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Which is the most degraded fish? The sole, because it is trodden under foot by everybody as a matter of

course.

When is a bridle like a ship? When it rides over the bounding mane.

Why does a sailor like a kiss? Because he enjoys a smack.

SHIP FACTS

THE LARGEST VESSELS.

THE largest vessel in existence is the Oceanic. She is the longest and the heaviest ever built, though not as wide as the Great Eastern. She can carry 410 first cabin, 300 second cabin and 1,000 steerage passengers. Her bunker capacity is 6,000 tons, which would enable her to steam around the world at the rate of twelve knots an hour. Two ordinary trolley cars, side by side, could pass through her funnels if laid on the ground. Her displacement, when loaded and drawing 32 feet, is 28,500 tons. The captain's bridge is 744 feet above the keel, and more than 50 feet above the water when the ship is loaded.

The dimensions of the Oceanic compared with the Great Eastern are:

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The Oceanic compares with other steamships as follows:

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To be the Largest Steamships.-Four big ships are now being built for the Oriental trade, to run in connection with the Great Northern railroad. The vessels will probably be ready for service about July, 1901. Each ship will be 30 feet long by 74 feet amidships, 50 feet from water to deck line, and will have a carrying capacity of 22,000 tons. The ships will be the largest in the world, exceeding the Oceanic, and will be able to carry freight at low rates.

The largest cargo carrier is the Cymric. She is 12,340 tons gross measurement, and her dimensions are: Length over all, 585 feet; beam, 64 feet; depth, 38 feet.

The Pennsylvania, when in commission, will be the largest cargo carrier, being rated at 20,000 tons burden. The largest tank steamer is the St. Helens. She will carry 2,850,000 gallons of oil in bulk.

The greatest sailing vessel ever built in America is a six-masted schooner (building in Maine). It is 310 feet long on the keel, 345 feet on top, and will register about 2,750 tons net, with an estimated coal-carrying capacity of from 5,000 to 5,500 tons. The next largest schooners built on the Atlantic coast are the John B. Prescott and the Nathaniel T. Palmer, five-masters, each registering about 2,200 tons net and carrying from 4,000 to 4,400 of coal, according to weather, voyage and draught. Next to them in size is the William B. Palmer, length, 257 feet; breadth, 42 feet; depth, 20 feet; and tonnage, 1,806. Her lower masts are each 116 feet long. Until she was built, the Governor Ames was the largest Yankee schooner.

The largest sailing ship afloat is called the Potosi.

She was built at Bremen, is a five-master, 394 feet long, 50 feet broad, with a draught of 25 feet and a carrying capacity of 6,150 tons.

The second largest ship in the world is the French five-master France: Length, 316 feet; breadth, 49 feet; depth, 26 feet. She has a net tonnage of 3,624, a sail area of 49,000 square feet and has carried a cargo of 5,900 tons. The British ship Liverpool, 3,330 tons, is 333 feet long, 48 feet broad and 28 feet deep. The Palgrave is of 3,078 tons. She has taken 20,000 bales of jute from Calcutta to Dundee in a single voyage.

The biggest of wooden ships is the Roanoke, built by Arthur Sewall & Co. Her dimensions are: Length of keel, 300 feet; length over all, 350 feet; height of foremast from deck, 180 feet; length of main yard, 95 feet; main lower topsail yard, 86 feet; main upper topsail yard, 77 feet; main top-gallant yard, 66 feet; main royal yard, 55 feet; main skysail yard, 44 feet; bowsprit, 65 feet; deck to keelson, 22.2 feet; keelson to bottom, 12 feet; height of keelson, 9 feet 8 inches. With all sails set she spreads 15,000 square yards of canvas. She has four masts-fore, main, mizzen and jigger. She has four headsails with an aggregate of 646 square yards of canvas in them. Her main and mizzen sails contain 2,424 square yards of canvas. In her hull are 24,000 cubic feet of oak, 1,250,000 feet of yellow pine, 225 tons of iron, 98,000 treenails and 550 hackmatack knees.

