This country and all Europe are at this writing shrouded in sorrow over the sinking of the Titanic, which took to a watery grave hundreds of her passengers last Sunday night. The boat was bound for New York on her maiden voyage and had as passengers many people prominent both in this and foreign countries. The most notable passengers for whom much anxiety is felt in Vermont and New England are Charles M. Hays, Mrs. Hays and their daughter. Mr. Hays is the president of the Grand Trunk Railway and a man deeply interested in the development of the Central Vermont Railway.

Imperator, Largest of Ocean Craft, Soon to Be Launched.

Ship Will Be 900 Feet Long Monster of the Seas, With 50,000 Ton Capacity, to Have Many Luxurious Features.

Berlin.—Records for size in the ocean steamship world are not held long nowadays. We find a new “Goliath of the Ocean” of German construction. The new ship now building for the Hamburg-American line is to be called Imperator, and will be launched on the Elbe, Mr. Kerns tells us, in a few months—”such a vessel,” he says, “as hitherto man’s eye has not beheld,” ‘ The Imperator will have a gross tonnage of 50,000, outdoing the Olympic and Titantic (45,324 and 45,000). The length of the Imperator over all will be about 900 feet. Says Mr. Kern, according to Land und Meer:

“It would be impossible for a man at the bow of the Imperator to recognize with the naked eye another standing in the stern. If we think of the Imperator set up on end beside the cathedral of Cologne, the heavens reaching lower would come only to the second funnel of the steamship. To get a still better idea of the size of the vessel, it may be compared with one of the largest warehouses in the world the new store of Tietz on the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, which, although forty houses were demolished to make room for it, could be placed entirely inside of the Imperator. The steamship, when complete and fully laden, will displace 50,000 tons. The following figures show how much larger she is than the vessels which once held the world’s record for size: