Long after the transatlantic steamships were regularly running, sixteen or seventeen days was considered a good passage between New York and Liverpool. Then the Inman and White Star lines began to see the importance of faster speed, and their rivalry had cut this estimate in two by 1870, and ten years later the Guion Line’s _Arizona_ and other crack boats took a full day off that. Since then there has been a steady improvement in speed, as is shown by the table below; and this seems to have followed proportionately the steady increase in length. The ships of 1850 never reached 300 feet in length, and few were over 2300 tons in burden measurement. By 1880 almost all the first-class “liners” of the world exceeded 450 feet, and some soon approached 600, as the _City of Rome_ (586 feet, 8826 tons), and several of the famous Hamburg liners, White Stars, and Cunarders nearly equaled her in dimensions (_Paris_ and _New York_, 580 feet each; _Teutonic_ and _Majestic_, 582 feet); while some of the more recent boats are even longer, as _Campania_ and _Lucania_, 620 feet, and the gigantic _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, 648 feet. Two other ships, now planned, will considerably exceed this length. The total number of transatlantic passenger-steamships regularly sailing from New York alone is now between 90 and 100, belonging to 14 different lines. The table of speed-records between New York and Queenstown, since the time was reduced to less than six days, is as follows: Time. Year. Steamer. Line. Direction. Date. Days. Hours. Min. 1882 _Alaska_ Guion Eastward May 30 6 2 0 to June 6 1891 _Majestic_ White Star 5 18 8 1891 _Teutonic_ White Star Westward Aug. 13-19 5 16 31 1892 _Paris_ American Westward Aug. 14-19 5 14 24 1893 _Campania_ Cunard 5 12 7 1894 _Lucania_ Cunard Westward Sept. 8-14 5 8 38 1894 _Lucania_ Cunard Eastward Oct. 21-26 5 7 23 The approximate distance between Sandy Hook (light-ship), New York, and Queenstown (Roche’s Point) is 2800 miles. The fastest day’s run on record, however, was made by the _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, of the Nord Deutscher Lloyds Line, averaging 22.35 knots (or nautical miles, of 6080 feet each) per hour, equal to about 25½ land miles. From Sandy Hook to Queenstown deduct 4 hours 22 minutes for difference in time. Queenstown to Sandy Hook add 4 hours 22 minutes for difference in time.