“Don’t give yourself away,” shrewdly remarked an eminent engineer, as I discussed with him the outline of this work, and the probability that in the near future, gigantic ships, as long as the Crystal Palace, and propelled solely by electricity, would traverse the seas. “I have not yet come across any form of accumulator that could be adapted to such a purpose, though I admit that the next quarter of a century may produce some startling results. Still, I would not, if I were you, write about it.” My friend, like many scientists, was cautious, and did not like to commit himself; but I am not professionally restricted, and may freely indulge in a dream containing many elements of reality, and “take the wings of fancy,” nay, may also “take the wings of foresight,” and try to describe a mail-packet of the future. But before entering into particulars of that phenomenon, the _Princess Ida_, and to prepare ourselves for the contemplation of her large proportions, we should note the evolutionary process which has gone on steadily for the last seventy years, and rapidly during the close of the Victorian Era, in regard to the size and tonnage of ocean steamers. To go far back for the purpose of comparison--_i.e._ to the days when Britain as a maritime nation was in her infancy, or even to Tudor and Stuart times, when the _Great Harry_ floated proudly in English waters, and Elizabeth’s _Ark Royal_ defied the Spanish Armada, or when Phineas Pett reconstructed Charles the Second’s navy and planned those famous men-of-war, the _Royal Sovereign_, _Royal Charles_, and _Royal Prince_--is misleading, because up to Nelson’s time the practice of building ships with an extravagant amount of “sheer” (the forecastle and stern towering upwards to protect the fighting men, and producing the outline of a doubled-up old shoe), together with the pronounced “tumbling in” of the ship’s sides, rendered it difficult to arrive at any correct estimate of length and beam. Approximately, 1,500 tons might represent the _Great Harry’s_ measurement, and 150 feet her length, the Carolean _Royal_ being about the same. This method of shipbuilding began to be modified while Pepys was at the Admiralty, but it was very gradually abandoned, and had almost disappeared at the beginning of the century, the _Victory_, slightly over 2,000 tons, and some 152 feet in length, showing but a slight trace of it in her high poop.