Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1892 — THE NEW WHALEBACK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE NEW WHALEBACK.

A Passenger Steamer that Will Cross tho Atlantic In Fire Days. The new “whaleback” passenger steamer, now building at Wilmington, Del., Is intended to make the distance between New York and Queenstown in five days and to combine speed with safety and plenty of room. The hull, says the Scientific American, is of the steel barge pattern, almost submerged, supporting a strongly built pier beyond the reach of tho wildest sea. Two longitudinal bulkheads divide the hull into three main compartments, which are subdivided by transverse bulkheads into twentyone separate water-tight sections, without doors below the water-line. The curved deck affords immunity from crushing waves above, and tho double bottom from the perils that may lurk below. The engines designed to drive this vessel at a speed of twenty-four knots an hours are of 10,500 I. 11. P., three in number, of the triple expansion type, running 120 revolutions per minute, with propellers of 24.2 feet pitch, 11.8 ameter, and are to be supplied with steam by sectional boilers at a pressure of 115 pounds. There will be numerous auxiliary engines for electric lighting, elevators, hoisting, ventilating, heating, etc. The superstructure is supported by five piers twelve feet in diameter, at distances respectively of GO, 180, 204, 228, and .'172 feet from the bow, and at a distance of 132, 300, and 344 feet are steel iuusls, used also'as ventilators. The arrangement of apartments is in accordance with latest ideas. The lower floor is devoted to staterooms that are lighted by incandescent electric lights at night. During the day those rooms along the central girder are lighted from beneath by disk grating, over which an electric mat heater Is placed. Accommodation for 720 first-class passengers Is provided. Steerage travelers will of course be limited to the hull. On the upper floor are the various halls, parlors, a grand dining-room, and as novelties a billiard parlor, baths, a laundry and ocean mail room; and for those who delight In promenades, two four feet wide completely round tho floors, and that upon tho roof.

Passage between the hull and superstructure is accomplished by means of electric lifts, within tho first, central and last piers. Ry tho separation of hull and living apartments the passenger is enabled to avoid the smell of machinery, the racket of freight handling and all those ills that transatlantic travelers condemn. By the union of ship and and hotel he Is enabled to convert tho voyage of three weary months In an open caravel Into five days of luxurious ease nnd pleasure. The accommodations and capacity of a ship thus designed will commend it to tho favorable notice of thoso Interested In European trade and travel.

THE NEW “WHALEBACK" PASSENGER STEAMER.