and the Etruria and
Umbria, of the Cunard line, about 600; but these vessels carry less
steerage passengers than other ships, which adds greatly to the comfort
of saloon passengers. It is not probable that the $700,000 expended
for the construction of a vessel of the Collins line would much more
than suffice to pay for the decorations and conveniences afforded to
passengers on the Inman ships. In correspondence with modern ideas
they are subdivided into twenty-four water-tight compartments, and
this, with due allowance for the architect’s notions, has led to the
supplying of bath-rooms about the ship, according to the number of
passengers carried; several suites of rooms on the promenade and saloon
decks are arranged with bath-rooms and toilet-rooms. The second-class
passengers have also their own bath-rooms, smoking-room, and saloon
dining-room. The steerage is so divided that the third-class passengers
are not only away forward, but aft also; and they have the whole of one
deck to themselves for promenading and getting glimpses of ocean view.
These are features that apply to so many of the best steamships now
plying between New York and European ports, that it would be unjust
to describe any one ship as against another; but as the City of New
York in 1890 made the highest average speed of all the Atlantic
“greyhounds,” and for that matter the highest average speed of any
steamship in the world, it is but fair to mention her wonderful
performance. During the year 1890 she made eight trips to the eastward,
and the average of each trip from Sandy Hook lightship to Roche’s
Point, Queenstown Harbor, was six days, four hours, and five minutes;
the average of her eight trips to the westward from Roche’s Point to
Sandy Hook lightship was six days, five hours, and forty-four minutes.
On the four trips each way from August to November, inclusive, her
average west-bound voyages were six days and forty-two minutes, and
the east-bound voyages six days and fifty-three minutes. For the whole
season on her trips to the eastward she averaged 19.12 knots per hour,
and to the westward 18.91 knots per hour. She has made a slightly
better average than her sister, the favorite City of Paris, and she
beat her powerful rival, the Teutonic, seven times out of ten during
the season of 1890.
The fastest westward trip on record is that of the Teutonic, her
time of 5 days, 16 hours, and 30 minutes being made in August, 1891.
Her best eastward trip was made in September, 1891, in 5 days, 21
hours, and 22 minutes, which is also the fastest trip on record to the
eastward.
The following table gives the records of fourteen of the most important
transatlantic steamships:
_Best Records up to October 1, 1891._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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