Before we pass on in the next chapter to witness the coming of the twin-screw ship, and the disappearance of sails as the auxiliaries of the steamship, we must glance at the progress which was going on during the ’seventies and ’eighties in the steamships employed running, not across the Atlantic, but to the East. Already we have seen something of the origin of the Peninsular and Oriental Line, and the difficulties which it had to contend with in its early career. Now, in 1877, another steamship service to the East was started by the Orient Line, which began by chartering from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company a suitable vessel which should run from London to Sydney via the Cape of Good Hope. This was the _Lusitania_--a very different ship, of course, from the modern Cunarder of the same name--but in her own time this _Lusitania_ was also famous. For many years, until, indeed, as recently as 1905, the Orient and Pacific Lines worked together to maintain a service between England and Australia. At first the sailings were only monthly, but from 1880 they were fortnightly. Since 1905 the Pacific Company has withdrawn from this trade. The pioneer of the Orient Line’s own ships--apart from chartered vessels--was the steamer _Orient_, of which an illustration is given opposite to page 158. She was built of iron, in 1879, by the same firm who turned out the _Etruria_ and _Umbria_. Her measurements are 460 feet long, 46½ feet wide, 36 feet 8 inches deep, with a tonnage of 5,386, and 5,400 horse-power. She was given four decks, of which two were entirely of iron, and sufficient bunker space was provided to carry enough coals to enable her to steam all the way to Australia round the Cape without having to coal _en route_. She was also provided with a double bottom, which could be filled with water as ballast, if desired. She was driven by inverted vertical engines having the compound principle--one high-pressure cylinder and two of low-pressure--and had a four-bladed propeller. Amidships, it will be noted, is a white erection, which rises up from the ship’s side and becomes the bridge-deck, extending right across the ship and some distance both fore and aft. The origin of this development in the steamship is as follows: Originally, in some of the early ocean-going steamships, the openings on deck from the engine and boiler compartments were merely protected by means of glazed skylights and coamings, forming a hatch. Perhaps it was not a very seaworthy kind of arrangement, but it is essential for plenty of air to get down below, unhindered, for the proper burning of the furnaces, to say nothing of a supply for the engineering section of the crew. However, during the month of January, 1866, the steamship _London_, after encountering a heavy gale in the Bay of Biscay, endeavoured to make for Plymouth, but during the night a bad sea broke over her, destroyed her engine-room skylight, extinguished the furnaces, and eventually the ship foundered.