The inference drawn from these and similar observations, more or

less founded on correct data, was that, to obtain high velocities

in sea-going vessels, it was merely necessary to make them large;

it being argued that a mass of two or three thousand tons, once set

in motion at a given speed, would overcome the resistance both of

atmosphere and water with greater ease than a mass of half its weight.

Mr. I. K. Brunel carried these opinions to an extreme length, and

argued that there need be no limit to the size of a vessel, except what

tenacity of material must impose. He further argued, from scientific

theory and actual experience, that as the “tubular principle” provided

the greatest amount of strength of construction with any given

material, it, therefore, was possible to construct a ship of six times

the capacity of the largest vessel then afloat, and one, too, that

would steam at a speed hitherto unattainable by smaller vessels. Mr.

Brunel, having originated this conception, communicated it, at the

outset, to Mr. Scott Russell, and suggested the construction of a

steam-ship large enough to carry all the fuel she might require for

the longest voyage; and Mr. Scott Russell shared with Mr. Brunel in

the merit of contriving the best method of carrying out these views.

The idea of using two sets of engines and two propellers (screw and

paddle) is solely due to Mr. Brunel, as was, also, the adoption of a

cellular construction, like that at the top and bottom of the Britannia

Bridge, in building the _Great Eastern_, the name this huge ship was

now to bear.[415] These main characteristics distinguished the _Great

Eastern_ from all other vessels then afloat. Her model and general

structure were in other respects identical with those of the ships

built by Mr. Scott Russell, on the principle of the “wave line,” which

he had systematically carried out during the previous twenty years.[416]

[Sidenote: Plan of construction.]

Having obtained the requisite capital, the directors now concluded

provisional arrangements for the construction of the screw-engines with

Messrs. James Watt and Co., of the Soho Works, near Birmingham, and

for the paddle-engines and hull with Messrs. Scott Russell and Co., of

London. But, considering the novelty and magnitude of the undertaking,

it may be interesting and instructive to review, still further, the

grounds on which the projectors anticipated its success.

The ship, the directors said, “would be built in the Thames, to be

completed in eighteen months; and would fulfil certain conditions,

the most important of which was that she should not be obliged to

stop at any place on the way to take in coal, stoppages for coal not

only causing great delay by the time required for taking it on board,

but compelling the vessels to deviate widely from the best route, in

order to touch at the necessary coaling stations;” and, in avoiding

the delay of coaling on the voyage, the ships would also escape the

great cost of purchasing coals at a foreign station. “These ships,”

they added, “will carry, besides their whole amount of coals for

the voyage (out and home[417]), upwards of 5000 tons measurement of

merchandise, and will have 500 cabins for passengers of the highest

class, with ample space for troops and lower class passengers. These

the company will carry at rates much smaller than those of any existing

steam-ships and, moreover, with an unprecedented degree of safety,

comfort, and convenience which the great size of their vessels will

afford.” In thus increasing the size of their ships, the directors

said, “they believed they were also obtaining the elements of a

speed heretofore unknown: and if, hereafter, coals applicable to

the purposes of steam navigation could be supplied from the mines

of Australia, their carrying capacity both for cargo and passengers

would be proportionately increased. The great length of these ships

will undoubtedly, according to all present experience, enable them to

pass through the water at a velocity of 15 knots[418] an hour, with a

smaller power in proportion to their tonnage than ordinary vessels now

require to make 10 knots.”

[Sidenote: Mr. Atherton considers the views of the directors are not

supported by their data.]

These views were, however, not allowed to pass unquestioned by many

scientific men, and more especially by Mr. Atherton, who rejoined

that, whatever pride the projectors might reasonably feel in the

production of such an extraordinary vessel as the _Great Eastern_, the

data relied on by them did not support their anticipations. He argued

that, if based upon the performance of the _Rattler_, the size of the

vessel that would be required for the due fulfilment of the conditions

of the project, as announced by the directors, would, probably, be

not less than 100,000 tons displacement, and that the whole capital

of the company, as proposed in their prospectus would, probably, be

much more than absorbed in the construction of a single vessel of the

stupendous size indispensable for the performance of 25,000 nautical

miles, without recoaling, at the average speed of 15 nautical miles per

hour. As an engineer, Mr. Atherton was not opposed to the construction

of large ships, but he, like many other scientific and practical men,

questioned the fulfilment of the mechanical conditions as respects

the combination of a 15-knot speed with a 25,000-mile voyage without

recoaling, on which the Eastern Steam Navigation Company had founded

their project. Indeed, both practically and theoretically, he declared

himself in favour of the superior capabilities of large ships as

respected either speed or distance, but he forewarned the proprietors

of the _Great Eastern_ of the mercantile disappointment to which

extravagant expectations, as to the combination of high speed and great

length of voyage without recoaling, by the mere agency of size, would,

in his opinion, inevitably lead.

The directors might, therefore, have seen that extreme caution was

necessary for all mercantile steamship undertakings requiring the

maintenance of so high a rate of steaming speed as they contemplated.

Indeed, taking the actual results of the most successful steam-vessels

of that day, it was more reasonable to doubt the realization of the

hopes entertained by the projectors.[419]

[Sidenote: The _Great Eastern_ commenced, May 1, 1854.]

Nevertheless, the sanguine expectations of the directors were in no way

shaken and, under the advice and personal superintendence of Mr. I. K.

Brunel, Mr. Scott Russell commenced the arduous undertaking in his yard

at Millwall on the north side of the Thames.[420]

[Sidenote: Details of her dimensions.]

To prepare the ground for the reception of the enormous weight about

to be placed upon it, 1500 huge piles of timber were driven through the

loose surface soil into the more solid stratum below. These were girded

so as to form a platform bound together by transverse and longitudinal

balks of timber, between which thick beds of concrete were embedded,

and, on this structure, _iron_ rails were laid to form the launching

ways, of which the following is the longitudinal section.

[Illustration]

On this platform the first plates of the great ship, built entirely of

iron, were placed, May 1st, 1854.

[Sidenote: And mode of construction.]

The hull of the _Great Eastern_,[421] which is of immense strength, is

divided transversely into ten separate compartments of 60 feet each,

and rendered perfectly water-tight, in all its parts, by bulkheads

through which there is no opening, whatever, below the second deck:

two longitudinal walls of iron, 36 feet apart traverse 350 feet of the

length of the ship. Instead of the usual keel there is a flat plate

of iron in its place, about 2 feet wide and 1 inch thick, running

the entire length of the vessel from stem to stern, and so set up as

virtually to form part of the base on which all the rest of the fabric

is raised, whether of plates or girders. The bottom and sides which

ascend immediately from this keel plate are also 1 inch tapering to

three-quarters of an inch thick, the entire structure having been

raised from below by adding plate to plate upwards. These plates are

fastened together by more than 3,000,000 rivets, each an inch in

diameter, the whole being hammered in when at almost a white heat, and

welded so close as to form parts of the plates which they bind together.

[Illustration: TRANSVERSE SECTION.]

[Sidenote: Practically, one ship within another.]

From the keel to the water-line the hull is double, having an inner

and outer skin of the same thickness of iron, 2 feet 10 inches apart,

between which, at intervals of 6 feet, run horizontal webs of iron

plates thus materially increasing the power of resistance both of the

inner and outer skin. So far, therefore, as regards the portion of the

vessel immersed when laden, the _Great Eastern_ is, practically, two

ships, one within another, as may be seen by the transverse section,

page 498, which exhibits the principle of her construction.[422]

The danger of a collision at sea is, thereby, greatly lessened, for

if the outer skin is pierced, the inner one, remaining intact, as it

would, except under very extraordinary circumstances, the safety of the

vessel would not be endangered. Looking, also, at this arrangement in

a commercial point of view, should the ship require ballast, the space

between the outer and inner skin can be filled with water, so that

whatever may be necessary in this respect can be obtained in a very

economical and expeditious mode, to the extent in weight of 2500 tons.

[Sidenote: Compartments and bulkheads.]

Besides the principal bulkheads, there is in each compartment a second

intermediate bulkhead forming a coal bunker and carried up to the main

deck, which can on an emergency be closed. Two continuous tunnels run

through the principal bulkheads near the water-line in one of which

the steam pipes pass, and, under the most improbable circumstances

of damage to the ship, arrangements are made, so that facility and

ample time would be afforded to close them leisurely, and to make them

perfectly water-tight.

[Sidenote: Floor.]

The floor of the ship is perfectly flat, the keel being turned inwards,

and riveted to the inner skin. The bow and stern have additional

strength imparted to them by strong iron bulkheads specially fitted to

those parts of the ship.

[Sidenote: Construction of the iron plates for hull.]

Every distinct plate employed in the construction of the hull was

moulded, beforehand, to the exact shape required by the situation

it was to occupy. They were each gauged according to mathematical

principles, wooden moulds being first prepared from the gauges, and the

iron plates and angle iron accurately fashioned to correspond with the

moulds.

10,000 tons of iron plates were used in the construction of the hull,

or 30,000 plates (with about 100 rivets to each), each plate weighing

on an average a third of a ton.

[Sidenote: The deck, and its strength.]

The deck of the ship is double or cellular, and is formed of two

half-inch plates, at the bottom, and of two half-inch plates at the

top, between which are webs of iron which run the whole length of the

ship. The upper deck runs flush and clear from stem to stern for a

breadth of about 20 feet on either side of the skylights and hatchways,

thereby affording two magnificent promenades for the passengers just

within the bulwarks; these promenades are altogether more than the

eighth of a mile in length, as four turns up and down either side of

them exceed a mile by 640 feet. Between the two side promenades of the

upper deck are several quadrangular openings edged with low bulwarks,

and looking down into the recesses of the structure. These openings are

42 feet wide, and nearly 60 feet long, the longest being 100 feet, and

there are deck gangways connecting the side promenades between each of

them. In these spaces the skylights of the large passenger saloons are

fixed.

[Sidenote: Enormous steam-power from combination of paddle and screw.]

The distinguishing feature of the _Great Eastern_, in addition to her

vast size, is the combined application of both the paddle-wheel and the

screw. The engines are considerably larger than any previously made

for marine purposes. There are ten boilers and five funnels, and each

boiler can be cut off from its neighbour and used or not, as desired.

