3-011-664 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The new screw steam-ship Cuba, of the Cunard Liverpool and New York Line, 1864. Engraving from a drawing by Mr. Hugh Aird. 'The Belfast mails are carried gratuitously; but for the American mails the company are paid the annual sum of £176,340 by the Post Office authorities. They have now carried these mails for nearly thirty years, and during the whole of this time have never lost a single passenger...The Cuba has just been completed...by Messrs. Todd and MacGregor, of Glasgow, at a cost of £110,000...The propelling force is that of the oscillating geared engines, by her builders, of 650-horse power, nominal, fitted with surface- condensers and all recent improvements. The steam is supplied by four boilers heated by twenty-four furnaces. The waste steam is blown off under water, thus doing away with the disagreeable noise resulting from the old system. She has nine watertight compartments...A deckhouse, 20 ft. wide, extends from stem to stem, in which 300 passengers can dine at a time. The Cuba has also mail-sorters', butchers', bakers', confectioners and pastrycooks' rooms...She has accommodation for 300 first- class passengers, and, if employed as a troop-ship, could transport 1500 men'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.