Two famous sister ships the White Star Line had were the _Germanic_ and _Britannic_, built in 1875 and 1874 respectively; they were each 455 feet long, 45 feet broad, 33 feet 9 inches deep, and of 5004 tons register. The hulls were built at Belfast, but the engines were by Maudslay, Sons and Field and similar to those of the _Oceanic_. With a speed rather above 16 knots, they were the first to reduce the passage to below seven days. Numerous experiments were made with a lifting propeller in the _Britannic_, but they were not a success and the principle was never tried in any more of the company’s boats. The company sought also to improve the lighting of their steamers. The old system of lighting a ship by candles was seldom more than enough to make the darkness visible, and oil lamps were not always much better; so an attempt was made to install a gas-lighting apparatus. It worked very well while the vessel was in port, the experiment being made on the _Adriatic_ in 1872, and the _Celtic_ in 1873; but there was a certain amount of leakage through the working of the ship in a sea-way and the experiment was abandoned. Oil lamps were then installed in these steamers and remained in use until superseded by electric light. Another White Star experiment was with the oscillating saloon, intended to keep berths and staterooms level while the ship was rolling, but this was no more a success on the broad Atlantic than it was on the English Channel when tried in the steamer _Bessemer_.