Southampton, May 27.
When Great luxury press maiden trans-\tlai ie voyage [Southampton to-day she carried among her distinguished passengers Mr. Douglas Fairbanks and Miss Mary Pickford.
The Empress of Brits Queen of the Canadian ficer, is expected, on her maiden lvoyae, to shatter all speed records Southampton and Quebec.
done and if the Empress lof Britain arrives at Quebec in well funder five days, as is anticipated, Jo strong bid is' likely to be mad: to secure for her a major share of the passenger and mail traffic between England and the western and midwestern states of the United States as well as most of the [Canadian trans/Atlantic traffic.
Built to do 24 knots per hour, or. row knots "more than the best previous average speed on the JSouthampton-Quebec route, the ress Of Britain on her' recent rials reached and mai knots, with apparently st speed' capacities in reserve. If how-ver she can keep up an average '25 knots between the two Ports she will arrive in Quebec in Jover four days nine hours, or more than four. hours better Europa's record crossing of four days, 14 hours 20 minutes between [Southampton and New York.
Mails carried Britain, and routes over the Central West, it is claimed, would be delivered many hours ahead of mails sent via the Bremen or Europa leaving South-Jampton at the same time as the Inow liner and delivered New York instead of Quebec, In her recent trials, beside establishing mew speed records for vessels designed for the England to Canada services, the Empress of Britain, it is claimed also estab: lished 'a mew world record for Jeconomy. as her fuel oil consump. tion during her 12-hour trial run worked out at only 0.57 Ib. per hour per shaft-horse-power developed, Passenger quarters. on the new Hiner are the last word in modern ness, comfort and efficiency, and eve the tourist third-cabin "quar. ters are s0 comfortable compared ith "old-time standards that a leroup of British reporters after a recent inspection of the ship Jemerged from the tourist section thinking they had just been shown the first-cabin section.
Besides a swimming pool, always kept full of water by. a monster glass image of a turtle, the ship has a squash "racquets court, Turkish baths, a gymnasium and Jo full sized deck tennis court, with special lights for evening use.
More than 100 clocks in the ship yun electrically from the lehronometers which are fitted with device for advancing or retarding them all together as longitude falters in an ocean voyage. The upper bridge is equipped with the atest form. of directional, wireless indicators accurate to a degree or less. The vessel's after-funnel is, so. to speak, a camouflage funnel for it is not used for smoke, but contains ventilation equipment, and fa, powerful wireless set capable of Isiving telephone communication lover @ range of 5,000 miles. This Jequipment will also broadcast radio programme picked up from either America or Europe to all parts of the ship, or can be used to carry Imusic originating in the first cab! Quarters to passengers or crew
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.