It is significant that more than half the length of the ship is taken up with the propelling machinery. Never were such large machinery and boiler plant installed in one vessel. If you think of an eight-roomed house and multiply this by 400, you get some idea of her interior space. She is practically a floating town, with its smart hotel, suites, clubs, and so on located on her nine steel decks; and four propellers to keep this town hurrying across the Atlantic. Swimming-bath, two royal suites, 1245 state-rooms, a restaurant, palm court, foyer, lounge—there is no end to her luxurious internal arrangement. And yet there are all sorts of cunning devices to ensure safety. To guard against fire, the steel bulkheads have been coated with fireproof material; the main staircases are so arranged that they can be isolated and thus ensure a means of escape to the upper decks. There are 450 fire alarms distributed throughout the ship, which indicate automatically to the officer on the bridge. There are three wireless stations. The largest enables her to maintain permanent connection with both the Old and the New World during the whole voyage. The second is for use over a distance of 800 miles, and the third is for emergency. There are anti-rolling tanks, submarine signalling gear, and indeed every ingenious device that the wit of man could invent for the safety and welfare of the 4000 passengers she takes care of each trip. During Cowes week 1922 King George V paid to her, and through her to the British Mercantile Marine, a singular honour in going aboard to inspect her. His Royal Standard was broken out at the main, and this is one of the very few occasions during the last four hundred years when a merchant ship, serving as such, has legally hoisted this flag. It did occur in the year 1913, when His Majesty inspected the _Mauretania_ at Liverpool; and on that day a Harbour Board tug while taking the King to and from the liner flew the Royal Ensign. But prior to that I think we have to go right back to the year 1495, when Henry VII granted to John Cabot and his sons the right to fly the royal banners and flags during their voyages of discovery.