The boilers are placed longitudinally along the centre of the ship,

and are entirely independent of each other. Every paddle boiler has

ten furnaces, and each screw boiler twelve furnaces, thus giving to

the whole, the prodigious number of 112 furnaces. The funnels are each

about 100 feet in length measuring from the floor of the boilers to the

top of the funnel.

The paddle-wheel engines, of which the following is a transverse

section, are a magnificent piece of workmanship, combining vast

strength with great beauty and apparent lightness of design.

[Illustration]

When these, combined with the screw engines (to which reference

will presently be made), are at work the mind is lost in wonder at

the amount of mechanical power which is thus brought to play in the

propulsion of one vessel, and the smoothness and harmony with which

that duty is performed, in a space necessarily confined and limited,

and amid the violent turmoil of the ocean. No work of art ever yet

produced furnishes more exalted ideas of man’s genius and skill than

the unceasing and regular motion of these gigantic engines, especially,

when we consider the tremendous shocks to which they must be at times

subjected, and the delicate nature of some portion of the machinery,

resting as this does, not upon solid granite as is the case with land

engines, but on the ever straining ribs of a ship.

[Sidenote: Paddle-wheel,]

The paddle-wheel engines have a nominal power of 1000 horses, they have

four cylinders, the diameter of each being 74 inches, with a stroke

14 feet in length, giving 14 strokes per minute. Each cylinder with

piston and piston-rod weighs no less than 38 tons, while each pair of

cylinders with its crank, condenser, and air-pumps, forms in itself

a complete and separate engine, and each of the four cylinders is

so constructed that it can be, at once, disconnected when required,

from the other three, so that the whole forms a combination of four

engines, altogether complete in themselves, whether worked together or

separately. The two cranks are connected by a friction-clutch by means

of which the two pairs of engines can be connected or disconnected,

by a single movement of the hand and at a moment’s warning. All the

engines are provided with expansion valves, and their combined force,

when working 11 strokes per minute, indicates 3000 horse-power, with

steam in the boilers at 15 lbs. on the inch and the expansion valve

cutting off at one-third of the stroke. But as all the parts of the

engines are so formed and proportioned that they will work safely

and smoothly at 8 strokes per minute, with the steam at 25 lbs. and

fully open without expansion (beyond what is unavoidably effected

by the slides), or at 16 strokes per minute, with the steam in the

boiler at 25 lbs. and the expansion valve cutting off at one-fourth

of the stroke, they can be made to give a power of 5000 horses. The

paddle-shafts are each 38 feet long and weigh 30 tons, while the

intermediate cranked shaft, 21½ feet in length, weighs 31 tons.

[Sidenote: Auxiliary,]

Two auxiliary high pressure condensing engines are fixed, adjacent

to the paddle engines, for working the pumps and performing other

necessary duties on board of the ship; these auxiliary engines are

equal to 60 horse-power and can be worked to double that power if

necessary.

[Sidenote: and Screw engines.]

But the screw engines are even more surprising than those of the

paddles: they are also of 1000 horse-power with four oscillating

cylinders each 84 inches in diameter with 4-feet length of stroke

and performing 50 revolutions per minute. They can work up to 4500

horse-power with steam in the boiler at 15 lbs. and revolving at 45

strokes a minute, the expansion valve cutting off at one-third of the

stroke; but, with steam at 25 lbs., without expansion, and cutting

off at one-fourth of the stroke, they can propel with a power of

6000 horses, so that the combined force of paddle and screw engines

gives the tremendous power of 11,000 horses! The propeller shaft,

in two parts, is 160 feet in length and weighs 60 tons, while the

screw-propeller itself is 24 feet in diameter with 44 feet pitch. The

paddle-wheels are, however, still more stupendous, being no less than

58 feet in diameter with a boss which alone weighs 16 tons, each wheel

when complete weighing 90 tons.

Abaft the bulkhead of the screw engine-room are placed two auxiliary

engines of 20 horse-power each for moving the screw-propeller, when the

larger engines are disconnected, at such a velocity as will prevent the

speed of the vessel from being retarded when the ship is under weigh

with paddles alone, or when under sails and paddles.

There are, also, two auxiliary high pressure engines, each of the

nominal power of 10 horses, for working the pumps, shafting, or

other parts of the machinery, and for hoisting sails, taking in or

discharging cargo, lifting the anchor, and for performing many other

services usually carried on by the crew.

[Sidenote: Donkey-engines.]

Each set of boilers is provided with donkey-engines, with independent

boilers, and pumps of power sufficient to feed both sets of boilers,

and are capable of being connected or disconnected, so that one

donkey-engine may supply any set of boilers. These are each of about 10

horse-power.

[Sidenote: Proposed accommodation for passengers, &c.]

This mighty vessel was destined to afford accommodation for 4000

passengers, viz., 800 first class 2000 second class, and 1200 third

class, independently of the ship’s complement of crew, amounting to

about 400. The series of saloons, which were elegantly fitted and

furnished, together with the sleeping apartments (as will be seen by

referring to the longitudinal section in the frontispiece to this

volume) are situated in the middle of the ship and extend over 350

feet of her length.

[Sidenote: View of deck, &c.]

As everything about this vast ship is really of historical interest,

I present my readers (see frontispiece) with a view of her deck as

seen from the bridge between the paddle-wheels, looking towards

the stern, a sight which affords a more imposing appearance of her

magnitude than any other view. The first skylight covers the passage

to the engine-room and the captain’s cabin, which is in itself a

moderate-sized house, consisting of several rooms; behind it there are

other two companions or staircases leading to the after saloons. As the

old-fashioned speaking trumpet would be useless in such a ship, the

captain signals his orders either from his cabin or from the bridge by

semaphore arms during the day and by coloured lamps at night; while

electric telegrams convey his wishes, not merely to the engine-rooms,

but to other places below the decks where it may be necessary that his

instructions should be instantaneously communicated. With regard to the

main or upper deck itself, there is ample clear space to drill a full

regiment of soldiers.

[Illustration: GRAND SALOON OF THE “GREAT EASTERN.”]

[Sidenote: Saloon.]

The lofty saloons and cabins are very imposing, differing as they

do in most respects from those of ordinary passenger steam-ships,

indeed, more resembling the drawing-rooms of the mansions of Belgravia

of London or of the Fifth Avenue of New York. The one of which an

illustration is furnished (page 506) bears the name of the “Grand

Saloon.” The illustration, however, shows only one half of this

magnificent apartment, which is 62 feet long, 36 feet in width, and 12

feet in height, with a ladies’ cabin, or rather boudoir, adjoining,

20 feet in length. Massive looking-glasses in highly ornamented gilt

frames decorate its sides; the strong iron joists (beams) overhead are

encased in wood, the mouldings being delicately painted and enriched

with gilt beading. Around two of the funnels which pass through this

gorgeous apartment are large mirrors, with alternate highly ornamented

panels, and at their base are groupings of velvet couches. The columns

(staunchions) which support the beams are richly decorated, while

the iron work of the railings of the staircases leading to the lower

cabins, or surrounding the open spaces necessary for more perfect

ventilation, are, by some particular process, made to resemble oxidized

silver, which is relieved by gilding. The walls (sides) are hung with

rich patterns in raised gold and white, and at the angles are arabesque

panels ornamented with groups of children and various emblems of the

sea; other illustrations personify, in graceful forms, the arts and

sciences connected with the construction and navigation of ships, while

sofas covered with Utrecht velvet, buffets of richly carved walnut

wood, carpets of surpassing softness, and _portières_ of rich crimson

silk to all the doorways, give an elegance to the whole, combined with

a display of taste and beauty far surpassing, and an extravagance

almost equalling, the gigantic toy ships of ancient monarchs.[423] Nor

are the dining-rooms and family cabins much inferior in style, while

the bed-rooms, in space, fittings, and comfort are all that the most

fastidious voyager could expect, if not all they would desire.

[Sidenote: Intended to carry twenty large boats and two steamers.]

The _Great Eastern_ was planned to carry twenty large boats on her deck

or hanging from the davits. Some of these boats are patents on very

ingenious principles. In addition, it was intended she should carry,

suspended abaft her paddle-boxes, two small steamers, each 100 feet

long and of between 60 and 70 tons burden. These were to be raised or

lowered by small auxiliary engines and kept in all respects completely

equipped for sea, but to be principally used for embarking or landing

the passengers with their luggage.

[Sidenote: Compasses.]

The compasses were placed at a height of 24 feet from the deck on

a staging, in order to remove them from the disturbing influences

inherent in the vast masses of iron below; and it was proposed that

strong shadows of the needle should be cast down a tube so that the

steersman might by watching the shadow of the points at once follow the

movements of the compasses above.

[Sidenote: Size of sails.]

Besides the mizen-mast, which is of wood, there are five other masts of

hollow wrought iron. Two of these carry large square sails, the others

fore and aft sails, the fore-mast having a jib as well as trysail,

there being neither bowsprit nor jibboom. The standing rigging consists

of iron wire rope, and the lower mast shrouds of this material are 8½

inches in circumference. The running gear, manufactured chiefly from

Manilla hemp, is beautifully made. Instead of the ordinary dead-eyes

and lanyards, an ingenious contrivance has been devised for letting go

the shrouds instantaneously on an emergency. When under full sail the

_Great Eastern_ will spread 6500 square yards of canvas.

[Sidenote: Magnetic apparatus of Mr. J. Gray.]

The magnetic apparatus or floating compass invented and patented by

Mr. John Gray, of Liverpool, is to the navigator, perhaps not the

least interesting instrument of the great ship. The binnacle consists

of an isolated battery of magnets adjusted by vertical screws, which

move them in proportion to the deviation of the compass arising from

the influence of the iron used in the construction or equipment of

the ship. The original error having been ascertained by careful

observations (a duty invariably devolving on the makers of the

instrument) and the compass thus adjusted and regulated, the process of

readjustment, when necessary, is so simple that, by the officer of the

ship merely placing her head in two positions—north and south, east

and west—the compass in the northern hemisphere can be made perfect.

