We are now entering upon a new era of big ships, in which such a monster as the _Great Eastern_ would be no longer a wonder. Two additions to the Cunard fleet, the _Campania_ (1892) and _Lucania_ (1893), are within a trifle as large as she, but with infinitely more powerful engines and incomparably greater speed.
We need not suppose, however, that the idea of big ocean steamers has been the monopoly of this country. So long ago as 1850 or thereabouts, Mr Randall, a famous American shipbuilder, designed, drafted, and constructed the model of a steamer for transatlantic service, 500 feet long by 58 feet beam, to measure 8000 tons. A company was formed in Philadelphia in 1860 to carry out the project; but the civil war broke out soon after, and she was never built.
The _Great Eastern_ was launched in January 1858, and her principal dimensions were these: Length between perpendiculars, 680 feet; breadth of beam, 83 feet; length of principal saloons, 400 feet; tonnage capacity for cargo and coals, 18,000 tons; weight of ship as launched, 12,000 tons; accommodation for passengers, (1) 800, (2) 2000, (3) 1200 = 4000; total horse-power, 7650. She had both screw and paddles for propulsion, and her displacement was 32,160 tons.
By this time the Cunard Company had been eighteen years in existence. They started in 1840 with the _Britannia_--quickly followed by the _Acadia_, _Columbia_, and _Caledonia_, all more or less alike--which was a paddle-steamer of wood, 207 feet long, 34 feet broad, 22 feet deep, and of 1156 tons, with side-lever engines developing 740 indicated horse-power, which propelled the vessel at the average speed of nine knots an hour. There was accommodation for 225 tons of cargo and 115 cabin passengers--no steerage in those days--who paid thirty-four guineas to Halifax and thirty-eight guineas to Boston, for passage, including provisions and wine.
At the time of the _Great Eastern_ the latest type of Cunarder was the _Persia_, and it is interesting to note the development in the interim. This vessel was 380 feet long, 45 feet broad, 31 feet deep, of 3870 tons, with engines developing 4000 indicated horse-power, propelling at the rate of thirteen and a half knots an hour. The _Persia_ and the _Scotia_, sister-ships, were the last of the Atlantic side-wheelers. In 1862 the first screw-steamer was added to the Cunard fleet. This was the _China_, built by the Napiers of Glasgow, 326 feet long by 40-1/2 feet broad, and 27-1/2 feet deep, of 2600 tons, and with an average speed of about twelve knots.