How fast could the SS Great Eastern go?
SS Great Eastern
She also had six masts (said to be named after the days of a week – Monday being the fore mast and Saturday the spanker mast), providing space for of sails (7 gaff and max. 9 (usually 4) square sails), rigged similar to a topsail schooner with a main gaff sail (fore-and-aft sail) on each mast, one "jib" on the fore mast and three square sails on masts no. 2 and no. 3 (Tuesday & Wednesday); for a time mast no. 4 was also fitted with three yards. In later years, some of the yards were removed. According to some sources she would have carried . This amount of canvas is obviously too much for seven fore-and-aft sails and max. 9 square sails. This (larger) figure of sail area lies only a few square metres below that the famous Flying P-Liner "Preußen" carried – with her five full-rigged masts of 30 square sails and a lot of stay sails. Setting sails turned out to be unusable at the same time as the paddles and screw were under steam, because the hot exhaust from the five (later four) funnels would set them on fire. Her maximum speed was 24 km/h (13 knots).
HMS Prince George (1895)
"Prince George" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced up to at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two 3-cylinder triple expansion engines powered by eight coal-fired cylindrical boilers. By 1907–1908, she was re-boilered with oil-fired models. Her engines provided a top speed of at . The "Majestic"s were considered good seaboats with an easy roll and good steamers, although they suffered from high fuel consumption. She had a crew of 672 officers and ratings.
RMS Oceanic (1899)
Their new flagship "Oceanic" whose keel was laid down at Harland and Wolff Belfast in 1897 was named after their first successful liner RMS "Oceanic" of 1870, and was to be the first ship to exceed Brunel's SS "Great Eastern" in length, although not in tonnage. "Oceanic" was not however designed to be the fastest ship afloat or compete for the Blue Riband, as it was the White Star Line's policy to focus on size and comfort rather than speed. "Oceanic" was designed for a service speed of , but had the capability of reaching .
SS Trusty
"Trusty" was 20 feet long with a 7 ft beam and 2 ft 6inch draft. She could travel at 9 knots with a 10 HP, 2 cylinder engine.
SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia
"Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia" was long at the waterline and long overall. She had a beam of and a draft of . As designed, the ship displaced , and at full load she displaced . She had a crew of 475 officers and men. The ship was powered by two 3-cylinder, horizontal triple expansion engines rated at . This gave the ship a top speed of .
SS Great Eastern
Brunel showed his idea to John Scott Russell, an experienced naval architect and ship builder whom he had first met at the Great Exhibition. Scott Russell examined Brunel's plan and made his own calculations as to the ship's feasibility. He calculated that it would have a displacement of 20,000 tons and would require to achieve , but believed it was possible. At Scott Russell's suggestion, they approached the directors of the Eastern Steam Navigation Company.
German cruiser Emden
While on sea trials after the 1942 overhaul, "Emden" reached a speed of , significantly less than her original top speed. By that time, the ship had been in service for sixteen years and retained her original engines. Due for an engine replacement, the war situation prevented the work from being done and "Emden" soldiered on. The year 1943 passed uneventfully for "Emden", though she received a strengthened anti-aircraft battery that included and a pair of Bofors guns. The ship took part in a pair of minelaying operations in the Skagerrak in late 1944, the first from 19 to 21 September and the second from 5 to 6 October. The increasing frequency of Allied air attacks on the minelaying operations led to their cancellation in late October. For the rest of the year, she was occupied with escorting convoys in the Baltic. On 1 November 1944, "Emden" assisted the cruiser "Köln", which had run aground. "Emden" herself ran aground in the Oslofjord on 9 December, though she was refloated the following day. She left Oslo on 23 December and steamed to Königsberg for repairs, arriving two days later.
HMS Iveston (M1151)
Philip and Son in Dartmouth built "Iveston". Her hull was a double mahogany hull upon an aluminium frame with 360 tons displacement. She was given two Paxman Deltic 18A-7A diesel engines that can power her to a top speed of and a range of at . She can carry a crew of 38 including five officers. She is armed with a Bofors 40 mm/60 Mk 3 dual-purpose gun; two Oerlikon 20 mm guns and three FN 7.62 mm machine-guns. Once complete she was launched on 29 June 1955.
Eleonora Mærsk
"Eleonora Maersk" is a sister ship of "Emma Maersk" and has a maximum speed of 27 knots. The ship was specifically designed to sail through the Asian trade route, and has the largest combustion engine ever built. Its engine is the equivalent of 1,000 family-sized cars. The "Eleonora Maersk" met with another one of the world's largest ships at Port of Felixstowe. The two ships regularly dock here at opposite times; however, last March their schedules synced up and they were both in port at the same time.
SS Great Eastern
The voyage took 9 days 13 hours. "Great Eastern's" arrival in New York was virtually unnoticed due to the American Civil War, and when it was opened to the public at 25 cents a head there was little interest. 194 passengers sailed on the return journey on 25 May and 5,000 tons of wheat was also carried.
RMS Majestic (1914)
In 1925, she completed an eastbound crossing at 25 knots, which was the fastest she ever managed, and faster than either of her sisters' best efforts. However, her older sister "Leviathan" often had a slightly higher average speed each year than "Majestic".
Costa Concordia
"Costa Concordia" was long, had a beam of and drew of water. She had a Diesel-electric power plant consisting of six 12-cylinder Wärtsilä 12V46C four-stroke medium-speed Diesel generating sets with a combined output of . These main generators provided power for all shipboard consumers from propulsion motors to hotel functions like lighting and air conditioning. The ship was propelled by two 21-megawatt electric motors coupled to fixed-pitch propellers. Her design service speed was , but during sea trials, she achieved a speed of .
Fighter-bomber
Vought F4U Corsairs and Hawker Sea Furys from U.S., British and Australian carriers in the Yellow Sea and later from Korean airfields, also attacked the Pusan perimeter. The Sea Fury, a development of the Hawker Tempest had a Bristol Centaurus engine of 2,480 hp giving a 485 mph top speed, one of the fastest piston-engined aircraft ever built. Initially United Nations air forces using piston-engined fighter-bombers and straight wing jet fighters easily drove the North Koreans out of the sky and so disrupted logistics and hence the attack on Pusan.
SMS Sachsen
The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. "Sachsen" was powered by two 3-cylinder triple expansion engines, which were supplied with steam by eight coal-fired Dürr boilers. The ship's top speed was , at Her standard complement consisted of 32 officers and 285 enlisted men, though while serving as a squadron flagship this was augmented by another 7 officers and 34 men.
SMS Bayern
"Bayern" was long at the waterline, and an even long overall. She had a beam of and a draft of "Bayern" displaced at a normal displacement; at full combat load, she displaced up to . "Bayern" was powered by three Parsons steam turbines rated at and three oil-fired and eleven coal-fired Schulz-Thornycroft boilers, and on trials achieved ; she had a maximum speed of . The ship could carry up to of coal and of fuel oil, which provided a maximum range of at a cruising speed of .