If any alteration takes place in the ship’s magnetism of an opposite

character in the southern hemisphere, by reversing the position of

the magnet and by adopting the same process, the instruments will be

found as correct as in the northern. There are other applications

all calculated with the utmost precision for navigating the ship,

one of which is highly important, in that it corrects the dangerous

influence arising from heeling. A vertical magnet is made moveable in

the centre of the apparatus so as to obviate errors arising from this

cause,—errors sometimes amounting, by the deflection of the needle,

to 50 or even a greater number of degrees. As these disturbances

produce considerable oscillating of the card when the vessel rolls,

their repetition often causes a momentum that ultimately makes the card

revolve with such velocity as to render it useless to the helmsman.

The patent floating compass, constructed to prevent vibration from

affecting the centres of action, consists of an inner bowl floating in

an outer one, the object being to render the former insulated in its

water bed, the exterior being solely influenced by the action of the

ship. Through a very ingenious mechanical arrangement in the interior

of the inner bowl the hardest gems and the finest centres may be

applied without fear of oscillation of the card. The entire combination

of these essential points insures steadiness of action, perfect

indication, and great durability.

There is also a vertical double disk to register the ship’s course

and to show whether the man at the helm has attended strictly to his

instructions with regard to the course to be steered. On each side

of the binnacle there is a metal box containing soft iron for the

adjustment of any small amount of deviation in the quadrants, which

remains stationary with its contents throughout every change of

latitude.

[Sidenote: Apparatus for steering.]

Nor must I omit notice of the mode of directing the course of the

ship. On one side of the platform between the casements of the

paddle-wheels (the deck most in use by the commander and officers of

all steam-ships), stands an ingenious apparatus, in which there is a

compass, the duplicate of the one in the binnacle, and before it an

officer stands when the ship is under weigh, who is under the immediate

eye of the captain. This pedestal is covered with a brass circular

slide, with an aperture sufficiently large to permit of one of the

points on the card being seen through it. The captain or officer in

charge of the ship, by turning a handle, exposes the point at which

he wishes the ship’s head to be kept, and by means of connecting rods

a coincident point is disclosed on the compass in the binnacle, which

is watched by the steersman, who thus knows in a moment the course he

has to steer, so that, without verbal orders (which are frequently

indistinctly heard and sometimes misunderstood, even when the officer

is close to the helm) the ship is directed on her course with more ease

than an ordinary sized vessel.

Beyond the original plan contemplated of manufacturing gas on board to

be laid on to all parts of the ship, it was further intended to carry

the electric light so as to secure a perpetual artificial moonlight

around the vessel.

[Sidenote: Rudder and anchors.]

The rudder[424] is constructed of two plate-iron cheeks framed together

on a wrought-iron rudder-post, tapering from 14 inches diameter

downwards, the frame being 9 feet wide from back to belly. The space

between the 2 plate-iron cheeks within the rudder-frame is filled with

solid blocks of wood, bound together and bolted through the plates,

combining great strength with lightness.

There are ten anchors on board which, with their stocks, weigh 55 tons,

and 800 fathoms of chain cable weighing 98 tons, the capstan and warps

weighing 100 tons, so that there are 253 tons weight of appliances on

board devoted exclusively to the purpose of anchoring or mooring the

great ship. Through the centre of her stem there are two hawse-holes

each 18 inches in diameter, so that the large cable runs straight out

from the stem; and, besides these, there are additional hawse-holes on

each side of the cutwater.

[Sidenote: The ship itself a marvel though, commercially, a failure.]

Such is or, rather, was the _Great Eastern_ in all the leading features

of her construction and equipment, and, however fallacious many of

the calculations of the directors and designers may have proved, (and

none were more so than those referring to the project as a commercial

undertaking),[425] they and the constructors have produced a ship

which is not merely a marvel in size, but, in beauty of symmetry,

strength of hull, completeness of machinery, organization, and

arrangement of details, equals, if she does not surpass, any vessel

that has yet been constructed for ocean navigation.

It is to be regretted that the plans for launching the monster were

not (for the credit of science and the great mechanical knowledge of

the age) as perfect as the ship herself. Instead of constructing a

dock, wherein she could have been built with less labour than upon

piles, and which would have been valuable as a graving-dock when she

was floated from it, they built her in a yard, and, contrary to the

established custom, built her broadside to the element into which she

had ultimately to be launched.

[Sidenote: Preparations for, and details of, the launching of the

_Great Eastern_.]

The apparatus for launching the ship consisted of two inclined planes,

each about 200 feet long by 80 feet broad, and nearly 140 feet apart,

falling at an inclination of one in fourteen, to low-water mark. On

these ways two cradles, each 80 feet square, were destined to slide,

the object being that the great ship should be moved sideways into the

river on two massive platforms, underlaid with transverse bars of hard

iron, and corresponding in length to the width of the launching ways

upon which they rested.

The cradles were provided with two enormous chains, with crab blocks

and tackle, the standing part fastened to the further bank of the

river and the ends carried through two portholes, and under the ship’s

bottom. Two small steam-engines in the yard worked the crabs and

blocks attached to the chains whereby the ship was, if necessary,

to be dragged down the launching ways, which were prepared with an

anti-attrition composition to facilitate the movement of the enormous

mass. Besides these powerful tackles, there were two hydraulic presses,

each of one thousand tons lifting power, placed behind the cradles,

to which they could be applied to set the vessel in motion should the

engines prove inadequate for that purpose.

But, in order to regulate the descent of the vessel, and check her

progress, should it become too rapid, two immense friction drums or

capstans were constructed, and fastened firmly by means of piles into

the earth, so as to resist any possible strain that might be placed

upon them. These drums, seven feet diameter in the barrel by twenty

feet in length, were furnished with iron cables, each link of which

weighed seventy pounds, attached by a double purchase to the cradle,

and regulated by two gigantic break-levers worked by blocks and

pulleys, a gang of men being at hand ready to apply instantaneously on

receipt of signal this powerful check to the momentum of the vessel

should it be found too great.

Such were the vast preparations made to launch the _Great Eastern_.

FOOTNOTES:

[412] See Appendix to Report of Committee, 1851.

[413] See Report of 6th August, published in the _Times_, 8th August,

1853.

[414] Author of important works on “The Construction of the

Steam-engine,” and “The Capability of Steam-ships.”

[415] As every important fact connected with the design and

construction of this vast ship must prove of historical interest, I

think it desirable to give an extract from the letter which Mr. Scott

Russell himself wrote at the time on the subject, addressed to the

editor of the _Times_, and which appeared in that journal on the 20th

April, 1857:

“My share,” says Mr. Scott Russell, “of the merit and responsibility

is that of builder of the ship for the Eastern Steam Navigation

Company. I designed her lines and constructed the iron hull of the

ship, and am responsible for her merits or defects as a piece of naval

architecture. I am equally responsible for the paddle-wheel engines of

1000 horse-power, by which she is to be propelled.

“But Messrs. James Watt and Co., the eminent engineers of Soho, have

the entire merit of the design and construction of the engines of 1500

horse-power, which are to propel the screw.

“It is to the company’s engineer, Mr. I. K. Brunel, that the original

conception is due of building a steam-ship large enough to carry coals

sufficient for full steaming on the longest voyage. He, at the outset,

and long before it had assumed a mercantile form, communicated his

views to me, and I have participated in the contrivance of the best

means to carry them into practical effect. I think, further, that the

idea of using two sets of engines and two propellers is original,

and was his invention. It was his idea also to introduce a cellular

construction like that at the top and bottom of the Britannia Bridge

into the construction of the great ship. It will be seen that these are

the main characteristics which distinguish this from other ships, and

these are Mr. Brunel’s. Her lines and her structure in other respects

are identical with those of my other ships, which are constructed like

this on a principle of my own, which I have systematically carried out

during the last twenty years, and which is commonly called the ‘wave’

principle. In other respects, also, her materials are put together in

the manner usual in my other ships.”

[416] See article in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ 7th edition, on

“Steam Navigation.”

[417] Whatever may be gained by not requiring to stop at any

intermediate port, I consider it a mistake, in a commercial point of

view, to suppose any advantage is to be derived from taking on board

a steam-ship, especially when engaged on distant voyages, sufficient

coal to carry her out and home. The space the coals occupy in a steamer

ought to be of more value, for the reception of cargo, than the cost of

sending coals in sailing-vessels to the ports abroad where required,

and than any loss sustained by the expense and detention of shipping

them there.

[418] Equal to 17¼ statute miles.

[419] I need not dwell upon these points, for which see _Times_, 28th

February, 1854, and Mr. C. Atherton’s note, 20th April of that year.

[420] The precise dimensions of the _Great Eastern_ will be found with the

Frontispiece illustrations.

[421] I take the description of the vessel and everything relating to

her from Mr. Scott Russell’s “_Great Eastern_ Steam-ship,” H. S. Clarke

and Co., Strand, London, 1857, the public journals of the period, the

reports of the directors, and from my own observations at the time,

as I more than once inspected the ship, when on the stocks and when

afloat, for which every facility was afforded by her builders.

[422] The following references will serve more fully to explain the

illustration of the transverse section of the hull of the _Great

Eastern_: 1, upper saloon or main deck; 2, principal saloon in lower

deck; 3, side cabins and berths; 4, tunnels for steam and water

pipes; 5, boiler; 6, coal bunkers; 7, space between skins of ship; 8,

skylights to principal saloons; 9, double deck.

[423] The decorations of this saloon, which were exceedingly beautiful,

were executed by Messrs. Crace, of Wigmore Street, London.

[424] As I have been frequently asked when the “rudder” was invented, I

may here state that I really do not know, and I should be disposed to

question the accuracy of any writer who fixed any epoch or any age for

its invention. Before me I see, at this moment, a swan in pursuit of

other swans which have evidently been poaching upon its manor on that

portion of the River Thames where, on its banks, I now revise the proof

sheets of this volume. It is in full chase, with its wings so arranged

as best to gain advantage from the breeze; its feet are paddling it

onward with great vigour, but to turn the corner opposite to where

I sit, I see that the swan sweeps itself round by the operation of

one of its feet, which has been brought close to the surface, and is

performing exactly the same part, only in a more rapid and perfect

manner, which the rudder, attached to a boat, performs, when sweeping

round the same bend of the river. Perfect rudders may, therefore, be

said to have existed from the creation, for nothing could be more

complete in the shape of a rudder, than this action of the swan’s foot

in the water. A similar action may be seen in the fins and tails of

fish.

