It is important, therefore, to bear in mind what measurements constitute greatness in size, and what measurements are average. Such ships as the _Majestic_, the _Berengaria_, and the _Leviathan_ are truly gigantic, and probably for many years to come they will not be greatly surpassed in size. So large are these three ships that they can enter only a few of the world’s great harbours, they cannot be tied up at more than a handful of piers, they cannot be docked at more than a few of the world’s great dry docks. There are a few other liners that approach these great ships in size, but not many. The _Aquitania_, the _Mauretania_, the _Olympic_, the _Homeric_, the _Paris_, the _George Washington_, the _Belgenland_, the torpedoed _Lusitania_ and _Justicia_, the _Titanic_ which was wrecked on an iceberg—all these ships belong to the same race of giants, but there are no others, although, of course, there are other ships that bridge the gap between the wallowing tramps and these that I have mentioned. For the present, however, I shall pass by the smaller ships, more important though they are, as a race, and describe, in some detail the marvellous ships that voyage between the English Channel on the East and New York on the West, for it is in this service that all the greatest ships are to be found. Modern marine engineering is quite up to designing, constructing, and operating ships greater than any that now exist, but should much larger ships be built little would be gained. New dry docks would have to be built, new piers constructed, deeper channels dredged, all at huge expense, and the building of such ships would in itself call for disbursements so vast that the companies operating them would find it difficult or perhaps impossible to make them pay. Consequently, I shall content myself with describing what now exists, feeling certain that any developments within many years will not so much surpass these great ships already afloat as to make my remarks entirely out of date. As an example, therefore, let us take the _Majestic_, which, despite some argument on the part of those who put the _Leviathan_ in commission, is slightly larger than any of the others I have named. To say that she is 956 feet long and 100 feet broad means little. It may, perhaps, mean more to say that it would not be advisable to anchor more than four such ships in a harbour a mile square and forty-five feet deep. But even that, perhaps, may leave one wondering. [Illustration: THE _LEVIATHAN_ _Formerly the German liner_ Vaterland, _and taken over by the United States during the World War._]