Among them was the great _Vaterland_, the largest vessel in the world,
and the outward and visible expression of that peaceful maritime rivalry
between Great Britain and the German Empire, which in the transatlantic
lanes as in the waters of all the seven seas had interested followers of
shipping for so many years. There was, so far as passenger traffic was
concerned, the rivalry for the blue ribbon of the sea--the swiftest
ocean carrier, a fight that was waged between Great Britain and Germany
from the placid eighties to the nineties, when the Germans brought out
the _Deutschland_, and later the _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, the
_Kaiser Wilhelm II_--all champions--whose laurels were to be snatched
away by the _Mauretania_ and the _Lusitania_--the two speed queens--when
war ended competition of the sort.
But the contest in speed had, to an extent, been superseded by the
rivalry of size, a struggle begun by the White Star Line when the great
_Oceanic_ slipped past quarantine in the early 1900's, and carried on by
that line, by the Atlantic Transport Line, and by the German companies
with unceasing vigor. Great carrying capacity and fair speed were the
desiderata, and the studious Germans were quick to see that it was a far
more profitable battle to wage, since speed meant merely advertising,
with a more or less slight preponderance in the flow of passenger
patronage to the line which owned the latest crack greyhound, whereas
size meant ability to carry greater cargoes, and thus enhanced earning
capacity.
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