Turning to mechanical contrivances which had this object in view, it

will be found that, during the earliest historic ages, the paddle of

the canoe was used, not merely to propel, as in the case of the gondola

of the middle ages as well as in the gondola of to-day, but also to

guide, and was, in itself, one of the most powerful mechanical rudders

which have yet been produced. The oar over the quarter followed, and

if my readers will refer to the sculptured illustration of a vessel on

the leaning Tower of Pisa (see _ante_, vol. i. p. 521) erected A.D.

1178, they will find, that that was the only description of a rudder

represented at that comparatively recent period. At a later period,

by referring to the contracts still extant which Louis IX., King of

France, entered into, A.D. 1268, with the Venetians and Genoese for the

construction of various ships (_ante_, vol. i. p. 510), “two rudders”

for each vessel (_one on each side_) “nine palms long” are required to

be provided, showing that this mode of steering, which is no advance

upon what may be found on the ancient sculptures of Egypt, was, then,

the only one known, or at least in use, among the most celebrated

navigators of the middle ages; and from their dimensions, the vessels

which Louis IX. ordered to be built were large ships, _not boats_,

which the one represented on the Tower of Pisa may have been.

In the drawings of some vessels of a subsequent period, a hole is

shown in the stern above the stern post, through which an oar, sweep

or “rudder” was passed for guiding the course of the vessel, its lower

extremity being probably worked by tackles from each quarter; from

this appliance the _hanging_ rudder now in use no doubt originated,

being improved on by slow degrees, and gradually assuming a more and

more perpendicular position; thence, the transition to hanging it by a

second ligature was easy and natural; thence, the gudgeons and pintals,

by which the rudder now swings from the stern post; and, hence, the

tiller and, subsequently, the wheel to move the tiller, the blade

of the rudder itself being increased in size according to the force

required to turn the vessel. Thus, the foot of aquatic birds first gave

the idea of the paddle, and this, in time, was displaced by the oar,

from which the rudder evidently sprung. The Dutch and German word for

oar is now and always has been “Ruder.”

[425] In the summer of 1857, the late Robert Stephenson and I paid a

visit to the ship. We were accompanied by Brunel. The hull was then

drawing towards completion, and preparations for launching were about

to be commenced. After thoroughly inspecting everything about the

vessel, Brunel asked me what I thought of her. “Well,” I replied, “she

is the strongest and best built ship I ever saw and she is really a

marvellous piece of mechanism.” “Oh,” he said, rather testily and

abruptly, “I did not want your opinion about her build. I should think

I know rather more about how an iron ship should be put together than

you do. _How will she pay?_”

“Ah,” I replied, “that is quite a different matter;” and, seeing that

I did not care to answer his question, he repeated it, adding, “If she

belonged to you in what trade would you place her?” “Turn her into a

show,” I said, with a laugh, “something attractive to the masses; for,

if you insist on having my opinion about her commercial capabilities,

it is only in that direction where you can look for profit. She

will never pay as a ship. Send her to Brighton, dig out a hole in

the beach and bed her stern in it, and if well set she would make a

substantial _pier_ and her deck a splendid promenade; her hold would

make magnificent salt-water baths and her ’tween decks a grand hotel,

with restaurant, smoking and dancing saloons, and I know not what all.

She would be a marvellous attraction for the cockneys, who would flock

to her in thousands.” And, as I saw he was far from pleased with my

answer—no wonder—though given half in joke and half in earnest, I

added, “As you would insist on having my opinion, I have given it to

you candidly, for I really do not know any other trade, at present,

in which she will be likely to pay so well.” Stephenson laughed, but

Brunel never forgave me.

CHAPTER XIV.

Commencement of launch of the _Great Eastern_, November 3rd,

1857—Christened by Miss Hope—Comparative failure—Renewed

efforts scarcely more successful—Hydraulic ram bursts—Floats

of her own accord, January 31st, 1858—The whole scheme of this

launch a thorough mistake—Difficulties of the company—Offer

to Government wisely declined—Further proposal to employ her

as a cable layer—Makes her first sea trip, September 9th,

1859—Accident off Hastings, and the opinion of the pilot—Reaches

Holyhead; and details of her voyage—Makes her first voyage

across the Atlantic, June 1860—Second voyage, May 1861—Third

voyage to Quebec, July 1861—Fourth voyage, September 1861—Heavy

gale off S.W. coast of Ireland, and compelled to return to

Cork—General remarks on the sea-going qualities of different

ships, and on the effect of wind in causing “rollers”—Real

truth about “momentum”—Very large ships not so safe as smaller

ones, as their damages are less easily repaired—Chief later use

of the _Great Eastern_ as a cable layer, but, not even here,

remunerative—Concluding remarks.

[Sidenote: Commencement of launch of the _Great Eastern_, November 3rd,

1857.]

After various unavoidable delays rendered necessary by such an

unexampled experiment, the day for the launching of the _Great Eastern_

was fixed for the 3rd of November, 1857.

A vast concourse of people assembled on land and river to witness the

launch. Crowds of naval and scientific men from all parts of the world

were there, and, in spite of the inclement season of the year, numerous

members of the aristocracy came to see this marvellous feat; nor indeed

was royalty, itself, unrepresented. Probably no such multitude had on

any previous occasion congregated on the banks of the Thames. It was a

magnificent sight, but one, also, the practised eye could not survey

without apprehension of danger. The preparations for her launch were,

it is true, made with the object of lowering the vessel slowly into

the water by means of cradles erected on the launching ways, but if

the huge mass had received the impetus which in all similar cases is

given to vessels when the retaining and supporting shores are removed,

the cables, though of unusual strength, would have proved altogether

insufficient to restrain so ponderous a weight when once in motion;

they must have snapped asunder like hempen cords, and, considering the

number of small boats and steamers full of people at the time on the

river, and the crowds on its banks, no one can contemplate without a

shudder the loss of life which, under such circumstances, would have

probably occurred.

By reference to the following illustration the reader will better

understand the nature of the danger apprehended, and, also, see at a

glance the position of the great ship as she lay on the cradles ready

for launching.

[Illustration]

[Sidenote: Christened by Miss Hope.]

The ceremony of christening the vessel was performed by Miss Hope (now

Duchess of Newcastle), daughter of the Chairman of the Great Eastern

Steam Navigation Company. When the moment for launching arrived, the

interest of the vast assembly of people who had gathered together to

witness the operation became intense, increasing as the shores were one

by one struck from under her and the last cable fastenings loosened.

But the leviathan did not seem to move, and it was, only, when the

stationary engines tightened the chains which passed from the vessel to

the opposite shore, that any motion became perceptible. A tremendous

cheer then burst from the excited multitude. Immediately afterwards,

however, there was a pause: silent suspense again prevailed, with

increased anxiety blended now with evil forebodings. A whisper passed

along the dense crowd that the slide down the inclined plane of 3½ feet

at the stem and 7 feet at the stern thus effected, was of an alarming

character. It was one, too, which had not been anticipated; and, when

it became known that the rapid revolution of the drum and fly-wheels

caused by the sudden motion of the vessel had seriously injured several

of the men employed upon these ponderous machines, there were grave

apprehensions of further danger.

[Sidenote: Comparative failure.]

Some delay in the operations now necessarily occurred, but, at a

quarter past three P.M., the time of high water, when the engines were

again set to work, expectation was once more raised to the highest

pitch. Every eye was now directed towards the cradles, but this time

they did not stir an inch, and, as the chains tightened it became too

apparent that if the vessel was not forced towards the water they must

break. At length, subjected to a strain greater than ought to have

been applied, the ponderous chain attached to the fore part of the

vessel snapped asunder, and then all hopes of launching the leviathan

were ended for that day. It would be superfluous to dwell on the many

speculations as to the cause of this failure; certain it is that it was

great and lamentable, and, as it was impossible to repair the injury

the launching machinery had sustained, in time for further operations

on the following day, no time was, then, fixed for resuming action.

However, on the 19th of November, these operations were again begun,

the alleged object on this occasion being to move the great ship 40

feet lower down than the position she then occupied, so as to be ready

for launching when the tide suited; but this effort equally proved

abortive. The immediate cause of this second failure is accounted for

by the abutments of the piles, against which the bases of the hydraulic

rams rested, yielding under the enormous pressure exerted between

them and the ship’s cradle, in many cases giving way or breaking down

altogether.

[Sidenote: Renewed efforts scarcely more successful.]

Most of the subsequent operations of the company were kept as far as

possible secret, and the presence of the public, which had been courted

to witness an anticipated triumph, was now as studiously avoided, under

the prudential plea of avoiding accidents, involving loss of life,

by the too rapid motion of the ship towards the river. But a fresh

experiment, after prodigious efforts, and the snapping of one of the

3-inch chains, proving likewise unsuccessful, the report of it soon got

mooted abroad, and the public, always fluctuating between extremes,

now began to entertain serious doubts whether the _Great Eastern_

would ever get afloat.

[Sidenote: Hydraulic ram bursts.]

A third attempt, on Saturday, November 28th, proved however more

successful than the previous efforts. On this occasion the _Great

Eastern_ was gradually lowered down the launching ways some 25 feet in

a slow but satisfactory manner; while, on the 1st December, when the

tedious process of moving the gigantic structure was recommenced, she

moved steadily, for a time, at the rate of half an inch a minute, but,

suddenly, soon after slipped 5 inches forward and 9 inches aft, to the

terror of every person engaged in the operation; and, when renewed

efforts were made in the course of the afternoon, one of the ten-inch

hydraulic rams burst, as might have been anticipated, under the

tremendous pressure of 1300 pounds to the square inch of its cylinder:

consequently, the work of launching was suspended for that day.

