Atlantic Challenge

Since the War the biggest transatlantic liner and the fastest have never been the same boat.

Biggest today: Majestic (German built, British owned). Fastest: Europa (German built, owned). Last week this technical superiority of Teutons on the sea was challenged at last and definitely by their immemorial enemies, the French.

Looking like nobody's enemy, M. Jean Tillier, tall, broad-shouldered manager of the French Line in the U. S. and Canada, made the challenging announcement in Manhattan. "Within 30 days," said he in crisp English, "we will lay at Saint Nazaire the keel of a liner larger, and also faster, than any ever built before. . . . She will be more than 1,000 feet long, nearer in fact to 1,100 feet. . . .* In her motive power she will follow a comparatively new line, first laid down by the United States Navy and later followed by the French--namely, turbo-electric drive. "Steam from her 30 boilers will drive turbines directly coupled to electric generators. Electric motors supplied with current from the generators will drive her four propeller shafts. . . . Similar equipment is used on the French Navy's flotilla leader Verdun, the first warship ever to attain a speed of 40 knots. . . ." Contract speed of the new French liner is 30 knots, but contract speeds are always exceeded by two or three knots. Cost: $27,500,000 to $30,000,000 depending on the final scheme of decoration which will be decided while work is progressing with the hull and machinery. Name: undecided. Also undecided is the name of a new liner for which Britain's Cunard Line has also just let contracts. She will be the French super-liner's only rival. Latest announcements from London are: length 1,018 ft., estimated speed 30 knots. As a matter of fact French Line and Cunard will undoubtedly try to best each other by secret, last-minute changes. Neither wants to build anything less than a liner which can be definitely advertised as the "largest and fastest in the world." Both ships will be of some 70,000 to 75,000 tons, exceeding the Majestic by upwards of 15,000 tons. Lurks one hidden factor: since neither Bremen nor Europa have ever been run at the maximum speed, both German ships have something in reserve for the great transatlantic race of 1933-34. Not until then will the new Cunard and French challengers be ready.

*Majestic, 915 ft.; Leviathan, 907; Europa, 890 (Lloyd's rating).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.