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The Steam Turbine 211 The invention was also embraced for private steam yachts, the first in this category to be so engined being the Lorena, built for an American owner ; upon her trials she exceeded the contract speed by 2 knots. One of the advantages of the steam turbine as compared with its established rival is the saving in space and weight. This was brought home very strikingly in connection with this yacht because it enabled the saloon accommodation to be increased very appreciably over what the originally contem- plated reciprocating engines would have given, while there was also a saving of 70 tons in the weight of the machinery. It is impossible to follow the triumphant progress of the Parsons steam turbine upon the seven seas in the space of a single chapter. But from cross- Channel services to the spanning of the Atlantic was an obvious step. While the first vessel to cross the Atlantic under turbine propulsion was the private steam yacht Emerald, the first vessel for public ser- vice of this character was the Allan liner Virginian. Other lines followed suit in rapid succession, high- water mark being reached with the Lusitania and Mauretania, wherein huge turbines, developing 68,000 and 70,000 horse-power respectively, were installed. This power exerted through four propeller-shafts and propellers, enabled the greyhounds, 785 feet in length and displacing 38,000 tons, to clip through the water at a maximum speed of 25J knots. While the turbine was passing from triumph to triumph on the water, its progress in connection with land operations was fully maintained, and although less impressive from the public point of view, its