Six weeks elapsed ere the operations were resumed, and, this time,

with the most sanguine hope on the part of Mr. Brunel that the great

ship would reach her destination by the spring tides of the 28th or

30th of January, 1858. On this occasion the plans could not be kept

secret. Crowds of people were again in attendance, among whom were the

Duchess d’Orleans, the Comte de Paris, and various other distinguished

personages, as well as many men of science. The _Great Eastern_ was,

indeed, not merely the wonder of this age, but she created more

sensation among men of scientific and maritime pursuits in all parts

of the world than any vessel had ever done in any age. Nor was she an

object of much less interest at the time to the general public, while

the difficulties of her launch and the appliances for this purpose

were freely discussed, often in no friendly spirit, at the meetings

of the learned institutions, as well as in the gay gatherings of

Belgravia, and in the more humble homes and workshops of Mile End and

Poplar. The subject was one of hardly less interest throughout Europe

and the United States. But shrewd practical men, while envying the

superabundant wealth of the shareholders, and admiring their boldness

in investing in her as a commercial undertaking with so questionable

a chance of profit, quietly sneered at the futile attempts to launch

the leviathan. Though of unusual weight and size, they said, that had

the ordinary process been adopted, she would have found her way to the

water with as much ease and safety as a vessel of ordinary dimensions.

There was no need, they remarked, to launch her broadway to the Thames,

as, in their opinion, she might have been so built that when started

from her ways she would shoot either up or down the river, as hundreds

of vessels launched from the banks of much narrower streams had done

before her.

[Sidenote: Floats of her own accord, January 31st, 1858.]

However, on this occasion, the efforts at launching were so far

attended with success, an average advance of 20 feet having been

obtained in the course of the day, so that when the tide reached its

height, the monster was 7½ feet in the water; but the only distance

accomplished on the following day, was one solitary slip of “2½

inches,” and in this state she lay until Tuesday, the 31st January,

when the great ship quietly floated of her own accord, the tide having

risen sufficiently high to lift her from the cradles on which she had

so long lain.

[Sidenote: The whole scheme of this launch a thorough mistake.]

The struggle of hydraulic power with the monster the company had

created, and other appliances proved most expensive, the launch of

this ship having cost no less than 120,000_l._ when 10,000_l._ or even

5000_l._, it was said, might have sufficed;[426] nor, indeed, is it

easy to understand how, with all the data before them, the tons weight

to be lifted, the angle of inclination, and the well-known rate of

friction, dynamic science could not have calculated with the utmost

accuracy the amount of force requisite to move the _Great Eastern_

on her launching ways. No adequate consideration, however, seems to

have been given to these important matters, for additions were made,

day by day, to the force applied, and these, too, experimentally, and

not, as might have been expected, as the result of careful, previous

calculations. No doubt the chief cause of this expensive failure is

attributable to the fact that Mr. Brunel (it was well known at the time

that Mr. Scott Russell strongly opposed Mr. Brunel’s plan of launching)

was permitted to try the almost insane experiment of launching the

ship on iron instead of wooden ways, as has, hitherto, invariably been

adopted in the launch of all other vessels.

The expenses attending the launch exhausted the funds of the _Great

Eastern_ Company; and brought it to the brink of dissolution. Nor was

this the only trouble to which the _Great Eastern_ was exposed. On

the 5th of April, 1858, a sharp north-easterly squall, which swept the

river with considerable violence, subjected her moorings to a strain

so severe, that one of the chain cables on the port-bow parted about

20 feet below the hawse-hole, and for a time exposed the vessel to

great danger; fortunately, however, this unfair weight snapped, also,

the second stern-chain, and thus allowed the vessel’s bows to swing in

towards the Deptford shore, thereby saving the _Great Eastern_ from

more serious loss.

[Sidenote: Difficulties of the Company.]

[Sidenote: Offer to Government wisely declined.]

The difficulties, however, in which the company were involved had now

become a matter of public notoriety; the more so, that the vessel

remained for more than a year equally unfinished as on the day she

launched herself, and was in fact nothing more than a vast iron hulk

lying on the waters of the Thames. Ineffectual efforts were made to

induce the public to come forward and subscribe the extra capital

requisite to complete her, but the launch, and other circumstances,

had increased the doubts long entertained by men of business with

regard to the prospects of the ship, as a commercial undertaking;

hence, the public could not be induced to re-invigorate the exchequer

of the company with sufficient money to equip her for sea. The various

suggestions made to persuade the shareholders of the company to come

forward with additional capital, were of no avail and they all, alike,

failed in raising the requisite funds. A negotiation was even opened

with the Government with a view to the purchase of the vessel, the

press, all at once, teeming with articles to the effect that, whether

important or not as a mercantile adventure, the great ship, as a

vessel of war, would be “almost invaluable.”[427] This discovery, it is

true, had been previously overlooked, but it soon became the theme of

general discussion.

The difficulties of the existing means of oceanic communication it was

said, compelled Government to maintain larger forces at all points

of the empire, and at the same time, than were actually requisite;

consequently, it was argued that, with two or three such stupendous

vessels as the _Great Eastern_, such a necessity would be obviated,

and Government would really have increased strength, even though her

present military establishments were greatly reduced. It was, further,

urged that continental nations were well aware that the secret of

England’s weakness, as a military power, is not so much from the

smallness as from the wide dispersion of her army. Once shown that

means exist for obviating this necessity, and that she is able, in a

few days, to transport an army of 10,000 men to any part of Europe,

and England’s position, as a military empire, would be established. It

was asserted that the political results, accruing from any Government

having at its disposal such a class of ships, would be equally

important; while the facility provided for the transportation of large

numbers of soldiers across the seas would necessarily consolidate

more closely the power of Great Britain with that of her distant

possessions. The revolution a squadron of such vessels would effect

in war would be as great as their results in commerce; moreover, for

the first time, steam would achieve on the ocean what it had already

achieved on land.

But the arguments employed by the negotiators, backed as these were

by suggestions artfully thrown out by a portion of the public press,

to the effect that foreign powers might become possessed of this

invaluable ship to the prejudice, disadvantage, and dishonour of

Great Britain, terminated in failure. Government decided against the

proposal, and no alternative remained, but to wind up the affairs of

the existing company and to endeavour to make some arrangement whereby

fresh capital could be raised to complete the vessel.

[Sidenote: Further proposal to employ her as a cable-layer.]

The Atlantic cable, which was to form a telegraphic communication

between Europe and the United States, was completed in the summer of

1858, and the vessels of war employed in laying it across the Atlantic

having made an unsuccessful voyage on the first occasion, it was

strongly urged upon Government[428] that the _Great Eastern_ should

be fitted up by the Admiralty for the purpose of laying it down, as

the whole of the cable could be contained in this one vessel, thus

diminishing the risks of failure necessarily inseparable from employing

two ships, each starting in opposite directions from the middle of the

Atlantic. But the prevailing opinion then was, though it changed a

few years later, that the _Great Eastern_ from her height out of the

water was unadapted for such a service, and, further, that there were

no public grounds on which the application of the necessary sum from

the Exchequer to assist the operations of a private company could be

justified: therefore, Government distinctly refused to entertain the

proposal.

Renewed endeavours were now made to reorganise the undertaking, and

after much difficulty the affairs of the original company were wound

up, the sum of 160,000_l._ having been accepted for the sale and

transfer of the vessel to a new company, which came into possession of

her in the beginning of the year 1859.

[Sidenote: Makes her first sea trip, September 9th, 1859.]

Somewhere about 300,000_l._ having been subscribed for the new

undertaking, which received the name of the Great Ship Company, the

directors, after paying for the ship, had 140,000_l._ left to equip her

for sea; but it was not until September 1859 that the _Great Eastern_

was sufficiently complete to make her first trial trip. On Wednesday,

the 9th of that month, she took her departure from the Thames under

the most favourable circumstances, the weather being very fine with a

light breeze of wind and blue sky overhead. Starting with four tugs,

two on the bow and two at the quarter, to guide her through the narrow

parts of the river, she, after some delay and a few slight mishaps,

reached Purfleet, where she anchored for the night. At daylight, on the

following morning she started for the Nore, where she arrived about

noon, having obtained a speed of “13 knots” an hour, though only at

“half-speed”, her engines making not more than eight revolutions a

minute.

From the Nore the _Great Eastern_ proceeded successfully to Whitstable,

where she anchored, getting under weigh, thence, at a quarter past nine

on the following morning with a fresh breeze. After passing Margate

she encountered a stiff gale, where, as represented in the following

woodcut, she appears “quite at ease,” when “large ships were under

double reefed topsails” and small vessels were obliged to “lie to.”

[Sidenote: Accident off Hastings, and the opinion of the pilot.]

But an unfortunate accident occurred to her, when off Hastings, through

the explosion of one of her funnel-casings, causing the death of six

men employed in the engineering department, injuring various others,

and destroying nearly all the mirrors and other ornamental furniture

in the grand saloon. Though appalling enough at the time, no injury

was done to the hull or machinery of the vessel sufficient to prevent

her proceeding on her voyage to Weymouth, which she reached without

any further misfortune on the afternoon of Friday, within the time

anticipated for her arrival.

[Illustration: S.S. “GREAT EASTERN,” UNDER FULL SAIL AND STEAM, PASSING

DOVER.]

[Sidenote: Reaches Holyhead; and details of her voyage.]

On her arrival, the pilot who had been in charge of the _Great Eastern_

from Deptford to Portland (Weymouth Bay), made an official report of

her performances to the company,[429] confirming, in some measure,

the glowing accounts in many of the public journals and realising the

sanguine expectations of the directors, though their hopes of profit

had been somewhat damped by the accident which, apart from the loss of

life, entailed an outlay of 5000_l._ The necessary repairs having been

completed, the _Great Eastern_ proceeded from Portland to Holyhead,

but without passengers as originally contemplated. Starting at noon of

the 8th of October, she made the run to Holyhead in forty hours at an

“average speed of close upon 13 knots or more than 15 statute miles

in the hour,” having on some occasions attained a speed of 15 knots

an hour, the engineers and other experienced men on board feeling

“thoroughly convinced that, when in the condition which the company has

a right to expect, she will make easily 18 knots or 21 miles an hour.”