SS Gneisenau (1935)
Until the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the trio worked NDL's express service between Bremen and the Far East. At they were some of the fastest ships on the route.
SS West Cressey
"West Cressey" had a design deadweight tonnage of 8,800 tons and gross register tonnage of 5,600. She had an overall length of 423 feet 9 inches, a beam of 54 feet and a draft of 24 feet 2 inches. The ship was powered by a triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, driving a single screw propeller and delivering a speed of 11 knots. Since the ship was completed too late to see wartime service, she was not provided with any armament.
SMS Elsass
"Elsass" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. At full load, she displaced . Her crew consisted of 35 officers and 708 enlisted men. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six cylindrical boilers, all of the Scotch type, and all of which burned coal. "Elsass"s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . She could steam at a cruising speed of .
Burrells Wharf
John Scott Russell bought the works and was instrumental in building here "The SS Great Eastern", where it was launched. This was a steam and sail ship designed by engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and the largest ship in the world for its time, when built in 1858. The ship may not have lasted long in its commercial use, but the shipyard and site where it was launched have fared better.
SS Great Northern (1914)
Both ships were designed for 856 passengers and 2,185 tons of freight with a 23 knot speed making possible the run between the ports in 25–26 hours, equal to the time for an overland route, under favorable conditions and thus allowing direct service to San Francisco from the east using the two northern rail lines. Both ships were classed A100 according to British Lloyds and met the latest requirements of the United States Steamboat Inspection Service.
HMS Majestic (1895)
"Majestic" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced up to at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two 3-cylinder triple expansion engines powered by eight coal-fired cylindrical boilers. By 1907–1908, she was re-boilered with oil-fired models. Her engines provided a top speed of at . The "Majestic"s were considered good seaboats with an easy roll and good steamers, although they suffered from high fuel consumption. She had a crew of 672 officers and ratings.
SMS Stein
"Stein" was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 18 officers and 386 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . As built, "Stein" was equipped with a full ship rig, but this was later reduced.
SS Pacific (1849)
Between 11 and 21 September, "Pacific" made a record passage from Liverpool to New York with an average speed of , breaking the previous record of 12.25 knots held by the Cunard Line's "Asia", and thus winning the coveted Blue Riband for fastest transatlantic crossing. "Pacific" would hold the record for less than a year however, as her sister ship "Baltic" would set a new record the following August with a new record speed of . Between 10 and 20 May 1851, "Pacific" also set a new eastbound record with an average speed of 13.03 knots, beating the previous record of 12.38 knots set by the Cunard Line's "Canada". Again however, the record would stand for only nine months before being broken again by "Pacific"s slightly more-powerful sister ship, "Arctic".
Russian ship of the line Konstantin
In 1852–54, "Konstantin" was rebuilt and converted to steam with a British-built Humphrys & Tennant steam engine of 450 nominal horsepower that drove a single propeller shaft. She had a maximum speed of . Enlarged to accommodate the steam engine and its boilers, she displaced and the ship measured 2,631 tons burthen. She now measured between perpendiculars and her beam was increased to . Forward her draft measured and aft. "Konstantin" was also rearmed when her reconstruction was complete. The ship now carried one shell gun, one 36-pounder gunnade, fourteen 30-pounder carronades, and two short 30-pounder guns on her quarterdeck and forecastle. On her upper deck, the ship carried four long 30-pounders, 20 short 24-pounder guns, and four 60-pounder licornes. The armament of her lower deck consisted of twenty-six 68-pounder shell guns and two long 30-pounder guns.
HMS Essex (1901)
The "Monmouth"s were designed to protect British merchant shipping from fast cruisers like the French , or the . The ships were designed to displace . They had an overall length of , a beam of and a deep draught of . They were powered by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which produced a total of designed to give a maximum speed of . "Essex", however, was one of three of the "Monmouth"s that failed to meet her designed speed. The engines were powered by 31 Belleville boilers. She carried a maximum of of coal and her complement consisted of 678 officers and ratings.
MV Resolution Bay
"Resolution Bay" had a tonnage of and a top speed of 23 knots. Length was 248.6m, and beam was 32.3m. She was propelled by two 8-cylinder two-stroke slow speed crosshead diesel engines with a total power output of 53,280 BHP. The MAN engines, model KS8Z90/160A, had a 900 mm bore and 1600 mm stroke. They were each directly coupled to one of the two propeller shafts, turning them at a maximum 122 rpm. Auxiliary power was provided by five 1,500 kW MaK medium speed diesel alternators. She could carry worth of containers, 1,223 of them refrigerated (reefer) containers in holds below deck. The reefer capacity was one of the largest of any ship at the time, and the containers when loaded in the holds were connected to the ship's brine circulation system for cooling. The brine was cooled by a large refrigeration plant located in the engine room.
Flying P-Liner
The Laeisz company had some of the largest sailing ships ever built. They experimented with steel-hulled five-masters, first the barque "Potosi" (1895) and in 1902 the huge full rigged ship "Preussen" with a length of 147 m, 5.081 GRT, and over 7.800 tons dead weight. She could sail faster than 18 knots and her best 24-hour distance was 392 sm in 1908 on her voyage to Yokohama. However, these ships turned out to be too big: their crews didn't like them, and it became increasingly difficult to achieve a satisfactory utilization on the outbound leg from Europe to Chile. The later ships, such as the "Peking" or the "Passat", returned to being smaller four-masted barques.
RMS Empress of Britain (1930)
For the latter role her size was kept small enough to use the Panama and Suez canals, though at 760.6 feet (231.84 m) and 42,348 gross tons, she was still large. When passing through Panama, there was only between the ship and the canal lock wall. "Empress of Britain" was powered by four steam turbine engines driving four propellers. The two inboard propellers took two-thirds of the power, the outboard propellers one-third. For cruising two engines were shut down, and the two outboard propellers removed to reduce drag, since speed was not as important on a cruise. With four propellers, her speed during trials was , although her service speed was stated at making her the fastest ship from England to Canada. Running on inner propellers, her speed was measured during trials at . The efficiency of this arrangement became clear in service – for transatlantic service, she consumed 356 tons of oil a day, while on her 1932 cruise, consumption fell to 179.
Norddeutscher Lloyd
In 1929 and 1930, the company placed its two largest ships in service, SS "Bremen" () and SS "Europa" (). With an average speed of about 27.9 knots, both were to take the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossings. In 1929, "Columbus" was completely refitted.
SS Atlantic (1953)
SS "Badger Mariner" was built as a 9,214 gross ton cargo ship. Construction occurred in 1952 and 1953 at Sun Ship Building & Dry Dock Co., in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was launched on July 1, 1953. SS "Badger Mariner" was one of approximately 35 cargo ships of the C4-S-1a class designed and built to provide fast support for the US military, following the retirement of World War II liberty ships. She had a central-island superstructure, with three large deck cranes located forward and two large deck cranes located aft. These cranes serviced four forward hatches and two aft hatches, all of which were hydraulically operated. She had a length of 564 feet, a beam of 76 feet, and a draft of 26 feet, and could achieve a maximum speed of 20 knots. Her cargo capacity was 769,949 cubic feet, all of which was contained in below-deck holds. In 1958 she was sold to the American Banner Lines.
