Four Funnel Liner - Purpose

Purpose

The primary purpose of funnels on steamships were to allow smoke, heat and excess steam to escape from the boiler rooms. As liners became larger, more boilers were used. The number of funnels became symbolic of speed and safety, so shipping companies sometimes added false funnels (like the one sported by the Olympic-class) to give an impression of power.

The trend of competing shipping lines building four funnel liners encompassed a very short time span ranging from the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse in 1897 to the SS Windsor Castle in 1922. As for the number of funnels in some cases the reason for sporting four was a matter of necessity in other cases it was more symbolic. The Cunard Line record holders Lusitania and Mauretania were both laid out with four boiler rooms with one funnel to each room, other slower ships such as the Olympic, Titanic and Britannic only had three operational funnels. However sporting four funnels represented power, safety and prestige, in keeping with the style and fashion of the early 20th century the White Star Line opted to fit the three Olympic-class ships with 'dummy' fourth funnels in order to rival the two Cunard ships. The ideology of four funnels representing size and power rapidly diminished soon after the First World War, later larger flagships including the SS Imperator, SS Normandie and the RMS Queen Mary all sported three funnels to conserve deck space, later still as shipbuilding became more efficient the RMS Queen Elizabeth, RMS Mauretania and the SS America reduced this further down to two funnels, today's modern cruise ships are all built with only a single funnel and many military vessels no longer sport them at all.