In late September 1869 some thoughts about the required ships had been published. It started with a description of recent developments in the construction of steamships and steam propulsion. Ships had become longer, carried more cargo, had smaller engines, lower coal consumption and combined all this with sufficient speed. As a consequence the sailing ship with auxiliary power was losing ground, and especially the British shipping lines were opting for full steam power on their oceanic lines in the western hemisphere. It concluded that for the shipping line to Java the most suitable ship was a screw steamship of 2,500 tons capacity with 400 or 450 hp. These would be able to make the journey in 36-40 days including days lost in bunkering coal in Egypt. A big part of the cargo space would be lost in loading coal for half the trip. Much space would be taken by passengers and soldiers, but even so a significant amount of space would be left for cargo. The freight tariff was expected to be so high that coffee, tobacco, sugar would still be transported by sailing ships. The SMN expected that the advantage of quicker transport was so big that coffee would be transported by steamship.