Tegetthoff-class battleship
Differences between the three battleships constructed in Trieste and the one in Fiume were most apparent when examining each ship's propulsion. "Szent István" differed from the other ships in that she possessed two shafts and two Parsons steam turbines, while the propulsion of "Viribus Unitis", "Tegetthoff", and "Prinz Eugen" each had four. These turbines were housed in a separate engine-room and powered by twelve Babcock & Wilcox boilers. They were designed to produce a total of , which was theoretically enough to attain a maximum designed speed of . While it was reported during the speed trials of "Tegetthoff" that she attained a top speed of , the actual top speed of the "Tegetthoff"-class ships is unknown as the sea trial data and records for each ship were lost after the war. Each ship also carried of coal, and an additional of fuel oil that was to be sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. At full capacity, the "Tegetthoff"s could steam for at a speed of .
SS Great Eastern
The Eastern Company began the task of completing the ship. Work recommenced in May and took longer than expected to complete. Brunel reported in June 1857 that once the screw, screw shaft and sternpost had been installed the ship would be ready for launching. However, the launch ways and cradles would not be ready in time since the contract for their construction had only been placed in January 1857. Under pressure from all sides, the lease of the shipyard costing £1,000 a month, and against his better judgement, Brunel agreed to launch the ship on 3 November 1857 to catch the high tide.
Italian cruiser Trieste
"Trieste" was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . She displaced at full load, though her displacement was nominally within the restriction set in place by the Washington Naval Treaty. She had a crew of 723 officers and enlisted men, though during the war this increased to 781. Her power plant consisted of four Parsons steam turbines powered by twelve oil-fired Yarrow boilers, which were trunked into two funnels amidships. Her engines were rated at for a top speed of , but on sea trials only reached . That speed could only be reached on a very light displacement, and in service, her practical top speed was only . The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of
SMS Radetzky
"Radetzky" was 138.8 m (455 ft 4 in) long, and had a beam of 24.6 m (80 ft 8 in) and a draft of 8.1 m (26 ft 9 in). She displaced normally, and up to with a full combat load. The ship was powered by two-shaft four-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines rated at 19,800 indicated horsepower and a top speed of . She had a maximum range of at a cruising speed of .
German cruiser Admiral Scheer
The ship was nominally under the limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of , she significantly exceeded it. Armed with six guns in two triple gun turrets, "Admiral Scheer" and her sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. Their top speed of left only a handful of ships in the Anglo-French navies able to catch them and powerful enough to sink them.
Fast battleship
Evidence of continued interest in high-speed capital ships is given by the fact that, although the signatories of the treaties were allowed to build gunned ships as their existing tonnage became due for replacement, most of them passed up the opportunity to do so, preferring instead lighter-armed but faster ships. A British Admiralty paper of 1935 concludes that a balanced design with speed and guns would not be possible within the 35,000 ton limit, since it would be either insufficiently armoured or too slow; it is clear that by this date the speed of the "Nelsons" was considered insufficient. The recommended design (never built) was one with nine guns and speed "not less than 29 knots" [54 km/h].ADM1/9387: "Capital Ships: Protection" (1935), Available on-line via the HMS "Hood" Association Website
SS Eastern
The ship was long, with a beam of .She was assessed at , .
SMS Weissenburg
"Weissenburg" was long overall, had a beam of which was increased to with the addition of torpedo nets, and had a draft of forward and aft. The ship displaced at its designed weight, and up to at full combat load. She was equipped with two sets of 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines that provided and a top speed of ; steam was provided by twelve coal-fired, transverse cylindrical water-tube boilers. "Weissenburg" had a cruising range of at . Her crew numbered 38 officers and 530 enlisted men.
SS Great Eastern
After his success in pioneering steam travel to North America with "Great Western" and "Great Britain", Brunel turned his attention to longer voyages as far as Australia and realised the potential of a ship that could travel round the world without the need of refuelling.
RMS Asturias (1925)
Each of the two new ships was powered by a pair of eight-cylinder four-stroke double-acting diesel engines built by Harland and Wolff to a Burmeister & Wain design. The engines gave each ship 10,000 ihp or 7,500 bhp, and at the time they were the World's largest motor ships. However, their cruising speed was only , which was less than that of competing ships already on the route between European ports and the South American east coast. This was an embarrassment for Lord Kylsant, who in 1924 had become Chairman of Harland and Wolff in addition to his position as chairman of RMSP.
German cruiser Deutschland
"Deutschland" was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . The ship had a design displacement of and a full load displacement of , though the ship was officially stated to be within the limit of the Treaty of Versailles. "Deutschland" was powered by four sets of MAN 9-cylinder double-acting two-stroke diesel engines. The ship's top speed was , at . At a cruising speed of , the ship could steam for . As designed, her standard complement consisted of 33 officers and 586 enlisted men, though after 1935 this was significantly increased to 30 officers and 921–1,040 sailors.
Preußen (ship)
Under good conditions, the ship could reach a speed of . Her best 24-hour runs were 392 nm in 1908 on her voyage to Japan and 426 nm in 1904 in the South Pacific. The "Preußen" was manned by a crew of 45, which was supported by two steam engines powering the pumps, the rudder steering engine, the loading gear, and winches. English seamen estimate her the fastest sailing ship after the clipper era, even faster than her fleet sister "Potosí". Only a few clippers were faster than "Preußen", and they had considerably less cargo capacity.
HMS Erin
"Erin" was powered by a pair of Parsons direct-drive steam turbine sets, each driving two shafts, using steam from 15 Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines, rated at , were intended to give the ship a maximum speed of . The ship carried enough coal and fuel oil for a maximum range of at a cruising speed of . This radius of action was somewhat less than that of contemporary British battleships, but was adequate for operations in the North Sea.
Radium Express (ship)
In 1938 the "Saskatoon Star-Phoenix" reported the vessel was designed to travel at up to 20 knots, faster than the Radium Line's larger vessels, so it could take over tows in regions of particularly rapid current.
The Canadian Transportation Agency reported her speed as 9 knots in 2011.
SMS Helgoland
The ship was long, had a beam of and a draft of , and displaced at full load. She was powered by three vertical triple expansion steam engines, which produced a top speed of . "Helgoland" stored up to of coal, which allowed her to steam for at a speed of . After 1915 the boilers were modified to burn oil; the ship could carry up to of fuel oil.
Imperial German Navy
The four s were commenced between October 1911 and May 1912 and entered service in 1914 at a cost of 45 million marks, forming the other part of the Third Squadron of the High Seas Fleet. They were 28,500 tons, with a maximum speed of 21 knots from three triple-stage Brown-Boverie-Parsons turbines. Main armament was five double turrets housing twin 30.5 cm guns, arranged with two turrets fore and aft and one in the centre of the ship. The second turret at either end was raised higher than the outer so that it could fire over the top (superfiring). As with "Prinzregent Luitpold", the ships were originally intended to have one diesel engine for cruising, but these were never developed and turbines were fitted instead. The ships were equipped with torpedo nets, trailed along the hull intended to stop torpedoes, but these reduced maximum speed to an impractical 8 knots and were later removed.
