and, after the patent right had been bought, the method was
adopted in all the vessels of the company.

When these new ships were first seen at Liverpool, the "old
salts" held up their hands. They were too long! they were too

sharp! they would break their backs! They might, indeed, get out
of the Mersey, but they would never get back! The ships,

however, sailed; and they made rapid and prosperous voyages to
and from the Mediterranean. They fulfilled all the promises

which had been made. They proved the advantages of our new build
of ships; and the owners were perfectly satisfied with their

superior strength, speed, and accommodation. The Bibbys were
wise men in their day and generation. They did not stop, but

went on ordering more ships. After the Grecian and the Italian
had made two or three voyages to Alexandria, they sent us an

order for three more vessels. By our advice, they were made
twenty feet longer than the previous ones, though of no greater

beam; in other respects, they were almost identical. This was
too much for "Jack." "What!" he exclaimed, "more Bibby's

coffins?" Yes, more and more; and in the course of time, most
shipowners followed our example.

To a young firm, a repetition of orders like these was a great
advantage,--not only because of the novel design of the ships,

but also because of their constructive details. We did our best
to fit up the Egyptian, Dalmatian, and Arabian, as first-rate

vessels. Those engaged in the Mediterranean trade finding them
to be serious rivals, partly because of the great cargos which

they carried, but principally from the regularity with which they
made their voyages with such surprisingly small consumption of

coal. They were not, however, what "Jack" had been accustomed to
consider "dry ships." The ship built Dutchman fashion, with her

bluff ends, is the driest of all ships, but the least steady,
because she rises to every sea. But the new ships, because of

their length and sharpness, precluded this; for, though they rose
sufficiently to an approaching wave for all purposes of safety,

they often went through the crest of it, and, though shipping a
little water, it was not only easier for the vessel, but the

shortest road.
Nature seems to have furnished us with the finest design for a

vessel in the form of the fish: it presents such fine lines--is
so clean, so true, and so rapid in its movements. The ship,

however, must float; and to hit upon the happy medium of velocity
and stability seems to me the art and mystery of shipbuilding.

In order to give large carrying capacity, we gave flatness of
bottom and squareness of bilge. This became known in Liverpool

as the "Belfast bottom;" and it has been generally adopted. This
form not only serves to give stability, but also increases the

carrying power without lessening the speed.
While Sailor Jack and our many commercial rivals stood aghast and

wondered, our friends gave us yet another order for a still
longer ship, with still the same beam and power. The vessel was

named the Persian; she was 360 feet long, 34 feet beam, 24 feet 9
inches hold. More cargo was thus carried, at higher speed. It

was only a further development of the fish form of structure.
Venice was an important port to call at. The channel was

difficult to navigate, and the Venetian class (270 feet long) was
supposed to be the extreme length that could be handled here.

But what with the straight stem,--by cutting the forefoot away,
and by the introduction of powerful steering-gear, worked

amidships,--the captain was able to navigate the Persian, 90 feet
longer than the Venetian, with much less anxiety and

inconvenience.
Until the building of the Persian, we had taken great pride in

the modelling and finish of the old style of cutwater and
figurehead, with bowsprit and jib-boom; but in urging the

advantages of greater length of hull, we were met by the fact of
its being simply impossible in certain docks to swing vessels of

any greater length than those already constructed. Not to be
beaten, we proposed to do away with all these overhanging

encumbrances, and to adopt a perpendicular stem. In this way the
hull might be made so much longer; and this was, I believe, the

first occasion of its being adopted in this country in the case
of an ocean steamer; though the once celebrated Collins Line of

paddlesteamers had, I believe, such stems. The iron decks, iron
bulwarks, and iron rails, were all found very serviceable in our

later vessels, there being no leaking, no caulking of deck-planks
or waterways, nor any consequent damaging of cargo. Having found

it impossible to combinesatisfactorily wood with iron, each
being so differentlyaffected by temperature and moisture, I

secured some of these novelties of construction in a patent, by
which filling in the spaces between frames, &c., with Portland

cement, instead of chocks of wood, and covering the iron plates
with cement and tiles, came into practice, and this has since

come into very general use.
The Tiber, already referred to, was 235 feet in length when first

constructed by Read, of Glasgow, and was then thought too long;
but she was now placed in our hands to be lengthened 39 feet, as

well as to have an iron deck added, both of which greatly
improved her. We also lengthened the Messrs. Bibby's Calpe--also

built by Messrs. Thomson while I was there--by no less than 93
feet. The advantage of lengthening ships, retaining the same

beam and power, having become generally recognised, we were in
trusted by the Cunard Company to lengthen the Hecla, Olympus,

Atlas, and Marathon, each by 63 feet. The Royal Consort P.S.,
which had been lengthened first at Liverpool, was again

lengthened by us at Belfast.
The success of all this heavy work, executed for successful

owners, put a sort of backbone into the Belfast shipbuilding
yard. While other concerns were slack, we were either

lengthening or building steamers as well as sailing-ships for
firms in Liverpool, London, and Belfast. Many acres of ground

were added to the works. The Harbour Commissioners had now made
a fine new graving-dock, and connected the Queen's Island with

the mainland. The yard, thus improved and extended, was surveyed
by the Admiralty, and placed on the first-class list. We

afterwards built for the Government the gun vessels Lynx and
Algerine, as well as the store and torpedo ship Hecla, of 3360

tons.
The Suez Canal being now open, our friends the Messrs. Bibby gave

us an order for three steamers of very large tonnage, capable of
being adapted for trade with the antipodes if necessary. In

these new vessels there was no retrograde step as regards length,
for they were 390 feet keel by 37 feet beam, square-rigged on

three of the masts, with the yards for the first time fitted on
travellers, as to enable them to be readily sent down; thus

forming a uniquecombination of big fore-and-aft sails, with
handy square sails. These ships were named the Istrian, Iberian,

and Illyrian, and in 1868 they went to sea; soon after to be
followed by three more ships--the Bavarian, Bohemian, and

Bulgarian--in most respects the same, though ten feet longer,
with the same beam. They were first placed in the Mediterranean

trade, but were afterwards transferred to the Liverpool and
Boston trade, for cattle and emigrants. These, with three

smaller steamers for the Spanish cattle trade, and two larger
steamers for other trades, made together twenty steam-vessels

constructed for the Messrs. John Bibby, Sons, & Co.; and it was a
matter of congratulation that, after a great deal of heavy and

constant work, not one of them had exhibited the slightest
indication of weakness,--all continuing in first-rate working

order.
The speedy and economic working of the Belfast steamers, compared

with those of the ordinary type, having now become well known, a
scheme was set on foot in 1869 for employing similar vessels,

though of larger size, for passenger and goods accommodation
between England and America. Mr. T. H. Ismay,of Liverpool, the

spirited shipowner, then formed, in conjunction with the late Mr.