The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

shail, about 10 ft. wide. 170 This great room will contain 9,140 sq. ft., and will be capable of seating all of the 536 first cabin passengers at one time. Compare these two palatial halls to their equivalents of 50 years ago! The first. trans-Atlantic liner of the North German Lloyd--or rather of its predecessor, the Ocean S. S. Naviga- tion Co.--was the Washington, consid- ered in its day a marine wonder. The cabins were entered from a central This hall took the place of the dining room and salon of.today. At meal time a table, running the length of the hall, was placed in position and about it the dozen first-class passengers par- took of their repast. Upon its-com- pletion the table was folded up and then the "dining room" again became the "salon". The records show that on her initial trip, this Washington carried one first cabin and 93 steerage passengers! The promenade deck of the Colum- bus will have a real promenade. It THE MARINE REVIEW the cabins have but two beds. The third cabin also has its separate public rooms and its cabins are built to ac- commodate two and four persons. A marked innovation in steerage quarters has been provided on the Columbus. Instead of the passengers being placed in one large room, as on most ships, they will have separate cabins, arranged for families and small groups of men and women. Second Cabin The Columbus will make the run between Bremen and New York in eight days, or an average speed of 20 knots an hour. For navigation pur- poses, a Kreisel compass, a wonder- ful new invention, will be used. This compass always points to the true pole, instead of the. magnetic pole, and is entirely independent of the earth's magnetism. Like all North German Lloyd steam- ers, the Columbus will have a com- plete inner skin, extending far above the water line. The watertight com- May, 1914 150 or 175 ft. long. They lack suff- cient draught, too. Another phase. of most steam yachts is that the ash pit draught system is not economical, Mr, Ferris believes that steam yachts should be built more along the lines of merchant vessels. As a rule the top hamper is not substantial enough and deck houses, etc., should be of steel, not wood. There are too many flimsy skylights littered about decks, and this is bad for real heavy weather. The average steam yacht is pretty, but in a heavy sea, off shore, is most un- comfortable, if not dangerous. In smaller vessels the usual condition js that there is too much dead rise to get sufficient draught without increas- ing displacement. The British ten- dency is to develop a better type, but in a major portion of them there is little regard for stability. Steam yachts would be more comfortable, Mr. Ferris says, and far better in a heavy sea were they built more along the box section type, as used in com- mercial vessels, and, if necessary, top- THE DINING ROOM AND SALON OF A STEAMER OF FIFTY YEARS AGO will extend along each side of the ship for 410 ft., so that five turns around the deck for a morning "constitutional" will represent 1 mile of walking. For those who do not care to cover this distance on foot, however, there will be electrically propelled chairs, much like those that are seen on the board walk at Atlantic City and other re- sorts. The palm garden will be a veritable tropical paradise, filled with rare trees, plants and flowers from Algiers and the West Indies. There will be a Vene- tian Cafe and a wonderful library; a grand ball room containing 4,000 ft. of space; a gymnasium equipped with a tennis court and every device for exercising and a great children's play- room, with special nurses, where little -- ones can be entertained all day long. The second cabin has its special social and dining rooms, ladies' lounge and smoking room and a majority of partments will be so arranged that even though several were flooded, the ship would still float. The Columbus will, of course, be provided with all other safety de- vices, including submarine signals and sufficient lifeboats to accommodate everyone aboard. There will be sev- eral electric launches, which will be capable of towing the lifeboats. An- other innovation will be a regular fire department. It is expected that the Columbus will make her initial trip the latter part of August or the first of September. Lack Sufficient Displacement In a statement published in the New York Herald, Theodore E. Ferris, of New York, voiced the opinion that the larger steam yachts have insuffi- cient displacement. This applies par- ticularly in the case of yachts, say, 125, side ballast tanks might well be used to make life easier for owners and their guests. A vast majority of pres- ent-day steam yachts, American and foreign, are far from what they might be as regards comfort and seaworth- iness. Twenty-five thousand persons were carried to Panama during the year ended Dec. 31, 1913, on vessels of the United Fruit Co.'s steamers. The army of tourists came from every city in the United States and Canada and while many sailed from New Orleans and Boston, the majority embarked at New York. During last year the Unit- ed Fruit Co. increased the strength of its fleet by eight vessels, making a total of 20 first class passevee: steamers and 120 cargo vessels... Six new steamers are now being built in the United Kingdom and will be placed in service by the end of the year.