SS Great Eastern
In the spring of 1854 work could at last begin. The first problem to arise was where the ship was to be built. Scott Russell's contract stipulated that it was to be built in a dock, but Russell quoted a price of £8–10,000 to build the necessary dock and so this part of the scheme was abandoned, partly due to the cost and also to the difficulty of finding a suitable site for the dock. The idea of a normal stern first launch was also rejected because of the great length of the vessel, also because to provide the right launch angle the bow of the ship would have to be raised in the air. Eventually it was decided to build the ship sideways to the river and use a mechanical slip designed by Brunel for the launch. Later the mechanical design was dropped on the grounds of cost, although the sideways plan remained.
SMS Pommern
"Pommern" was long overall, with a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced at full loading. The ship was equipped with two heavy military masts and triple expansion engines that were rated at . She had a top speed of , though she significantly exceeded that speed on trials, being the fastest member of the class. Steam was provided by twelve Schulz-Thornycroft boilers; three funnels vented smoke from burning coal in the boilers. The ship had a fuel capacity of up to of coal. In addition to being the fastest ship of her class, "Pommern" was the most fuel efficient. At a cruising speed of , she could steam for . Her crew numbered 35 officers and 708 enlisted men.
Siegfried-class coastal defense ship
The ships were powered by two sets of 3-cylinder triple expansion engines, each in its own engine room. These engines drove a pair of three-bladed screws that were in diameter. The ships had eight marine type boilers, with the exception of "Hagen", which was equipped with eight Thornycroft boilers. The ships had similar maximum speeds, with "Beowulf" the fastest at and "Heimdall" the slowest at . Each ship had three electric generators that provided between 29–26 kilowatts at 67 volts. The ships stored up to of coal and of fuel oil, which enabled a range of at a cruising speed of . At , the ships could only steam . With the refit, fuel bunkerage was more than doubled, to of coal and of oil. This dramatically increased the sailing range, to at 10 knots and at 14 knots.
MS Estonia
According to the final disaster report, the weather was rough, with a wind of , force 7–8 on the Beaufort scale and a significant wave height of compared with the highest measured significant wave height in the Baltic Sea of . Esa Mäkelä, the captain of "Silja Europa" who was appointed on-scene commander for the subsequent rescue effort, described the weather as "normally bad", or like a typical autumn storm in the Baltic Sea. All scheduled passenger ferries were at sea. The official report says that while the exact speed at the time of the accident is not known, "Estonia" had very regular voyage times, averaging . The chief mate of the Viking Line cruiseferry "Mariella" tracked "Estonia"s speed by radar at approximately before the first signs of distress, while the "Silja Europa"s officers estimated her speed at at midnight.
SMS Kaiser (1874)
The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. "Kaiser" was powered by one 2-cylinder single expansion engine, which was supplied with steam by eight coal-fired trunk boilers. The ship's top speed was , at . She was also equipped with a full ship rig. Her standard complement consisted of 32 officers and 568 enlisted men.
Richard Hall Gower
In his last book, published posthumously, Gower reflected on the gigantic advances made in the use of iron and steam. He noted this especially on the railroads where passengers and heavy freight travelled at the extraordinary velocity of thirty miles per hour. He thought that, because of the need for large coal bunkers, 'steam paddlers' were unlikely to replace sail on long trade routes such as the trans-Atlantic crossing. He hoped that vessels of the "Transit" type would ply across the Ocean until "more portable means shall be invented for putting steamers in motion". Just five years later SS Sirius and Brunel's SS Great Western crossed the Atlantic under steam power alone. Gower was correct in pointing to the need for large bunkers, the former vessel had to burn furniture and fittings to complete her record-breaking voyage, while the latter arrived a day later with 200 tons still in her bunkers.
Fighter-bomber
The Hawker Tempest was a development of the Typhoon using the thin wing with an aerofoil developed by NACA and a more powerful version of the Napier Sabre engine, giving a top speed of 432 mph. At low level it was faster than any other Allied or German aircraft, but slower than the Spitfire above 22,000 ft. Fitted with four 20mm cannon it was a formidable fighter, respected even by Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter pilots as their most dangerous opponent. At its debut over the Normandy Beaches on D-Day +2, Tempests shot down three German fighters, without loss. Tempests supported the ambitious attempt to capture the bridge at Arnhem in Operation Market Garden in mid-September 1944. David C. Fairbanks, an American who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force was the top Tempest ace with 12 victories including an Arado Ar 234 jet bomber.
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was a larger, evolutionary development of the P-43/P-44 fighter undertaken after the United States Army Air Forces observed Messerschmitt Bf 109s performing in the Battle of Britain. It was a massive aircraft built around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine, and weighed up to eight tons with ordnance. The P-47 was twice as heavy and had four times the fuselage size of a Spitfire. Armed with eight .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns it could outshoot any enemy fighter, and as a fighter-bomber it could carry half the bomb load of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or 10 five inch High Velocity Aircraft Rockets.
SS Europa (1928)
"Europa" and her slightly larger sister ship were designed to have a cruising speed of 27.5 knots, allowing an Atlantic crossing time of 5 days. This enabled Norddeutsche Lloyd to run regular weekly crossings with two ships, a feat that previously required three.
The launching of "Europa" took place at Blohm & Voss shipyard, Hamburg on Wednesday, August 15, 1928. "Europa" was intended to be completed in spring 1929. However, on the morning of 26 March 1929, a fire broke out while still at the equipment dock. The fire raged all day long and it was not until the evening when the fire was under control. The ship's turbines were damaged heavily and also the remainder of the ship had been significantly damaged. After long discussions between builder and shipping company, it was decided to repair the ship. Within eleven months the ship was finished and completed on February 22, 1930. The cause of the fire has never been clearly identified.
South Dakota-class battleship (1939)
The size of the hull was also a problem: a longer hull generally equates to a higher top speed, but requires more armor to protect it. In order to keep a higher top speed on a shorter hull, higher-performance machinery is required. Since the "South Dakota" design was much shorter than the preceding "North Carolina"s—680 ft (210 m) compared to 729 ft (222 m), respectively—the new ships would need improved machinery than would otherwise have been used in shorter hulls in order to retain the same speed as the longer ships. The design initially called for a top speed of at least 22.5 knots, which was deemed sufficient to keep up with opposing battleships and outrun surfaced submarines. However, in late 1936, cryptanalysts deciphered radio traffic from the Japanese navy which revealed that the battleship was capable of speeds in excess of 26 knots.
To counter this, it was determined a top speed of between was possible if the power plant from "North Carolina" could be reduced in size enough to fit in the tighter hull of "South Dakota". In order to do so the boilers were positioned directly above the turbines in the same arrangement to have been used in the 1916 s. The boilers were then rearranged several times so they were staggered with the turbines, eventually ending directly alongside the turbines. The propulsion system was arranged as close together as possible, and the evaporators and distilling equipment were placed in the machinery rooms. This provided enough additional space behind the armored belt to add a second plotting room.
