_From a Painting. By permission of Messrs. Anderson, Anderson & Co._] The same builders who had been responsible for the _Oregon_ were commissioned to build two of the most historic Cunarders, whose names are almost as familiar as the Atlantic over which they voyaged for so many years with a regularity and reliability that would be hard to beat. In 1884 the first of this famous couple, the _Umbria_, was delivered, followed early the next year by the _Etruria_. An illustration of the former, as she appeared when originally rigged as a barque, will be found facing this page. Both ships were identical in their main features, and are interesting in many ways. Their masts were of steel, as well as their hulls. At the stern we can see the idea of the turtle deck, as inherited from the _Oceanic_, slightly modified so that the upper part has become available for a short promenade deck for second-class passengers, and the graceful overhang at the stern also is indicative of the rapid advance since the clumsy after-end of the steamship gave her a far less yacht-like appearance. There is also a promenade deck extending for nearly 300 feet amidships for the use of the first-class passengers, on which a large teak deckhouse encloses the entrances to the saloon, ladies’ saloon, captain’s room, and chart room. Above this house comes the officers’ lookout bridge and house for the steersman, and over this, again, is the flying bridge. Forward there will be seen the large top-gallant forecastle, which extended for over 100 feet aft from the stern. The engines were, of course, compound, with one high-pressure cylinder and two of low-pressure. These vessels were built to the highest class and to be available for Government service as armed cruisers in the event of war. Their average speed was found to be 18½ knots, although the _Umbria_ reached over 20 knots during her six-hours’ trial on the Clyde. These two ships between them broke up all standing Atlantic records, for in August, 1885, the _Etruria_ crossed from Queenstown to New York in six days, six hours, thirty-six minutes, although in 1892 the _Umbria_ did better still by crossing the Atlantic at an average rate of over 19½ knots. Until the coming of the _Campania_ and the _Lucania_, the Cunard possessed in these the two fastest ships of their fleet. But it is certain the company never owned two more satisfactory steamships, for they have confessed that “no ships ever gave their owners less uneasiness than these two, and none have done such an extraordinary quantity of good work. They are monuments, that cannot lie, to the skill of the design and the faithfulness of the labour that went to their accomplishment.”