Mr. Harold Arthur Sanderson, who had occupied the position of general manager to Ismay, Imrie & Co. for five years, was admitted a partner on the 1st January, 1900. The CELTIC, a monster steamer of 20,904 tons gross, was added to the fleet in 1901. A sister ship to the CELTIC was launched at Belfast on the 21st August, 1902. The new vessel is named the CEDRIC, and has the distinction of exceeding in size anything afloat, British or foreign. Like the CELTIC, she is classed as an intermediate ship, not so fast as the OCEANIC, but yet speedy. Her length is 700 feet and her beam 75 feet, with a gross tonnage of 21,000 tons. She sailed on her first voyage from Liverpool on the 11th February, 1903. [Illustration: R.M.S. CYMRIC. White Star Line.] In 1902 Mr. J. P. Morgan succeeded in welding into one huge commercial undertaking, with a capital of £32,000,000, several of the principal Transatlantic steamship companies, including the famous White Star Line. The purchase money for the latter alone exceeded ten millions sterling, three millions of which was payable in cash on the 31st December, 1902, and, as a matter of fact, was actually paid at the offices of Messrs. J. P. Morgan & Co., in London, on the 1st December, 1902. It was a sincere satisfaction to the British public when it was officially intimated that the White Star flag was still to be retained, and that Mr. J. Bruce Ismay and Mr. Pirrie (the senior partner of the celebrated Belfast shipbuilding firm) were to be on the directorate. The latest addition to the New York service of the White Star Line is the ARABIC, 15,800 tons gross register, which sailed on her maiden voyage, June 26th, 1903, and in the autumn of 1903 the four latest steamers built for the Dominion Line, the COLUMBUS, COMMONWEALTH, NEW ENGLAND and MAYFLOWER, were transferred to the White Star flag, and renamed the REPUBLIC, CANOPIC, ROMANIC and CRETIC. With the addition of these vessels, a new service has been announced of sailings between Boston and the principal ports in the Mediterranean, and, in conjunction with the other steamships, the CYMRIC is intended to maintain a Liverpool-Boston service. A monster steamer of no less than 24,000 tons (an increase of 3,000 tons upon the CEDRIC’s tonnage) is approaching completion at the yard of Harland & Wolff. She is to be named the BALTIC, and will probably be ready early in the summer of 1904. CHAPTER XXI. Adelaide Steamship Co., Limited.—John Bacon, Limited.—R. Burton & Sons, Limited.—Fletcher, Woodhill & Co.—T. & J. Harrison.—W. S. Kennaugh & Co.—Lamport & Holt.—H. & W. Nelson.—R. & J. H. Rea.—J. S. Sellers.—Henry Tyrer & Co. The following firms hold a prominent position in their respective trades—Foreign and Coastwise—and most of them have been established for many years:—