Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/38

30 between the dates of laying the keel and launching the battleship 'Canopas', a vessel of 12,590 tons displacement, and even then the work was delayed by a strike. The cruiser 'Diadem', a sheathed vessel of 11,000 tons displacement and 16,500 horse-power, was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited, of Govan, Scotland, in 214 working days, and moreover, the vessel was fitted, before launching, with all her armor casements.

The battleship 'Majestic' of the British navy was launched complete and ready to go into commission, and this vessel went into the water just twenty-two months from the date of the laying of the keel. An even two years was required for the completion of the 'Magnificent,'

another battleship of the same class. A record almost equal to that of the 'Bulwark' was that of the battleship 'Prince George', the displacement of which is 14,900 tons. This vessel was built and launched in eleven months. For purposes of comparison, the fact may be cited that Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead, built the torpedo-boat destroyer 'Sparrow Hawk', a vessel which attained a speed in the neighborhood of thirty knots on trial, in the space of one hundred days.

Taking into consideration, however, all influencing conditions, the records made since the beginning of 1899 indicate a distinct advance on the part of the builders. The Thames Iron Works, Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, of Blackwall, made an excellent showing with