This book is not a history of steam navigation. It has been written rather to show how water transportation has developed: the present position in the eternal struggle between science and disaster: the wonderful and rapid growth of the big, express Liner during the space of one hundred years.<br><br>I have not confined myself to the steamship itself purely and simply, as the welfare and safety of the ocean-travelling public are affected very materially by several other influences. Although the North Atlantic figures largely in the volume, this is due to the fact that it is the busiest of the seven seas: it is where new developments and revolutionary inventions invariably receive their ocean-going commercial baptism: where luxury and elegance have been carried to a supreme degree: where the ingenuity and skill of the engineer are revealed most strikingly: and finally, because it is the arena in which the struggle for supremacy between the various maritime nations is contested most keenly and enterprisingly.<br><br>In the preparation of this book I have received the heartiest assistance of various interests, both in connection with the letterpress and the illustrations. In the majority of cases this co-operation is acknowledged in the text and beneath the photographic reproductions. In addition I am indebted to the Hydrographers of the British and United States Admiralty Departments, the editor of the Scientific American, and also the commander of the United States derelict destroyer Seneca.