The _Kaiser der Grosse_ is 649 feet in length, 66 feet in width, and 43 feet in depth. She is rated at 14,000 tons burthen and 30,000 horse-power. She has quadruple expansion engines, working at a steam pressure of 213 lbs., and turning her mammoth twin screws at the rate of seventy-seven revolutions per minute, and is otherwise conspicuous by her four funnels. Even the _Pennsylvania_ is thrown into the shade by this new-comer. She is designed to carry 20,000 tons of cargo, and from 1,500 to 2,300 passengers. She is the largest steamship afloat at the present time, having larger carrying capacity than the famous _Great Eastern_; but her supremacy will be short-lived, for the new _Oceanic_, of the White Star Line, is still larger, and may prove faster. To load this great ship entirely with wheat would require the produce of a field of 40,000 acres, at sixteen bushels to the acre; and to supply her full complement of passengers would depopulate a good-sized town. The _Kaiser_ is essentially a new type of ocean steamship—a magnificent experiment, which will be watched with great interest in shipping circles everywhere, and one that is not unlikely to set the fashion for ships of the next decade. THE COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE, commonly known as the French Line, entered the lists of competition in 1862, and has developed into a first-class marine service. The early ships of this company were iron paddle-wheel steamers, which were built by Scott & Company, of Greenock, but, owing to the prohibitory duty imposed on foreign-built vessels, it was found to be more advantageous to have them built in France, the more so as the Government had introduced the system of giving large “construction bounties.” This French company has now a magnificent fleet, comprising upwards of sixty steamships. The Atlantic service employs six very fine express steamers, _La Touraine_, _La Bourgogne_,[25] _La Bretagne_, _La Champagne_, _La Gascogne_, _La Normandie_, all of them built in France except the last named, which was built at Barrow-in-Furness, in 1882. The _Touraine_ was built at the company’s building yard, at St. Nazaire, in 1890. She is a steel twin-screw ship of 10,000 tons net, and 14,000 horse-power. Her length is 520 feet, breadth 56 feet, and depth 34½ feet. She has triple expansion engines, and is classed as a nineteen-knot boat. She has made the voyage from Havre to Sandy Hook (in July, 1892) in 6 days, 17 hours, 30 minutes, the fastest on record between these ports, the average speed being 19.63 knots, and the best day’s run, 501 knots. The company’s capital is said to be $8,000,000, and its credit is good. The line is largely subsidized by the French Government, and receives compensation from the United States for carrying the mails from New York to Havre, the amount thus received in 1896 being $32,806.86. Until the loss of the _Bourgogne_, the most serious disaster that had overtaken the line was the wreck of