But a most important influence on the future of the Mercantile Marine was created when the White Star Line began their competition in the Atlantic trade. Previously their flag had flown at the masthead of a fine fleet of sailing clippers. In 1867 the managing owner of the White Star Line retired, and Mr. T. H. Ismay took over control. He began by using iron for his Australian clippers instead of wood, and two years later gave an order to Harland & Wolff, Belfast, to build steamships for the Atlantic. In August 1870 was launched the first of the fleet. This was the _Oceanic_, 420 feet long, her beam being only one-tenth of her length. That proportion was a radical departure in shipbuilding, and very different from the beamy old “waggons,” as the old sailing ships were sometimes called. This _Oceanic_ is really the first of the modern steamships, and contained so many new ideas as to make all the other steamships old-fashioned. For instance, she introduced the practice of having the saloon extending the entire width and placed in the middle of the ship instead of aft. The state-rooms were placed forward and abaft the saloon, instead of opening out on to it, which had been the custom derived from the sailing ships. Moreover, the introduction of glass side-lights on a much larger scale made the interior of the ship lighter and more pleasant. In fact, what with this, the revolving chairs instead of the hard seats, the oil-lamps instead of the spluttering candles, and other details of comfort, the passenger saw that he was so well looked after that the White Star became at once a popular line. Ever since that time one company has vied with another to give the Atlantic passenger the maximum amount of pleasure and luxury. How little do many of them appreciate the contrast between the crack steamships of to-day and of fifty or sixty years ago, when everything had to be learned by hard and costly experience!