it all is only apprehended by remembering such facts as, that her rudder and stern frame weigh 150 tons; that 100 tons of cable lie coiled on her foc’sle deck; that she is composed of 17,000 steel plates, many weighing from two to three and a quarter tons; that her promenade deck is 400 feet long; and that her monster engines can move with the power of 28,000 horses. To look down into the engine room from the big sky-light on the top deck is to have a glimpse into a world that to people not used to shipping is one of strange activity; a world where diminutive human ants are moving in a tropical atmosphere across narrow bridges, busy preparing this Brobdignagian apparatus for its first struggle with the forces of the wide Atlantic, which the OCEANIC is to cross with the speed and certainty of an express train—the conquest of the mighty force of matter by the mighty force of mind.... “But much has been written already of the ship as a triumph of science; the more immediate purpose here is to speak of her as a triumph of art, as the last thing, so far, in the way of floating hotels.... State rooms in scores to the right and to the left; now mahogany, now oak; now satinwood; now a mixture of any two or three of them, until the lavishness of everything became surfeiting, notwithstanding that the Louis Quinze style succeeded the Queen Anne, and the Queen Anne gave place to something ‘too utter’ in decadent sumptuousness. Three decks of these apartments, with lavatories of costly marble, suites of baths, and every other appurtenance of physical comfort placed conveniently here and there. It is the literal truth to say that the OCEANIC is a Hotel Cecil afloat.” It would serve no purpose to weary the reader with a decorator’s specification, but the following are the dimensions of the OCEANIC, and of the principal apartments on board:— The library, on the promenade deck, has a length of 53 feet and a width of 40 feet. The saloon is 80 feet by 64 feet. The central glass dome is 21 feet square, and is divided up by golden ribs and filled in with white ground glass of a pearly appearance. [Illustration: R.M.S. OCEANIC (1899). White Star Line.] The length of the ship over all is 705½ feet; the length between perpendiculars, 685 feet; breadth, 68 feet; depth, 44 feet; gross tonnage, 17,274 tons; load displacement, 28,000 tons; engines, 28,000 I.H.P. [Illustration: R.M.S. CELTIC. White Star Line.]