The paddle-engines, during one portion of the passage where a careful

record was kept, appear to have made from 8¾ to 9¾ revolutions per

minute, and the screw from 32 to 33½ revolutions in the same time,

the pressure being 20 pounds per square inch in both cases with the

throttle-valves half closed and both engines working on the second

grade of expansion, giving an average speed of 12 knots an hour, but

with an outlay of “10 tons of coal per hour.” On another occasion when

the sails were set, and the weather more favourable, she is said to

have attained a speed of 15 knots, with the screw making from 38 to 40,

and the paddles from 10½ to 11 revolutions per minute, and, at this

rate of speed, the screw boilers consumed on the average at the rate

of 170 tons per day, and the paddle-engines on the average 110 tons,

giving a consumption of 280 tons of coal each day under favourable

circumstances. During the highest rate of speed the engines made 11

revolutions for the paddles per minute and 43 for the screw. A special

trial gave the speed of the ship under paddle-wheels alone 7¼, and

under the screw alone 9 knots an hour.

[Sidenote: Makes her first voyage across the Atlantic, June 1860.]

Having made the trial trip to Holyhead to the satisfaction of her

directors, the _Great Eastern_ left that harbour shortly after noon on

the 2nd of November for Southampton, but did not leave that port on her

first voyage across the Atlantic until the morning of the 17th of June,

1860, reaching New York on the 28th of that month. The greatest speed

attained during the passage was 14½ knots an hour, and the greatest

distance run in any one day 333 knots.[430] Only thirty-six passengers

were found bold enough to accompany her on this voyage, besides two of

the directors. But the Americans gave her a warm and hearty reception

on her arrival at New York; hundreds of small vessels crowded with

people having gone out to meet her and bid her welcome, the scene in

the North River, where she moored, being described[431] as a “perfect

ovation.”

In the report which the directors issued to the shareholders[432]

shortly after the _Great Eastern_ returned to Milford Haven (where she

was placed with great skill on a gridiron and had her bottom cleaned

and painted) they state that 14,000_l._ had been remitted from the

agents at New York, and, though they had not then furnished their

accounts, the directors expressed a hope that the receipts would cover

the expenses of the trial trip to America without trenching on the

capital; they, however, stated that heavy outstanding claims remained

unsettled, and that they would require, to meet these demands and

put the ship into good working order, an additional capital of from

30,000_l._ to 40,000_l._

[Sidenote: Second voyage, May 1861.]

The requisite sum having been provided, the _Great Eastern_ left

Milford Haven on her second passage for New York on the 1st of May,

1861, with 100 passengers. On this occasion she consumed from 159 to

295 tons of coals per day; the entire distance (3093 miles) being

accomplished in ten days, though the wind, by her log, appears to have

been ahead during a considerable portion of the voyage. In one day,

she accomplished a distance of 348 nautical miles, her _greatest_

speed being 14½ knots an hour, or one half knot per hour less than the

_average_ speed anticipated on a voyage to India.[433]

[Sidenote: Third voyage to Quebec, July 1861.]

On the return of the _Great Eastern_ to England in the following month

of June, the apprehension of war with the United States occasioned by

the _Trent_ affair induced the British Government to engage her, with

other steamships, to transport troops and munitions of war to Canada.

But those embarked (or rather, for prudential reasons, allowed to

embark) fell far short of the number her designers had contemplated;

they had estimated 10,000, but the Government wisely limited the

number to 2079 men, 46 officers, 159 women, and 244 children, besides

40 cabin passengers who were civilians. Having landed her troops at

Quebec, she left that place on her return to England at four o’clock

on the morning of the 6th of August, and, though detained twelve hours

in crossing the bars in the River St. Lawrence, she arrived at her

moorings in the Mersey on Thursday at 8.30 P.M. of the 15th of that

month.

[Sidenote: Fourth voyage, September 1861.]

[Sidenote: Heavy gale off the S.W. coast of Ireland, compelled to

return to Cork.]

Early in the course of the following month, the _Great Eastern_ sailed

from the Mersey on her fourth Transatlantic voyage with 400 passengers

of different classes for New York. On this occasion she encountered,

on the 12th and 13th of September, a heavy gale of wind when about 280

miles off Cape Clear, and sustained so much damage that she was obliged

to put back and seek shelter in Cork Harbour. Various accounts of this

disaster appeared, at the time, in the daily journals. Her paddles,

it would appear, were seriously injured, and her rudder “rendered

useless.” Nor do the writers of these accounts speak very highly of the

anticipated superior sea-going qualities of the great ship, or of her

freedom from that violent motion in a gale, to which ordinary vessels

are subjected. Indeed, one of her passengers on this occasion, in a

letter he addressed to the _Times_, gives the most melancholy account

of her, but this description of the disaster and the imminent danger

to which her passengers were exposed, is probably exaggerated.[434]

Landsmen in a gale, especially when anything goes wrong, generally,

take the most gloomy view of matters; they picture to themselves

dangers which have no reality, and, when they see the seamen hurrying

to and fro to rectify, as far as possible, any damage the ship may have

sustained about her spars, rigging, or bulwarks, they too frequently

give themselves up for lost.

So long as the hull of a ship keeps sound the action of the ocean,

however disturbed, does not, materially, affect her safety, but, in

this action, the landsman, too frequently, sees just that kind of

danger which the sailor is said to have dreaded during a gale on land,

from falling slates and broken chimney-pots, congratulating himself

that he was at sea and not on shore in the midst of the storm.

[Sidenote: General remarks on the sea-going qualities of different

ships,]

On the other hand, the anticipated ease and safety of the _Great

Eastern_ during a gale was about as much exaggerated, as the

discomforts and danger the narrator of the gale has described. One

enthusiastic writer, among numerous others equally sanguine, in his

description of what might be expected from the great ship in a storm,

remarks “she will set circular sailing at defiance,” as if circular

sailing has anything whatever to do with the sea-going qualities of a

vessel. He then exclaims: “The line which in a tornado is said to make

a steady but resistless run of 20 miles will be counteracted by the

‘wave line,’ which Mr. Scott Russell has adopted as the principle on

which she has been built. Storms and tempests will be looked upon as

merely sublime phenomena, in nowise menacing peril as things scarcely

affecting the ship, but to be gazed upon out of snug cabin windows as

interesting episodes of the voyage.”

[Sidenote: and on the effect of wind in causing “rollers.”]

So much for the two extremes, but from these glowing anticipations on

the one hand, and the exaggerated account of the actual event on the

other, some lessons may be learned. The wave line (whatever may be its

advantage, if any, over the lines usually adopted by shipbuilders) can

produce no sensible difference in the violent motions of a ship at sea,

even if it tends to promote greater speed. Waves are of greater length

and height, according to the force of the gale and its extent of sweep

over the ocean.[435] In channels, where broken by projecting points of

land or promontories, they are short and disturbed. When crossing the

whole breadth of the Atlantic during a westerly gale, they are long,

and, as they roll between the headlands forming the Bay of Biscay,

they are also disturbed, rendering a voyage across that part of the

ocean a proverbially unpleasant and, with deeply laden and badly found

ships, a somewhat dangerous one. To insist, therefore, as some writers

appear to have done, that the lines of a ship should be in conformity

with the length and action of the waves, or that, by a careful study

of the law of fluids, they can be so drawn as to render, under all the

varied circumstances of a long voyage, one ship more easy or even more

swift than another, is, I fear, attributing to science more than it can

reasonably claim; for though, by its general application to the models

of ships, great improvements have of late years been made, I can hardly

suppose that _lines_, based on the action of fluids, which must be

more or less disturbed by the weight and velocity of a vessel passing

through them, and by the action of the winds on their surface, do

really possess any superior advantages so far as regards greater ease,

speed or safety.[436]

Nor had the idea, which prevailed at the time, that a ship of the vast

dimensions of the _Great Eastern_ would bid defiance to the danger of

the ocean, much more foundation in fact. No doubt a vessel of 1000 tons

is a much safer mode of conveyance across the Atlantic than one of 100

tons, and a vessel of 2000 tons may be still more so, but not to either

the same degree or extent. Moreover, a ship of double that size, or say

4000 tons, is no safer, though she may be more comfortable, for various

self-evident reasons, such as being less liable to receive on deck the

crest of the waves, or by affording more space and better ventilation

in her cabins; but anything beyond that size will, assuredly, not

realize much greater speed, though she may afford greater comfort.

[Sidenote: Real truth about “momentum.”]

A vessel of 100 tons is lifted by every large wave, and, consequently,

the distance she has to traverse is increased. As the size is enlarged

this particular description of motion diminishes, in proportion to

the length of the vessel. But there is a limit to this advantage, as

there is to most other things, and a vessel of 5000 tons and 400 feet

long, will be, similarly, borne on the crest of two or more of the

largest waves as a vessel 700 feet in length, and, therefore, would

lose nothing in speed from the ascending and descending motions: this

fact has, indeed, been satisfactorily proved, as the ships of the

Ismay, Cunard, Inman, Allan, and other lines of steamers employed in

Transatlantic voyages have made more rapid passages than ever the

_Great Eastern_ did.[437] Speed, beyond a certain size, is determined

by the model, and the power of propulsion, due regard being had to

the weight to be propelled and the resistance offered by the depth and

extent of immersion. The momentum, about which a great deal was said

and from which so much was expected in the case of the _Great Eastern_,

though of some importance, when vessels of 100 tons are compared with

those of 1000, is of much less consequence in the case of vessels of

unusual weight and dimensions. It is at best only transitory, while, to

drive a vessel of 20,000 tons through the water at the rate of 15 miles

an hour, somewhere about four times greater power would be necessary

than to secure the same speed in a vessel similarly constructed, of

5000 tons, although less power in proportion to tonnage would suffice

in smaller vessels.

[Sidenote: Very large ships not so safe as smaller ones, as their

damages are less easily repaired.]

But, with regard to the first and by far the most important

consideration, the safety of a vessel at sea, I am disposed to think,

though contrary to the generally accepted view, that ships of vast

dimensions are less safe, in exceptional circumstances, than those of

ordinary size. Take for instance the case of the accident to the _Great

Eastern_, to which I have just referred, in which she lost her rudder,

or when, at all events, it was so seriously injured as to be rendered

inefficient. I need say nothing of the difficulty, or it might be of

the impossibility, of providing a temporary mode of guiding a vessel of

such huge dimensions. The loss of the rudder of any vessel in a gale of

wind is no doubt a serious matter and one which must ever cause peril,

but that peril increases with the size of the ship, for, when thus

rendered helpless, the greater the bulk, the greater is the resistance

offered to the action of the waves as they strike her sides. This is

exemplified, though to a far greater degree, by the fact that a strong

ship, on which the beating of the waves in the open sea would make

little or no impression, would be dashed to pieces by the same waves

if she was stranded on a lee shore. A large ship without rudder and,

consequently, helpless in the hollow or trough of the sea would offer

resistance to the stroke of the wave in proportion to her weight, and

the wave would, consequently, strike with the greatest force on the

body of the greatest weight. This, in some measure, and not without

reason, accounts for the alarm created in the mind of the passenger

on board of the _Great Eastern_ during the gale he so graphically

describes.