SMS Stosch
"Stosch" was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 18 officers and 386 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . As built, "Stosch" was equipped with a full ship rig, but this was later reduced.
Fast battleship
The exception to the European battleship trend was Japan, which refused to sign the Second London Treaty. It rather uncharacteristically settled for a moderate speed of , for the sake of heroic level of protection and firepower in the gunned 64,000 ton displacement .
HMS Furious (47)
"Furious" had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draught of at deep load. She displaced normally and at deep load. She had a metacentric height of at deep load. "Furious" and her half-sisters were the first large warships in the Royal Navy to have geared steam turbines. To save design time the installation used in the light cruiser , the first cruiser in the RN with geared turbines, was copied and simply duplicated to provide two sets of turbines. The four Brown-Curtis turbines were powered by eighteen Yarrow small-tube boilers that were designed to produce a total of . The ship's speed was an estimated , but she never ran her sea trials.
Richelieu-class battleship
In the late 1920s, the most powerful active battleships had been designed before the Treaty and were armed with four double turrets of or caliber guns. s, built between 1922–1927 with three triple 16-inch turrets forward, were based on the 1921 G3 battlecruiser concept. For most battleships the top speed was . s could reach . The fastest Western battleships or battlecruisers could exceed .
SS Great Eastern
Preparations were initially made for the ship to sail on 16 June 1860 and the passengers boarded her on the 14th. After visitors had been sent ashore the Captain (Capt. John Vine Hall) announced that he would not be sailing until the 17th, as the crew were drunk. Director Daniel Gooch, who was travelling aboard her, was not pleased. He was further displeased by the route taken by the ship which was the more southerly of the regular steamer routes as he had wanted the ship to complete the journey in nine days. In the event, the voyage took 10 days 19 hours.
HMS Magnificent (1894)
"Magnificent" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced up to at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two 3-cylinder triple expansion engines powered by eight coal-fired cylindrical boilers. By 1907–1908, she was re-boilered with oil-fired models. Her engines provided a top speed of at . The "Majestic"s were considered good seaboats with an easy roll and good steamers, although they suffered from high fuel consumption. She had a crew of 672 officers and ratings.
South Eastern main line
From the outset, the line was worked by steam locomotives. Early locomotive classes that worked the line include the "Little Mail", and "Mail" class 2-2-2s. By the 1860s the speed limit on the line was . In those days, shingle was used for ballast. This was fine for the speeds and train weights then in use, but would later prove to be less satisfactory as train speed increased and weights got heavier. The use of shingle ballast was a factor in a serious accident at Sevenoaks in 1927. In the 1870s, James Stirling introduced a number of new classes - the B and F class 4-4-0s for express passenger work. The O class 0-6-0s for freight and the A class 4-4-0s and Q class 0-4-4Ts for local passenger work. The R class 0-6-0Ts were built to perform banking duties on the branch from Folkestone Harbour to Folkestone Junction. Classes F, O and Q accounted for the majority of the 459 locomotives in the six classes. The SER and LCDR agreed in 1898 to form a working arrangement. The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) came into being on 1 January 1899. The new company was short of locomotives and was glad to acquire five 4-4-0s that the Great North of Scotland Railway had ordered from Hurst, Nelson & Co Ltd, Glasgow but which subsequently had become surplus to requirements. These locomotives became the G class. In 1900, Harry Wainwright introduced the C class 0-6-0s for freight, and D and E class 4-4-0s for express passenger work. The latter two classes were capable of . The track having been upgraded to enable running at such speed. Richard Maunsell introduced the River class 2-6-4Ts in 1917 for express passenger trains. Post-war, the D and E classes were rebuilt with superheaters. The rebuilt locomotives being designated classes D1 and E1.
SS Leviathan
Having languished in political limbo at her Hoboken pier until April 1922, a decision was finally made and the $8,000,000 in funds allocated to sail "Leviathan" to Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, for her 14-month reconditioning and refurbishment. War duty and age meant that all wiring, plumbing, and interior layouts were stripped and redesigned while her hull was strengthened and her engines converted from coal to oil while being refurbished; virtually a new ship emerged.
The decorations and fittings, designed by New York architects Walker & Gillette, retained much of her prewar splendor of Edwardian, Georgian, Louis XVI styles now merged with modern 1920s touches. The biggest deviation was an art deco night club supplanting the original Verandah Cafe. And in June 1923 she was given back to the Shipping Board. "Leviathan"s measured tonnage had increased to 59,956.65 GRT and her speed trials showed an average of 27.48 knots. Thanks in part to Gibbs' clever accounting and the Gulf stream, she had become the world's largest and fastest ship. A claim that was immediately challenged by the Cunard Line who reminded them their RMS "Mauretania" (1906) still held the official speed record for trans-Atlantic crossing, as well as the White Star Line, who claimed the RMS "Majestic" as the world's largest ship as its length was longer, and its gross tonnage was higher as Gibbs used a skewed formula.
SS British Queen
As the largest ship in the world, "British Queen" was roomier and more comfortable than her contemporaries. She never won the Blue Riband but matched "Great Western's" westbound speeds from 1838 through 1840 and was less than a half of a knot slower eastbound.
Wilhelm Zahn
Zahn was drawing from his U-boat experience and was aware of British anti-submarine tactics in the Atlantic which included a minimum cruising speed limit of 15 knots for British commercial vessels, necessary to safely outrun the U-boats, and proposed this to Petersen. Petersen however was mindful of the damage the ship had sustained in an aerial bombardment the year before and did not believe that subsequent repairs to the hull were completely effective and had doubts that the ship's hull had the structural integrity to withstand the stresses imposed by the speed proposed by Zahn. He therefore insisted that the ship's speed not exceed 12 knots.
SS Great Eastern
On 25 March 1852, Brunel made a sketch of a steamship in his diary and wrote beneath it: "Say 600 ft x 65 ft x 30 ft" (180 m x 20 m x 9.1 m). These measurements were six times larger by volume than any ship afloat; such a large vessel would benefit from economies of scale and would be both fast and economical, requiring fewer crew than the equivalent tonnage made up of smaller ships. Brunel realised that the ship would need more than one propulsion system; since twin screws were still very much experimental, he settled on a combination of a single screw and paddle wheels, with auxiliary sail power. Using paddle wheels meant that the ship would be able to reach Calcutta, where the Hooghly River was too shallow for screws.
Ernst August (ship)
She had a 580 tonne displacement and was 49.21 m long along the waterline and 55.47 m long in total. At her widest point she was 9.72 m and across her wheel arches she was 17.1 m wide. Her maximum draught was 3.96 m and her propulsion were two paddle wheels driven by two horizontal single-cylinder reciprocating steam engines manufactured by Miller Ravenhill, a London firm. The engine produced about 950 PSi and gave her a speed of 9 knots. Each wheel had twelve blades and a diameter of 5.79 m. The engines supplied three boilers generating around 1 atm steam pressure, housed with the engines themselves in a 16.15 m long engine room. She carried 200 tonnes of coal to power the engines, but was also rigged as a two-masted schooner. Her armament was six 68-pounder guns and her crew was five officers and 145 NCOs and men. "Großherzog von Oldenburg" and "Frankfurt" were built to the same design.
Race to the North
Following the successful launching of the German Flying Hamburger high-speed diesel railcar set in 1933 and the Bugatti cars in France, the LNER began to examine the possibilities of introducing similar trains for key services. On examining German specifications, management concluded that better speed and accommodation should be possible using steam locomotive powered trains. To test the feasibility of this a high-speed trial was run in 1934 between London and Leeds using locomotive no. 4472 "Flying Scotsman", then in modified A1 condition. During this run the first fully authenticated speed of 100 mph (160.9 km/h) was reached. On a similar test run from London to Newcastle and back, A3 No 2750 "Papyrus" reached 108 mph (174 km/h), a world record for a non-streamlined steam locomotive. When the streamlined London-Newcastle and Silver Jubilee service was inaugurated, the specially-built A4 improved Pacifics pulverised all records, starting with a maximum of 112 mph (180 km/h) on the inaugural run. The high-speed service was extended to Edinburgh in 1937 with the introduction of the Coronation train.
SS Bremen (1928)
Also known as TS "Bremen" – for Turbine Ship – "Bremen" and her sister were designed to have a cruising speed of , allowing a crossing time of five days. This speed enabled Norddeutscher Lloyd to run regular weekly crossings with two ships, a feat that normally required three. It was claimed that "Bremen" briefly reached speeds of during her sea trials.
HMS Exmouth (1901)
"Exmouth" was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . The "Duncan"-class battleships displaced normally and up to fully loaded. Her crew numbered 720 officers and ratings. The "Duncan"-class ships were powered by a pair of 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines that drove two screws, with steam provided by twenty-four Belleville boilers. The boilers were trunked into two funnels located amidships. The "Duncan"-class ships had a top speed of from . This made "Exmouth" and her sisters the fastest battleships in the world for several years. At a cruising speed of , the ship could steam for .
SS Great Western
"Great Western" was an iron-strapped, wooden, side-wheel paddle steamer, with four masts to hoist the auxiliary sails. The sails were not just to provide auxiliary propulsion, but also were used in rough seas to keep the ship on an even keel and ensure that both paddle wheels remained in the water, driving the ship in a straight line. The hull was built of oak by traditional methods. She was the largest steamship for one year, until the British and American's "British Queen" went into service. Built at the shipyard of Patterson & Mercer in Bristol, "Great Western" was launched on 19 July 1837 and then sailed to London, where she was fitted with two side-lever steam engines from the firm of Maudslay, Sons & Field, producing 750 indicated horsepower between them.
Essendine railway station
The world speed record for steam locomotives at 125.88 mph was achieved on 3 July 1938 by LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard. Taking place on the slight downwards grade of Stoke Bank south of Grantham on the East Coast Main Line, the highest speed was recorded at milepost 90¼, between Little Bytham and Essendine. It broke the German (DRG Class 05) 002's 1936 record of 124 mph (200.4 km/h).
Maritime history of the United Kingdom
The SS "Great Eastern" was launched in 1858 and was six times bigger than any ship before. She was the third ship designed by Brunel. The "Great Eastern" had six masts as well as coal fired engines driving paddle wheels. It was designed to carry enough coal to travel to Australia and return, and was intended to carry 4,000 passengers (or 10,000 soldiers). Work started on the ship in 1854 but there were many problems in building and launching the ship. After fitting out at Deptford she undertook trials in September 1859 but the heater attached to the paddle engine boilers exploded. As the ship had been fitted with watertight bulkheads she survived and was repaired. Because of the opening of the Suez Canal, she was not used on the Australian route as envisaged but on the Atlantic crossings. Passengers did not like the rolling in storms and she was sold to a cable laying company after only six years. The "Great Eastern" was used to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable and many others subsequently. She was broken up in 1888.
RMS Strathmore
With a weight of 23,428 tons and a maximum speed of twenty knots, "Strathmore" was the biggest and fastest vessel ever built for P & O. Two further sister ships launched in 1937, "Strathallan" and "Stratheden", were slightly heavier, at 23,722 tons each, but also slightly shorter. She had four water-tube boilers and two auxiliary boilers with a combined heating surface of supplying steam at 425 lb/in to two conventional steam turbines with a combined rating of 4,912 NHP. Unlike "Strathnaver" and "Strathaird", which had three funnels of which only the middle one served as a smoke stack, "Strathmore" gained extra deck space by the removal of the two dummy funnels. Another difference was that the two earlier ships were driven by turbo generators.
SS Stettin (1933)
With the special hull design and an engine power with a maximum horsepower of 2200, measured at the cylinders, "Stettin" was able to break ice up to a thickness of half a meter, at a constant speed of one to two knots. Thicker ice could only be broken by boxing, a process in which the ship ran several attacks until the ice gave way.
SMS Posen
"Posen" was long, wide, and had a draft of . She displaced with a standard load, and fully laden. The ship had a crew of 40 officers and 968 enlisted men. "Posen" retained three-shafted triple expansion engines with coal-fired boilers instead of more advanced turbine engines. Her propulsion system was rated at and provided a top speed of . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . This type of machinery was chosen at the request of both Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and the Navy's construction department; the latter stated in 1905 that the "use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself." This decision was based solely on cost: at the time, Parsons held a monopoly on steam turbines and required a 1 million gold mark royalty fee for every turbine engine. German firms were not ready to begin production of turbines on a large scale until 1910.
SS Metallurg Anosov
After the completion of construction in Kherson shipyard, the ship passed sea trials for three days in September 1962. The ship was commissioned by Black Sea Shipping Company on 29 September 1962. At the time, the turbine-runner "Metallurg Anosov" was the fastest merchant vessel in the Soviet Union. The ship's dimensions: length overall 179 m, width - 22.6 m, moulded depth - 16 m, speed - .
USNS Soderman (T-AKR-317)
The "Soderman" has two General Electric LM2500 gas turbines that make 64,000BHP and drive two 24’ controllable pitch propellers that turn at 95 RPM at full power. The ship has the capability of making 12,500 KW of electrical power for shipboard use. The emergency generator has a 2,000 KW capacity. The design speed of the ship is 24 knots with a range of 13,800 miles. The ship has bow thruster units.
SMS Friedrich der Grosse (1874)
The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. "Friedrich der Grosse" was powered by one 3-cylinder single expansion steam engine, which was supplied with steam by six coal-fired transverse trunk boilers. The ship's top speed was , at . She was also equipped with a full ship rig. Her standard complement consisted of 46 officers and 454 enlisted men.
