The _Scotia_, the second and last of the Cunard iron paddle-steamers, followed in 1862. She was 379 feet in length, of slightly greater beam and depth than the _Persia_, and of 3671 tons, and her engines of 4900 indicated horse-power gave her a speed of nearly 14¹⁄₂ knots. The _Persia_ was sold in 1868, and was converted into a sailing ship. The _Scotia_ was kept in the service as long as possible, as she was a favourite with the public, but her very limited cargo space and her immense consumption of coal made it impossible to run her except at considerable loss. She was consequently withdrawn in 1875, and sold to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance company, which had her re-engined and turned into a twin-screw boat. She remained in the service of this company for many years, and was used for cable-laying purposes. These were not, however, the Cunard Company’s first iron steamers, as they had already had for some time two smaller vessels of iron in their Liverpool and Continental service. By this time the Cunard directors were convinced, by the success of the Inman steamers, and by the advice of the engineers whom they consulted, that the paddle-steamer had reached its utmost point of development. Henceforth they built screw steamers, the first being the _China_, launched in 1862, and followed by the _Java_ in 1865, and the _Russia_ in 1867. [Illustration: THE “CHINA” (CUNARD, 1862).] [Illustration: THE “RUSSIA” (CUNARD, 1867).] The _Russia_, and the Inman steamer _City of Paris_, the finest commercial vessels afloat, left New York on the same day in February 1869, within about an hour of each other and arrived at Liverpool with only thirty-five minutes difference between them. They made the run across the Atlantic, with the twenty minutes’ stop at Queenstown, in about eight days, eighteen hours. The _City of Paris_ started first, and got in at 3.45 A.M., and the _Russia_ at 4.20. The vessels were in company for four days. Once the _Russia_ passed the _City of Paris_, but the Inman liner took the lead again, and at another part of the voyage the Cunarder recovered her lost ground. As racing, however, was strictly forbidden by the rules of the two companies, and the ships’ logs showed that no extra pressure of steam was used, it is supposed that in this, as in many other cases of supposed ocean racing, the race existed mainly in the imagination of the passengers, who for lack of anything else to do worked themselves up into a frenzy of excitement about it. The captains, of course, merely concerned themselves with putting in all the seamanship they knew. Pictures published at the time show that both vessels were under full sail, and even carried stunsails. The _China_, after some years’ service, was sold and converted into the sailing ship _Theodor_, and proved as fast after the change as when a steamer. She foundered at sea in 1908.