3-071-288 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Union Steam-Ship Company's Royal Mail-Steamer Tartar, 1883. Inset shows dining saloon; engraving from photographs by Messrs. Bedford Lemere and Co. 'For the increasing passenger, mail, and goods traffic between England and South Africa, the directors of the Union Steam-Ship Company possess a handsome new vessel...All the latest improvements in ship-building science are represented in her construction. Below she has a double bottom, built on the cellular system, besides being divided into thirty watertight compartments, and having her main sheer strake doubled. Her constructors have kept in view the requirements of the Admiralty, and the vessel could be taken up by the Government in time of war just as she is. Her passenger accommodation and fittings are as complete as the highest skill and greatest care can make them...There are seats for a hundred persons in the music-room. The sleeping-cabins are very large, and are fitted with wire-wove mattresses. The ship has accommodation for 160 first-class, 160 second-class, and 100 third-class passengers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.