The following tables will give some idea of the comparative passages which these ships have made. They are interesting as being reckoned not from Queenstown, but from Liverpool landing-stage and the Cunard pier, New York:-- OUTWARD VOYAGES Days. H. M. _Lusitania_ Quickest passage 5 7 0 _Mauretania_ Quickest passage 5 1 30 _Lusitania_ Longest passage 6 18 0 _Mauretania_ Longest passage 5 21 0 _Lusitania_ Average passage 5 21 35 _Mauretania_ Average passage 5 16 48 HOMEWARD VOYAGES. _Lusitania_ Quickest passage 5 15 30 _Mauretania_ Quickest passage 5 5 0 _Lusitania_ Longest passage 5 22 0 _Mauretania_ Longest passage 5 17 0 _Lusitania_ Average passage 5 19 22 _Mauretania_ Average passage 5 12 14 But in spite of their bold dimensions and their efforts to prove their superior prowess in contending with the mighty ocean, both the _Mauretania_ and the _Lusitania_ have shown that after all they are still yet ships, and are subject to those same laws which govern the rusty old tramp, the square-yarded sailing ship, and the massive modern liner. We may take but two recent instances, one as happening to each of these two great vessels during the winter of 1910. In the month of January, the _Lusitania_ made the slowest passage in her history, having encountered adverse winds and mountainous waves ever since leaving Daunt’s Rock. On Monday, the 10th of January, she ran into what was thought to be a tidal wave. Immediately an avalanche of water broke on the promenade deck. The officers on duty at the time calculated the liquid weight that came aboard at 2,000 tons, and 100 feet high. At the time of the occurrence the captain and the passengers were below at dinner, and it was fortunate that no one was on deck. The wave wrecked the pilot house, which is 84 feet above the water-line; four lifeboats were smashed, as well as eleven windows in the wheel-house. Companion ladders were carried away, while the captain’s, officers’ and their stewards’ quarters below the bridge were so badly damaged that they could not be used. The chief officer was on the bridge at the time, and he found himself in water up to his armpits. The quartermaster was swept off his feet, and struck against the chart-room bulkhead, with the fragments of the steering wheel in his hands, and the chart-room was flooded everywhere with water. As if that were not bad enough, the masthead lights and sidelights were extinguished by the wave. Happily, the chief officer kept his head above all this excitement, and finding that the engine-room telegraph gear was undamaged, signalled down to the engineer to reverse the turbines. The captain, who had only left the bridge a few minutes earlier, rushed back, and in less than half an hour the big ship was on her course again, heading for New York, where