The problems posed by the ever increasing size of tankers are not those of ‘bigness’ alone, or even at all. Southampton has been accustomed to the world's largest ships since the turn of the century; such as instanced by the Aquitania of 43,000 tons gross of pre-1914, the Majestic, 53,000, Normandie, 73,000 and Queen Mary of 83,000 between the wars, and since, the Queen Elizabeth, 85,000 and more recently France, the longest ship in the world, at 1043 ft. All these ships, however, are quadruple screwed, and for that matter there is not a cargo or passenger ship of more than 14,000 tons gross coming to the port which is not at least twin-screw. It had always been supposed that there was a limit to the size of ship which could be safely manœuvred with a single screw in confined spaces. The advent of the single-screw mammoth tanker, turbine engined, has put a new angle on this problem, but pilots generally are not at all sure that this is in the best interests of safety.