SMS Szent István
"Szent István" possessed two shafts and two AEG-Curtis steam turbines, which were housed in a separate engine-room and powered by twelve Babcock & Wilcox boilers. This differed from the four shaft arrangement present on her three sister ships. "Szent István"s propulsion system was designed to produce a total of , which was theoretically enough to attain a maximum designed speed of . It was reported during the speed trials of her sister ship "Tegetthoff" that she attained a top speed of , though "Szent István"s actual top speed is unknown as the official sea trial data and records for all ships of the "Tegetthoff" class were lost after the war. "Szent István" also carried of coal, and an additional of fuel oil that was to be sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. At full capacity, "Szent István" could steam for at a speed of .
Capture of USS President
The British squadron sighted "President" at dawn on 14 January. Decatur immediately turned downwind and tried to gain speed by lightening his ship. The winds had waned but they were still strong. In heavy seas and high winds, the largest ship will have the advantage in speed and Hayes' "Majestic" gained on "President", as they were similar in length but "Majestic" was considerably heavier. The winds became more moderate at noon. After "Majestic" had fired some ranging shots which fell short, "Pomone" overtook "Majestic" and led the pursuit, but "Tenedos" appeared unexpectedly to the south and Hayes sent "Pomone" to investigate in case the sighting was another American ship. HMS "Endymion" overtook the rest of the British squadron. "Endymion" was regarded as the fastest ship in the Royal Navy, as she recorded speeds that were faster than clipper ships.
SS Leninsky Komsomol
Turbine-runner "Leninsky Komsomol" was able to increase speed up to 18.5 knot when the best cargo steamers in the Black Sea Shipping Company had a maximum speed not more than 14 knots and the old vessels had less speed. Only foreign warships and the latest model passenger ships could achieve equal or greater speeds. A 5 knot difference in speed is enough for circulation around another vessel that is underway.
Spiteful-class destroyer
Concern about the higher speeds of foreign boats had prompted the Admiralty to order new destroyers capable of 30 knots, rather than the 27 knot requirement which had been standard. The boats were not able to make this speed in bad weather, where they were usually wet and uncomfortable with cramped crew quarters. However, they proved their toughness while serving through the Great War, despite being twenty years old. Thanks to their watertight bulkheads, their thin plating and light structure was able to take a great deal of damage and remain afloat; although their plates were easily damaged by rough handling or heavy weather.
SMS Ägir
"Ägir" was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . She displaced at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical 3-cylinder triple expansion engines. Steam for the engines was provided by eight coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. The ship's propulsion system provided a top speed of . She carried of coal, which gave her a range of approximately at . Because she had twice the number of electrical generators as her sister, "Ägir" was nicknamed ""Elektrische Anna"" (Electric Anna). The ship had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men.
SS California (1848)
A regular sailing ship typically made 4-5 knots and a Clipper ship averaged about 6-7 knots. Clipper ships under optimum sailing conditions could make 15-20 knots. A Clipper ship named "Champion of the Seas" traveled a record 465 nautical miles in 24 hours and the "Flying Cloud" set the world's sailing record for the fastest passage between New York City and San Francisco around Cape Horn - 89 days, 8 hours. She held this record for over 130 years, from 1854 to 1989.
SS Great Eastern
Although Brunel had estimated the cost of building the ship at £500,000, Scott Russell offered a very low tender of £377,200: £275,200 for the hull, £60,000 for the screw engines and boilers, and £42,000 for the paddle engines and boilers. Scott Russell even offered to reduce the tender to £258,000 if an order for a sister ship was placed at the same time. Brunel accepted Scott Russell's tender in May 1853, without questioning it; Scott Russell was a highly skilled shipbuilder and Brunel would accept an estimate from such an esteemed colleague without question.
SS Great Eastern
"Great Eastern" sailed from Milford Haven on 7 May 1862 with 138 passengers, arriving in New York on 17 May. The ship was opened to visitors and around 3,000 a day took the opportunity. The return journey to Liverpool was profitable, with 389 passengers travelling along with 3,000 tons of freight. The west-to-east trip took 9 days 12 hours, a reduction of 12 hours on her previous record.
Axel Mærsk
The ship has a large capacity of more than 9,000 TEUs. For this, the vessel needs a strong and reliable main engine. The one chosen for "Axel Maersk" is HDS Sulzer 12RTA96C with full power of . This is enough for the container ship to reach the speed of 25.4 knots (maximum speed) and cruising speed.
German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee
"Admiral Graf Spee" was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . The ship had a design displacement of and a full load displacement of , though the ship was officially stated to be within the limit of the Treaty of Versailles. "Admiral Graf Spee" was powered by four sets of MAN 9-cylinder double-acting two-stroke diesel engines. The ship's top speed was , at . At a cruising speed of , the ship had a range of . As designed, her standard complement consisted of 33 officers and 586 enlisted men, though after 1935 this was significantly increased to 30 officers and 921–1,040 sailors.
Ersatz Yorck-class battlecruiser
"Vizeadmiral" (Vice Admiral) Reinhard Scheer, the commander of the High Seas Fleet, expressed his preference for GK2, the largest and fastest of the versions (with a top speed of ), during a meeting on 29 April. Some consideration was given to the idea that the new battlecruiser design should represent a merging of the battleship and battlecruiser types—what was later termed a "fast battleship"—a concept Wilhlem II had been pushing for years. The so-called ""grosskampfschiff"" (large combat ship) would simplify construction and design work, but "Konteradmiral" Georg Hebbinghaus, the head of the General Navy Department, pointed out that under the German Naval Laws, such a change would not be permitted and that the laws would need to be rewritten to allow the new type. Hebbinghaus nevertheless allowed that the design staff had some leeway in warship development that could be used get around the legal restrictions.
In a meeting on 12 August, Hebbinghaus stated that he wanted to build ships that hewed closer to traditional battleship designs, preferring survivability to offensive power; he argued that the "Mackensen"s should be cancelled in favor of this new type, since they had been designed before the navy had any war experience on which to base them. Capelle stated that the last three "Mackensen"s—"Ersatz Yorck", "Ersatz Scharnhorst", and "Ersatz Gneisenau"—and "Ersatz Friedrich Carl" if work had not proceeded too far along, and that they should be reordered as a completely new design, GK6, which he submitted. This design called for a ship armed with eight 38 cm guns on a displacement of with a top speed of . Scheer objected to the decrease in speed, and for the time being, Hebbinghaus's and Capelle's proposals came to nothing. Another meeting on 24 August concluded that all seven ships of the "Mackensen" class would be built as designed, the General Department noting that they would "still undoubtedly represent a very valuable addition to the fleet in 1919."
HMS Spiteful (1899)
Admiralty specifications in force at the time of her construction required that she should be able to steam at 30 knots, and from this she was one of a group of torpedo boat destroyers known informally as "30-knotters". "Spiteful"s propulsion was through two propellers, each driven by one of two triple expansion steam engines that were powered by four coal-fired Reed water tube boilers operated at 250 pounds per square inch (1,724 kilopascals) and could produce indicated horsepower (IHP). In ships of her type the boilers were installed in a line fore-and-aft and in pairs, so that in each pair the furnace doors faced each other: thus one group of stokers could tend two boilers simultaneously, and only two boiler rooms, also known as stokeholds, were required. In sea trials it was found that, when run at 29.9 knots, she consumed of coal per IHP per hour, which was considered low, and a speed of 30.371 knots was "easily maintained". At 13.05 knots it was found that her capacity of about 91 tons (92.5 tonnes) of coal, consumed at a rate of per IHP per hour, gave her a steaming range of about 4,000 nautical miles.
SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
At long, with a beam of and a draft of 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in), "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand" normally displaced . With full combat load, she displaced up to . "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand", like the other ships of the "Radetzky" class, was smaller and not as well-armed as other battleships in contemporary navies. Despite these shortcomings, "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand" was one of Austria-Hungary's first true deep-water fighting ships. She was powered by two 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines rated at 19,800 indicated horsepower and had a maximum speed of . "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand" was the first warship in the Austro-Hungarian Navy to use oil and coal-fired boilers. She had a maximum range of at a cruising speed of .
SMS Zrínyi
"Zrínyi" was 138.8 m (455 ft 4 in) long, and had a beam of 24.6 m (80 ft 8 in) and a draft of 8.1 m (26 ft 9 in). She displaced normally, and up to with a full combat load. She was powered by two-shaft four-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines rated at 19,800 indicated horsepower. The ship had a top speed of . "Zrínyi" was the first warship in the Austro-Hungarian Navy to use fuel oil to supplement her 12 Yarrow-type coal-fired boilers. She had a maximum range of at a cruising speed of .
SMS Kaiser Barbarossa
"Kaiser Barbarossa" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. She displaced up to at full load. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one screw propeller. Steam was provided by four Thornycroft boilers and eight cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal. "Kaiser Barbarossa"s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . The ship had a cruising radius of at a speed of . She had a normal crew of 39 officers and 612 enlisted men.
SS Great Britain
On 26 July 1845—seven years after the Great Western Steamship Company had decided to build a second ship, and five years overdue—"Great Britain" embarked on her maiden voyage, from Liverpool to New York under Captain James Hosken, with 45 passengers. The ship made the passage in 14 days and 21 hours, at an average speed of  – almost slower than the prevailing record. She made the return trip in 13½ days, again an unexceptional time.
HMS Eastbourne (F73)
"Eastbourne" was long overall and at the waterline, with a beam of and a draught of forward and at the propellers. The ships were powered by the new Y-100 machinery in which the ship's boilers and steam turbines were designed as a closely integrated set of machinery to increase efficiency. Two Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers fed steam at and to two sets of geared steam turbines which drove two propeller shafts, fitted with large ( diameter) slow-turning propellers. The machinery was rated at , giving a speed of . Crew was about 189 when operated as a leader and 152 as an ordinary ship.
Fast battleship
Between the origins of the armoured battleship with the French and the Royal Navy's at the start of the 1860s, and the genesis of the Royal Navy's "Queen Elizabeth" class in 1911, a number of battleship classes appeared which set new standards of speed. The "Warrior" herself, at over under steam, was the fastest warship of her day as well as the most powerful. Due to the increasing weight of guns and armour, this speed was not exceeded until achieved under steam. The Italian of 1880 was a radical design, with a speed of , heavy guns and no belt armour; this speed was not matched until the 1890s, when higher speeds came to be associated with second-class designs such as the of 1895 (18 knots) and the and of 1903 (20 knots). In these late pre-dreadnought designs, the high speed may have been intended to compensate for their lesser staying power, allowing them to evade a more powerful opponent when necessary.
From about 1900, interest in the possibility of a major increase in the speed of Royal Navy battleships was provoked by Sir John ("Jackie") Fisher, at that time Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Possibly due to Fisher's pressure, The Senior Officer's War Course of January 1902 was asked to investigate whether a ship with lighter armour and quick-firing medium guns (6-inch to 10-inch (152 mm – 254 mm) calibre), with a advantage in speed, would obtain any tactical advantage over a conventional battleship. It was concluded that "gun power was more important than speed, provided both sides were determined to fight"; although the faster fleet would be able to choose the range at which it fought, it would be outmatched at any range. It was argued that, provided that the fighting was at long range, an attempt by the faster fleet to obtain a concentration of fire by "crossing the T" could be frustrated by a turn-away, leading to the slower fleet "turning inside the circle of the faster fleet at a radius proportional to the difference in speed" (Figure 1). War games conducted by the General Board of the US Navy in 1903 and 1904 came to very similar conclusions.
SS Great Eastern
Although designed to carry emigrants on the far Eastern run, the only passenger voyages "Great Eastern" made were in the Atlantic. Angus Buchanan, an historian of technology comments: "She was designed for the Far Eastern trade, but there was never sufficient traffic to put her into this. Instead, she was used in the transatlantic business, where she could not compete in speed and performance with similar vessels already in service."
SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse
"Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" set out on her maiden voyage on 19 September 1897, travelling from Bremerhaven to Southampton and thence to New York. With a capacity of 800 third-class passengers, the NDL had ensured that they would profit greatly from the immigrants wishing to leave the continent for a better standard of living in the United States. From her maiden voyage, she was the only superliner to cross the Atlantic with such speed and such media attention. In March 1898, she successfully gained the Blue Riband with an average crossing speed of , thus establishing the new German competitiveness. The Blue Riband, an award given for the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic, east and westbound, had previously been held by the Cunard liner . This turn of events was closely watched by the maritime world of the era, who were eager to see how the British would retaliate. However, the NDL soon lost the riband in 1900 to the new German superliner, of the Hamburg America Line. This change in events was acceptable to Germans, who were able to relax in the knowledge that they were still the owners of the fastest liner; however, NDL promptly ordered that "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" undergo a refit to ensure that they were the dominant German company. This refit included the installation of wireless communication, then new technology which allowed "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" to transmit telegraphic messages to a port, emphasising her image of security.
The NDL took the battle even further. 1901 saw the addition to their fleet of another four-funnel liner, named in honour of Crown Prince William, heir to the German throne, and they subsequently commissioned another two superliners, and of 1903 and 1907 respectively. From 1903 to 1907 the Blue Riband was held by SS "Kaiser Wilhelm II". The company stated that the four liners were of the renowned Kaiser class and decided to market them as the "Four Flyers", a reference to their speed and associations with the Blue Riband.
SMS Erzherzog Albrecht
Her propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion, horizontal, 2-cylinder steam engine that drove a single screw propeller that was in diameter. The engine was manufactured by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, the same shipyard that built the ship. Steam was provided by seven boilers with twenty-six fireboxes, which were trunked into a single funnel located amidships. Her engine produced a top speed of from , though on speed trials conducted on 28 October 1874, she reached a speed of . The ship had a storage capacity of of coal.
SMS Eber
"Eber" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. "Eber" could steam at a top speed of at . The ship had a cruising radius of about at a speed of . She had a crew of between 9 officers and 121 enlisted men. "Eber" was armed with a main battery of two SK L/40 guns, with 482 rounds of ammunition. She also carried six machine guns.