Four-funnel liner

Common card · No. 379049

A four-funnel liner, also known as a four-stacker, is an ocean liner with four funnels. At the turn of the 20th century, as national shipping companies competed for passengers on the lucrative transatlantic route between Europe and America, a series of increasingly large, luxurious and fast ocean liners were built requiring four funnels to service their expansive boiler rooms. As they were introduced onto the North Atlantic many of the four-stackers would claim prestigious accolades such as the largest, longest or fastest ship in the world. An ocean liner with four funnels rapidly became symbol of power, prestige and safety to the travelling public and shipping companies leveraged this trend extensively to market their best ships, for example the White Star Line with the Olympic class of ships. The narrative that four-stackers were emblematic of safety was shattered with the loss of RMS Titanic, sunk on her maiden voyage in 1912. While the naval architecture of four-funnel liners started...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Public domain