[Sidenote: Chief later use of _Great Eastern_ as a cable layer, but

not, even here, remunerative.]

From the time of this disaster, the movements of the _Great Eastern_

are not of much historical interest, so far as regards merchant

shipping. It is true, that she proved of great value and importance in

laying the Atlantic telegraph cable during the summer of 1865, and, in

the very skilful feat of picking up from the depths of the ocean the

broken ends, and in laying another Atlantic cable during the summer of

1866, when no other ship of sufficient dimensions could then have been

found to perform that difficult and hazardous undertaking.[438] She has

also proved very useful since, in other similar operations, in India

and elsewhere; but, for ordinary commercial operations as various

persons predicted,[439] when she was first projected and long before

she was sent to sea, she has been a ruinous, though not a lamentable

failure.[440] Even the work of laying cables was not remunerative, for,

by a report of the directors issued in March 1869, it appears that the

great ship had been arrested for a debt of 35,000_l._, that the current

expenses had, considerably, exceeded the receipts, and that there were

other claims which had to be met, before she could again proceed to

sea. These difficulties were, however, overcome. The debt of 35,000_l._

was settled for the comparatively moderate sum of “4000_l._!” and

the other demands, though not nearly so extortionate, were amicably

adjusted. In 1868 the _Great Eastern_ was again chartered by the

Telegraphic Construction and Maintenance Company, for the purpose of

laying a telegraph cable between Brest and Ducksburgh near Boston; and

for the same company she laid a telegraph cable between Aden and Bombay

in the spring of 1870.[441] In 1873 and 1874 she laid other two cables

between Valentia and Heart’s Content in Newfoundland; and on the 25th

of July, 1875, she completed her charter (20,000_l._ per annum), and

was handed over to her owners. Since then she has been placed upon a

gridiron to have her bottom cleaned, and I daresay her owners are now

at a loss to know how she can be profitably employed.

[Sidenote: Concluding remarks.]

But it will hardly be gainsaid, that the building, launching, and

navigating such a ship are events in the history of merchant shipping,

sufficiently important to justify the extent of space devoted to her

in these pages; and, should my imperfect record survive for the next

hundred or fifty years, there may be found in these pages a collection

of facts relating to a ship, more marvellous than that of Hiero, King

of Syracuse, or of the Penteconter of Ptolemy Philopator. Perhaps, too,

this record may contain more details of value, than the historians

of those ships have handed down to posterity, for it may be that,

a hundred or fifty years hence, the maritime commerce of the world

may have grown to an extent sufficient to justify, with reasonable

prospects of profit, another ship of the dimensions of the _Great

Eastern_. I can only write of the past and the present, leaving the

future to be dealt with by those who may follow me, and, perhaps, all

that posterity will be able to say against the enterprising promoters

of the _Great Eastern_ may, hereafter, be condensed in the flattering

eulogium, “their ideas in regard to dimensions were in advance of their

age—they were only before their time.” Though far from realizing

the expectations once entertained with regard to speed and small

consumption of fuel, her failure is, mainly, to be attributed to the

fact that, at the time she was constructed, there were no lines of

traffic on which a vessel of such huge capacity could procure, with

despatch, the amount of freight or passage money necessary to insure a

profit. But, from first to last, even when the failures of her launch

had become too apparent, the people of England were proud of her,

and this is not surprising, for no other country could have raised,

by voluntary subscription, and without any aid from Government, the

capital requisite to construct and equip this monster ship for sea.

That their pride should have found vent in numerous paragraphs in

the public press is only what might have been expected, for, though

shrewd men shook their heads, and cautious men declined to invest their

capital in the ship, she was a marvellous piece of workmanship, even

the Americans admitting, that England might well feel an honest pride

in having produced such a triumph of mechanical skill, and welcoming

her as they did to their shores, as a characteristic evidence of the

genius, energy, and pluck of their fatherland.

Although I have not hesitated to expose the want of forethought, which

rendered the _Great Eastern_ a commercial failure, and the grave

mistake in her launch, I cannot refrain from admiring the extension

of the spirit of national pride to private undertakings such as

these. Much has been learned and much has still to be learned from

her. Various mechanical contrivances, now in use, were first adopted

in this great ship. In herself she indicates the most astounding

progress. Indeed, when I consider that only forty years had elapsed

since the small engines of the _Comet_ which, though they puffed and

strained, and made noise enough to frighten the people who watched the

little vessel in her progress down the Clyde, were the finest of the

period, and compare them with the vast engines of the _Great Eastern_,

working in their combined action without the slightest jerk, and almost

noiselessly, my mind is lost in wonder at the prodigious advance made,

within my own time, in this mighty civilizing instrument.

FOOTNOTES:

[426] Mr. Brunel’s estimate to the directors of the cost of the launch

was 14,000_l._

[427] “What fleet (exclaims the writer of a leading article in one

of the London daily papers) could stand in the way of such a mass,

weighing some 30,000 tons, and driven through the water by 12,000

horse-power at the rate of 22 or 23 miles an hour?”

[428] See Mr. Griffiths’ speech in the House of Commons, 9th July, 1858.

[429] Extract from the pilot’s report:

“On arriving at Sea Reach I found the vessel so completely under

command with the use of her own paddle-wheels and steam-engines, that

I decided on casting off the steam-tugs altogether, and proceeding

afterwards without any assistance. On reaching the North Foreland,

we experienced a stiff double-reefed topsail breeze, during which

other vessels were pitching and tossing a good deal, and, on passing

the Downs, the wind increased to a close-reefed breeze, and many

large vessels were lying with two anchors down. Throughout, the

vessel steered with the greatest ease, and, literally, without any

perceptible motion, and for some time I have no hesitation in stating

that, computing our distance by points on land, which admit of no

mistake as to distance, we were making fully 14 knots an hour with

both paddle-wheels and screw-engines working fully one-third under

their pressure. The misadventure, which occurred off Hastings, in no

way interfered with the working or progress of the vessel, and, with

the single engineering accident in question, we made the voyage from

Deptford to Portland without any check or interference of any kind. The

vessel is, in every respect, an excellent sea-boat, and I may state

without any hesitation that, with sufficient sea-room, she is even

more easily handled and under command than an ordinary ship, either

sailing-vessel or steam.”

[430] Her daily performances were as follows:

17th June 285 knots

18th June 296 knots

19th June 296 knots

20th June 276 knots

21st June 304 knots

22nd June 280 knots

23rd June 302 knots

24th June 299 knots

25th June 325 knots

26th June 333 knots

27th June 254 knots

[431] Letter from passenger in the _Great Eastern_.

[432] 14th October, 1860.

[433] In the various newspapers and reports I have searched for

information about this ship, and other inquiries, I have never had any

reason assigned for the _Great Eastern_ not having been placed, when

ready for sea, on the India line, from which so much was expected of

her, and for which she was specially built; or why her new directors

sent her, on hap-hazard and expensive cruises, down channel and across

the Atlantic, when every trip showed a ruinous loss. But I suppose the

true reason is to be found in the fact, that they could not obtain for

either India or Australia sufficient goods and passengers to justify

the heavy outlay necessary for such long voyages (the cost of outfit

may in itself have been an obstacle), and that, in truth, there was

no branch of maritime commerce wherein she could then be profitably

employed.

[434] “_Thursday._—This morning we have a fresh gale, with a good

sea. Noon: A heavy gale; wind, from north to west; sea, tremendous. We

roll very heavily, and ship many seas. I now begin to understand the

true meaning of a gale in the Atlantic. The captain looks anxious, but

the passengers have faith in the ‘big ship.’ The ‘rolling’ is fearful,

and quite upsets all persons’ notions of the steadiness of the _Great

Eastern_. Two o’clock: Things look worse. The captain tries to put our

head to the wind. The port paddle gives way with a great crash in the

attempt. The jib is set, I presume to aid in steering, but it is blown

to ribands in a few moments. The rolling increases; the deck presents

an angle of 45 degrees, and none but experienced seamen can walk

about. Attention is suddenly drawn to the boats; they are suspended

on either side, but mostly on fixed davits. The heavy rolling brings

the boats in violent contact with the waves. The tackling of the long

boat becomes deranged; a man and a boy enter it to remedy the evil, but

the wind strikes the boat, and gives the occupants forcible ejectment,

happily upon the deck, and in a moment it is floating far away from us.

Four other boats share a similar fate in rapid succession. Continued

efforts are made to bring the ship to the wind. I watch the men at the

wheel—there is almost an army of them. 5.45.—Our position is indeed

critical. A tremendous sea has just struck our stern. It has broken her

rudder head. Still, we are not quite at the mercy of the waves; we have

our screw, and we have our starboard paddle. The wind is now getting to

the south-west.

“_Friday_, 6 A.M.—We are drifting before the wind at the rate of 3

or 4 knots an hour. We have never been more than 300 miles from land.

We are drifting eastward now; but, even if the wind does not change,

it will be many days before we can reach land in this manner. The

pumps are all going. I do not like the sound, but am assured they have

complete mastery over the water. The water has got in through the ports

and by way of the deck.

“There is scarcely a cabin in the ship to which the water has not found

its way. Many require a change of clothes, and the hatchways of the

baggage stores are opened. The scene that presents itself defies all

description. The water has got in, and in sufficient force to float

even many of the larger articles. The rocking of the ship has set the

whole mass in motion.”

[435] “From a paper of great interest it would seem that,

approximately, the cube of the height of the waves is proportional to

the square of the velocity of the wind. Most of the conclusions drawn

in this paper are from observations made during the voyages of the

_Bonite_ and _Astrolabe_.” (“Naval Science,” October 1874, Part II., p.

159.)

[436] See paper on “The Difficulties of Speed Calculations,” by Mr.

