--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Cannon, Joseph J. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 6 published: 1903-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph J. Cannon, "A Visit to the “Cedric”," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 6 (April 1903): 429–434.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0606unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0606unse start_page: 429 end_page: 434 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0606unse publication_year: 1903 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Visit to the “Cedric” A VISIT TO THE "CEDRIC." THE LARGEST OCEAN LINER IN THE WORLD. BY ELDER JOS. J. CANNON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE "MILLEN- NIAL STAR," AND FORMER MISSIONARY TO SWEDEN. One winter night in Stockholm, the writer was walking with one of the Saints in a blinding snowstorm. The northern wind blew fiercely, carrying the icy flakes stinging against our faces. "I pity the poor sailors that are out at sea tonight," the brother said. The remark was somewhat surprising to the writer, as at that same moment his own thoughts were with those who lacked shelter in such a tempest, only the objects of his sympathy were the men on the plains and in the mountains, the cattlemen, shep- herds, miners and such other land men as have often to brave dan- gers and endure hardships while the elements rage. Our thoughts illustrated very well the dijfferent environments we had had. The brother was born and raised in a seaport town; the writer's home was far inland among the mountains. It is with the thought that seafaring matters are somewhat new to many other readers of the Era that a description of a re- cent visit, made in company with Elder Joseph Eckersley, to an ■ ocean liner in the Canada dock on the Mersey river, is herewith offered. Taking the elevated train at the bottom of Water Street, Liverpool, one passes rapidly northward along the bank of the Mersey. From the new electric cars, driven by a third rail cur- rent, can be seen acres of modern costly docks, probably the great- est ones in the world. The floating landing stage, so familiar to Saints and elders who have passed through Liverpool in recent years, is a far different structure from the one to which the agile Heber C. Kimball eagerly leaped, when he with his devoted compan- ions came to preach the gospel in England, sixty-five years ago. 430 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the first missionaries to visit a foreign land in this dispensation. Beyond the landing stage, huge warehouses are now built up, and the rectangular enclosures between them fairly bristle with masts. On reaching the Canada dock, we had little difficulty in finding the object of our visit. Among the large craft anchored there, the latest addition to the White Star fleet, the Cedric, was easily distinguishable. The new ship had just come over the Irish sea from Belfast, where she was built, and was now being loaded for her first trans-Atlantic voyage. We came upon the vessel from the rear, and the great black stern, surmounted by white boats hanging from davits, loomed up before us like a mountain. In the warehouse from which she was being loaded, we walked along her whole length and tried to measure the dimensions with our eyes. Alongside lay canal barges, from which baskets of coal were being passed up from man to man on a kind of stepladder-scaffold and were emptied into portholes. Ten men worked on each set of bas- kets, but the highest was not a third the distance up the Cedric's hull. We looked up to the top of the nine decks, and concluded that the monster vessel was entitled to be called, as she really is, the largest ship in the world. It being visiting day, we walked up the long gangway to the upper deck, and there, with the other visitors, were given the free- dom of the vessel. Descending to the deck below, we inspected the steerage apartments, which extend practically from stem to stern. These are the best, probably, that can be found in any ship. Most of the space is divided into cabins for two, four or six per- sons, though there are several large apartments arranged in the old style for men or women, where scores of beds are placed in the same room. All the steerage berths have stiff wire mattresses, the cabins are all lighted by incandescent lamps, and good ventila- tion is secured by large pipes through which the air is forced, as in a mine, by electric and steam fans. The steerage passengers have also large dining rooms, a wonderful improvement on eating in their sleeping rooms. The deck below will also be used for the steerage while passenger traffic is heavy, and considerable more than two thousand third-class passengers can then be accomodated, Down in the ship, the admirable construction is apparent. Each section is divided from the others by water-tight partitions, and in A VISIT TO THE "CEDRIC" 431 case of a leak in one part of the vessel, that division can be aban- doned and closed off from the rest. Only a limited number of second-class passengers are carried, one hundred and sixty in all. Their pleasant rooms are on the upper deck. The dining room is not so fine as in the New Eng- land and Commonwealth, the Dominion company's liners, which are now carrying most of the Latter-day Saints that cross the Atlan- tic. The Cedric has, however, a good library of elegantly bound books for second-class passengers, something they will greatly appreciate. On the upper deck is the entrance to the first-class saloon, certainly a handsome apartment, extending from one side of the ship to the other. Nearly all the three hundred and sixty-five first-class passengers can sit down at once and then not be crowded, for there is exceptional room between tables. The high dome of stained glass, through which the sunlight streams by day and strong electric light by night, adds to the beauty of the room. The traveler on the Cedric, if his means permit, can secure a cabin with only a single berth, or he can engage a suite of sleeping, sitting and bath rooms, wherein he may enjoy, if he is not seasick, all the pleasures of life in a modern hotel. Some of the roomy cabins with their extensible berths and square windows seemed scarcely part of a ship at all. The smoking room is a gilded par- lor, where luxurious stalls, with little tables in the center for card playing and other games, are provided for those who wish to group together. The stores required to furnish this host of people are enor- mous, and though we did not see much of them, we inspected the kitchens where all the food is prepared. There are long stoves into the top of which huge caldrons of different sizes fit, ovens where dozens of pans may be set at one time, and tanks that would hold soup for an army. The meat broilers were very interesting. A charcoal fire is made, and before it in steel loops the meat is hung. A lamb would about fit in one loop. By turning an elec- tric switch, outside the oven, the loops are made to