hey would
break their backs! They might, indeed, get out of the Mersey, but they
would never get back! The ships, however, sailed; and they made rapid
and prosperous voyages to and from the Mediterranean. They fulfilled
all the promises which had been made. They proved the advantages of
our new build of ships; and the owners were perfectly satisfied with
their superior strength, speed, and accommodation. The Bibbys were
wise men in their day and generation. They did not stop, but went on
ordering more ships. After the Grecian and the Italian had made two or
three voyages to Alexandria, they sent us an order for three more
vessels. By our advice, they were made twenty feet longer than the
previous ones, though of no greater beam; in other respects, they were
almost identical. This was too much for "Jack." "What!" he exclaimed,
"more Bibby's coffins?" Yes, more and more; and in the course of time,
most shipowners followed our example.

To a young firm, a repetition of orders like these was a great
advantage,--not only because of the novel design of the ships, but also
because of their constructive details. We did our best to fit up the
Egyptian, Dalmatian, and Arabian, as first-rate vessels. Those engaged
in the Mediterranean trade finding them to be serious rivals, partly
because of the great cargos which they carried, but principally from
the regularity with which they made their voyages with such
surprisingly small consumption of coal. They were not, however, what
"Jack" had been accustomed to consider "dry ships." The ship built
Dutchman fashion, with her bluff ends, is the driest of all ships, but
the least steady, because she rises to every sea. But the new ships,
because of their length and sharpness, precluded this; for, though they
rose sufficiently to an approaching wave for all purposes of safety,
they often went through the crest of it, and, though shipping a little
water, it was not only easier for the vessel, but the shortest road.

Nature seems to have furnished us with the finest design for a vessel
in the form of the fish: it presents such fine lines--is so clean, so
true, and so rapid in its movements. The ship, however, must float;
and to hit upon the happy medium of velocity and stability seems to me
the art and mystery of shipbuilding. In order to give large carrying
capacity, we gave flatness of bottom and squareness of bilge. This
became known in Liverpool as the "Belfast bottom;"