The second largest wooden ship is the Shenandoah, of 2,258 tons register, and next to her in size comes the Rappahannock, of 3,053 tons register. Both of these have for some years carried 5,000 ton cargoes from San Francisco. The latter has taken 125,000 cases of petroleum at once from Philadelphia to Japan.

The oldest American vessel is the schooner Polly, built at Amesbury, Mass., in 1805. She has had an adventurous career. During the war of 1812 she was a privateer and captured 11 prizes from the British. She was also captured once herself, but was retaken. She is of 45 tons register, is engaged in the coasting trade and is said to be sound and seaworthy.

The first American built tramp steamship is the Wini

freda, built at the Bath Iron Works, Me. She is of 2,600 tons gross, 302 feet long, 42 feet beam, 25 feet deep and can carry 3,800 tons of cargo.

The first American ship, the Restless, was built at Manhattan Island in 1613 by Adrian Block. In it he discovered the island called by his name.

THE GREAT EASTERN.

The Great Eastern, for half a century the largest steamship in the world, was a few years ago sold at public auction in London to junk dealers for £26,200, and was broken up. She was constructed by Scott Russell, at Milwall, on the Thames, in 1854 to 1858, for the Eastern Steam Navigation Company. She was designed for an ocean steam route to the East around the cape of Good Hope, the directors having concluded that owing to the cost of maintaining coaling stations on the way such a route would not pay unless the ship could carry coal enough for the voyage out and home, besides a large number of passengers and a great cargo. The Great Eastern was built to meet these requirements. Her extreme length was 680 feet, breadth 83 feet, height 70 feet, weight 12,000 tons. It took nearly three months to launch her when completed (between Nov. 3, 1857, and Jan. 13, 1858), at a cost of £60,000. Her trial trip was disastrous, several persons being killed by an explosion. Several trips were made to New York, the expense, however, always exceeding the profits. In fact the big monster was a white elephant on the company's hands. Her first real serviceable mission was in 1861, when, after the Trent affair war with England seemed imminent, 2,000 British soldiers came over to Canada on her very comfortably.

The next two or three years were a blank in her history. Then Cyrus W. Field secured her for a cable-laying vessel, the passenger accommodations being taken out entirely to make room for the big coils of cable. In 1867 these accommodations were replaced at great expense, and it was thought to utilize her in conveying Americans to the Paris Exposition, but this undertaking proved a failure. Finally her passenger accommodations were again removed, and the vessel was successfully employed in laying cables

across the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea, across the Indian ocean, across the Equator from Europe to Brazil, etc. She served also as a cattle ship between England and Australia. So great was her capacity that she could carry 20,000 tons of coal and merchandise, or 5,000 troops, besides her crew of 400. For some time she lay in the Mersey, an object of expense, until 1884, when she took up her position as a coal hulk in the harbor of Gibraltar. In 1886 she was removed to Liverpool.

CARGOES.

Ships' cargoes are as varied as human wants. Every staple is represented, horses, cattle, furs, lard, pianos, razors and a myriad of other articles go.

The freighter American holds a record for the largest cargo, having taken 11,200 tons of cargo from Brooklyn to South Africa.

The Maroa, a British steamer, has taken 18,348 bales of cotton from New Orleans to Havre, the largest cotton cargo ever shipped.

The Shenandoah and Rappahannock, both sailing vessels, have each taken cargoes of more than 5,000 tons of grain from San Francisco.

A STEAMSHIP'S CARGO.

The new ocean freighter, Pennsylvania, although scarcely attaining the external measurements of the celebrated Great Eastern, will carry far more cargo. The capacity, indeed, of these new freight ships is a matter for astonishment to a landsman. The Pennsylvania, for example, is rated at 20,000 tons burden, and will carry loads such as may be briefly itemized thus:

One hundred and sixty thousand bushels of wheat in bulk, equal to 320 car-loads, or 16 trains of 20 cars each; 1,000 tons of flour, 80 car-loads; 4,000 boxes of bacon, 75 car-loads; 3,000 tierces of lard, 48 car-loads; 1,300 bales of cotton, 40 car-loads; 1,200 head of live cattle, 80 car-loads; 3,600 quarters of dressed beef.

In addition there will probably be 1,000 tons of mis

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