revolve so that all sides of the meat are equally exposed to the fire. A thermom- etric arrangement shows, on a dial in front of each oven, the tem- perature on the inside. This registers up to 800 degrees, but on 432 IMPROVEMENT ERA. which scale we could not learn. Not very far from the kitchens are the ice plant and meat room. To the latter place we were ad- mitted. The entrance is like the door of a bank vault. Inside, a herd of cattle can be hung, and there is little danger of their spoiling, for the room can be cooled below freezing point. Over- head is a network of pipes, and it was a little surprising to see them coated with frost. We learned that cold brine is passed through them, and as salt water may be reduced considerably below freezing point without being congealed, the temperature of the room can be made as low as desirable. The same plant that makes ice supplies the pipes with brine. Before leaving the interior, we took a look at the engine rooms. These contain the powerful machinery that gives move- ment to the mammoth ship. There are two sets of quadruple ex- pansion engines, which drive the twin propellers. Eight steel boilers, furnished with double ends, and capable of working at a pressure of 210 pounds to the square inch, supply the steam. The Cedric, following the fashion of most English passenger ships, is not intended for very fast sailing, but can attain a speed of seven- teen knots, or nautical miles, an hour. As the distance from Liverpool to New York, as the steamers travel at this time of the year, is three thousand one hundred and seventy-two and one-fourth nautical miles, the new ship will regularly make the voyage in seven days, eighteen and a half hours, practically eight days. The time is usually measured from Queenstown, or more correctly Cork harbor, on the southern coast of Ireland, and this makes the voy- age several hours shorter. The northern route, which is taken when there is no danger of icebergs, between August 15 and Jan- uary 14, is ■ three thousand forty-four and one-fourth miles. We were not permitted to descend the iron ladders to the depths of the boiler rooms. They stretch from deck to deck far down to the keel, and remind one of the ladders leading to the different levels of a mine. Mounting up to the higher decks, one gains a better idea of the leviathan's proportions. Looking over the side, we decided that waves would have to run extremely high ever to wash the Cedric's deck. A fall from one of the upper promenades, from the sun- deck for example, might be fatal before the unfortunate had time A VISIT TO THE "CEDRIC" 433 to drown. We went up on the bridge, a forbidden''precinct under ordinary conditions, and walked along the narrow elevated path- way from one side of the ship to the other, where the captain and his officers keep watch. Behind this is the little cabin in which the quartermaster stands and holds the helm. Further back on the highest deck is built another station which the officers may use in case of necessity. Like the bridge, it is fitted up with bells and other signal-apparatus, and is the highest point on the vessel from which the steering and speed of the ship can be controlled. It is about on a level with the crow's- nest on the foremast where a lookout is stationed in case of fog. From this point, a general survey of the vessel can be taken. Be- hind rise the two giant funnels that carry off the smoke from the two sets of engines. The body of these is painted a dull yellow, and the top black, as is the case with all the White Star vessels. Both fore and aft are tall masts with their rigging. Upon these, sails will seldum if ever be raised, except possibly as a help to hold the ship steady. From here the length and breadth of the Cedric can be seen and appreciated. She is seven hundred feet long, and seventy-five feet wide, and forty-nine and one-third feet deep. If she were set down on her keel in a street of Salt Lake City, with the stern even with one side of a block, the bow would extend past the other, and nearly one-third of the way across the street. In width she would more than fill up one side-walk and half the street. Standing on the promenades where saloon passengers will spend much of their time, one could look over the highest business block in the city. The bridge is as high as the top of a nine story build- ing, and the funnels would extend thirty-six feet above the square of the Temple. If we accept one and eight hundred and twenty- four-thousandths feet as the length of the cubit, the Cedric sur- passes the length of Noah's ark by one hundred and fifty-two and eight-tenths feet, but in width she falls short sixteen and two- tenths feet, and her hull is five and four-tenths feet less than the height of the first great ship of history. Though the Cedric is the largest ship afloat, she is not the longest. The Oceanic, which by the ending "ic" is recognized as one of the White Star fleet, is seven hundred and five and one-half feet long, exceeding her young sister ship by about the length of 434 IMPROVEMENT ERA. a man. The Celtic, which began her career in 1901, has exactly the same external measurements as the Cedric, but differences of internal arrangement give the latter the advantage in gross ton- nage of ninety-six tons. The actual launching weight of the new vessel is fourteen thousand two hundred and fifty-seven tons; her dead weight carrying capacity is eighteen thousand four hundred tons, though the gross tonnage reaches the high figure of twenty- one thousand tons; her displacement is thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and seventy tons. The cost of building the Cedric was about two million five hundred thousand dollars. The exact figures of the cost or of the amount of coal consumed were not obtainable from the owners. A visit to this monster of the deep impresses one with the wonderful advancement in applied science that has taken place during the last few years. This great automaton, that has power within itself to plow with little disturbance the heaviest sea, against wind and tide, carrying within itself nearly or quite three thousand passengers, and three hundred and fifty crew, furnishing itself with electric lights, heat and ice, as it goes, having room to carry supplies that would last the three thousand three hundred and fifty souls on board longer than the year and ten days that Noah and his family were in the ark, is an excellent monument to man's intelligence and skill. The contrast between the Cedric and the ships that carried many of the early Saints across the Altantic, corresponds with the difference between the express train of today and the ox teams that drew their wagons over the plains. The astonishing progress in such matters has a deeper meaning than we sometimes imagine. Great movements and changes in the world will take place before the Lord has finished his work. Rapid transportation, and the means of quickly conveying intelligence from one part of the earth to the other, are essential for the ful- fillment of his purposes.