Denny, read at the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in

Scotland, 23rd March, 1875, pp. 2, 3, and 4.

[437] See Appendices Nos. 10 and 17, pp. 606 and 617.

[438] 1000_l._ per month was paid for the use of the ship alone. When

the agreement expired in 1867, she was chartered by a French Company to

carry passengers between New York and Brest for the Paris exhibition.

Her cabins were then altered and redecorated, and new boilers fitted

to the screw engines. But the French Company was unsuccessful, and the

_Great Eastern_ only made one voyage in its service.

[439] Towards the close of the year 1857, when the prospects of the

_Great Eastern_ were exciting much public attention, the author

ventured to offer to his constituents at Tynemouth, nearly all of

whom were interested in ships, the following remarks (reported in the

newspapers of the period) with regard to her:

“Very shortly there will be launched a ship of vast and hitherto

unparalleled dimensions: I allude to the _Great Eastern_. If that ship

answers, I do not know where we shall be with our small vessels. As

this is a subject, upon which opinions have been greatly at variance,

perhaps you would like to hear mine. It must be a matter of deep

interest to all present, because you are all directly or indirectly

interested in the shipping trade, to know whether such a ship as the

_Great Eastern_ is, or is not, likely to answer in a commercial point

of view, and I venture on this topic because I have heard strong

opinions expressed to the effect that, commercially, she will be a

great triumph. For my part, I believe her to be a great triumph of

mechanical skill, I believe that no finer or stronger vessel has

ever been put together: so far as regards her formation, I think she

is a very splendid model: but, with reference to the speed she is

expected to attain, I doubt very much whether she will ever realise the

anticipation of her builder, though I think that we, as a nation, ought

to be proud of having men who can produce so marvellous a piece of

mechanism. But we must look, also, to the commercial element, because

in this, I, and most of you are deeply interested. If such a ship

as the _Great Eastern_ be found to answer commercially, most of our

property will go to the wall, for, in a short time, our small vessels

will be of very little use to us. The course of commerce is this: If a

Manchester merchant has 1000 bales of a particular description of goods

to send to Calcutta, he does not send the whole of them in one bottom,

because he might thus overstock the market. On the contrary, he sends

them in from four to six different vessels, and he does this for two

reasons: first, that by so doing he feeds the market; and, secondly,

that he gets, thereby, quicker returns. The principle of commerce is to

send out supplies in relays. Then again, we find that passengers do not

go out in masses, but, at such intervals, as suit them best. And, in

times of war, statesmen find it the wisest plan to send out not 1000,

much less 10,000 men in one bottom, but from 400 to 600, at the utmost,

in one ship. And this must appear to be sound policy, when we picture

to ourselves what might be the result of sending out a whole army in

the _Great Eastern_. I do not take into consideration the contingency

of the ship going to the bottom. I shall not ask you to imagine so

fearful a calamity, but, supposing anything happened to her machinery

and occasioned a serious stoppage, when expedition was necessary to the

attainment of a certain object, the effect would be that the whole army

would be detained. No Government would dare to send so large a force in

one vessel. Therefore, looking at the question, politically as well as

from a commercial point of view, I am of opinion that we have nothing

to fear from the competition of leviathans such as the _Great Eastern_.”

[440] If any further proof was required that the _Great Eastern_

proved a failure in the two points, speed and comfort at sea, on which

her protectors mainly built their hopes, it will be found in a small

and amusing book by M. Jules Verne, translated from the French, and

published by Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. (1875), entitled “The Floating

City.” M. Verne, who made a voyage in this ship in 1867 from Liverpool

to New York, records, from the official returns, her speed as not

exceeding 250 nautical miles each day on the average, and he describes

her movements during strong winds as “rolling frightfully, her bare

masts describing immense circles in the air.”

[441] It has been stated that the loss upon the _Great Eastern_ up to

this period amounted to close upon 1,000,000_l._ sterling!

CHAPTER XV.

River and coast trade of Great Britain—The _Iona_, paddle

steamer—First screw collier _Q. E. D._—The _King Coal_

collier—Her dimensions and crew, _note_—Improvement in care

of seamen—Leith and London traders—Dublin and Holyhead

Mail-Packets—Their great speed and regularity—Dimensions,

power, capacity, and cost—Dover and Calais Mail-Packets—The

_Victoria_—Her speed—Proposed tunnel and other modes of crossing

the Straits of Dover—Mr. Fowler’s plan—The _Castalia_—The

_Bessemer_—Her swinging saloon—The cigar-ship built at

Baltimore, 1858—Similar ship built on the Thames, 1864—Perkins’s

economical steam-engine and proposed fast boat—The Engine

of the _Comet_—Modifications in the construction of Marine

Engines—Ratio of speed to power—The Compound Engine more

economical than the simple—Great skill required for building

perfect ships, and, especial importance to England of having the

best ships—But her ships not yet perfect, though great progress

has been made during the last half century.

[Sidenote: River and coast trade of Great Britain.]

Although Great Britain supplies from its rivers and coasts

three-fourths of the ocean-going steamers of the world, its own

coasting and inland navigation affords but a very limited field for the

employment of vessels of any kind compared with the shores and rivers

of America, India, and China.

Before the introduction of steamers, a few row-boats, sailing wherries,

and barges were sufficient to conduct the whole of the river traffic.

This new expedient, however, though soon met in another form by the

competition of railways, has vastly developed even this comparatively

limited trade. Steam-boats now, whether on business or pleasure, are

to be found in great numbers on every navigable stream, and are still

on the increase; indeed, the improved facilities for intercourse on

land, so far from retarding that increase, gives fresh life to the

swarms of passenger-boats, yachts, steam-launches and steam-barges,

which ply wherever they can find the means of flotation, and,

especially, on the Thames and Clyde.

[Sidenote: The _Iona_ paddle steamer.]

Offering, as it does, greater inducements than any other river in the

United Kingdom, there are now to be found on the Clyde many elegant and

commodious steam-boats. Although generally inferior in size, equipment,

and speed to those of the Hudson or Long Island Sound, one of them, the

_Iona_, a paddle-wheel boat, employed in the passenger traffic between

Glasgow and the Western Highlands, is almost unrivalled.[442] This

beautiful vessel affords deck and cabin accommodation for no less than

1200 passengers, and her long range of saloon houses, with plate-glass

windows extending right fore and aft, gives her a graceful and imposing

appearance. Fleets of similar vessels, though of inferior dimensions,

now ply between Glasgow and the numerous watering places which line the

shores of the estuary of the Clyde, presenting a striking contrast to

the times of Henry Bell’s _Comet_.

[Sidenote: First screw collier, _Q. E. D._]

[Sidenote: The _King Coal_ collier.]

Equally marked has been the improvement in the vessels now

employed in the coal and coasting trades of Great Britain. From the

sailing-vessels of the north-east coast, of which an illustration has

been furnished,[443] we advanced to the screw, and, in 1844, built of

iron the first screw-collier, the _Q. E. D._, for the conveyance of

coal from Newcastle to London. She was heavily barque-rigged, and, in

style and form, somewhat resembled the fast Baltimore clippers, the

intention of her owners being to depend chiefly for speed upon her

sails, and to use her engine as an auxiliary power. Her mizen mast, a

hollow tube of iron, was made to serve the purpose of a funnel, and

the whole of her standing rigging consisted of _wire rope_. She had a

double bottom, divided into separate chambers, so that any injury to

the one would not affect the other, each being covered with a false

floor and hermetically closed. Into these vacant spaces between the

bottom and the floors, water could be admitted by means of cocks, for

the purpose of ballast, and, at the same time, easily pumped out again

by an engine when not required. The _Q. E. D._ therefore, in herself,

contained many inventions then little known, the more important of

which, as the wire rope and water ballast, are now in general use. But

the auxiliary engine and full sailing rig did not answer in the coal

trade better than it had done for distant voyages, the sails in this,

as in all cases, having become auxiliary to the engine as a propelling

power. Steamers of light rig and comparatively full power, now carry on

the largest proportion of this trade, although there is still room for

a considerable number of the old sailing-colliers. An illustration of

one of the finest steam-colliers will be found on the following page,

and I am enabled through the courtesy of her owners to furnish not

merely a drawing, but the particulars of this vessel, which bears the

appropriate name of _King Coal_.[444]

[Illustration: “KING COAL.”]

We see, here, another instance of the vast progress of the last forty

years. The ordinary collier of that period, of 230 tons register, or

with a capacity of from 16 to 17 keels of coals, required[445] a crew

of ten men, and from a month to five weeks for the round voyage

to London. In the course of the year she delivered, under the most

favourable circumstances, 3500 tons of coals; but the screw-collier of

to-day, requiring a complement of only seventeen men, including the

engineers and stokers and a steward (a luxury wholly unknown to the

collier skipper of byegone days), conveys, annually, on the same round,

50,000 tons; while the deck-houses for the protection of her men in wet

and stormy weather are comforts the crew of a sailing-collier never

would have dreamt of.

[Sidenote: Improvement in care of seamen.]

Nor are the seamen less cared for in other respects. The accommodation

provided for the collier sailor of to-day is of an order very superior

to that afforded him forty years ago. Thus he can make sure of a dry

bed and a fire to cook his victuals during the stormiest weather,

comforts too frequently unknown to his predecessors; if he may still

have causes for complaint, they are incomparably few to those his

fathers had before him, and if this service does not now produce the

same class of hardy men, who helped to crown the ships of England with

laurels of immortal fame in the days of Duncan and Nelson, this arises,

in some measure, from the fact that the good living and comforts of

modern times tend to render them less willing to endure, or perhaps

less disposed for, the prompt and resolute action which, in most

achievements, alike of war and peace, insures success.

But, even, if it be true that the seamen of to-day are too much

pampered and nursed, they have, unquestionably, in their profession

many hardships still to endure, with discomforts and even dangers,

which might be avoided. The philanthropist, however, who advocates

changes likely to weaken the Inspired maxim that man was born to live

by the sweat of his brow, forgets his calling and injures those whose

cause he advocates.

[Sidenote: Leith and London traders.]

In every other branch of our coasting trade, the change has been quite

as marked as in that of the coal trade, steamers, on all the important

lines, having superseded sailing-vessels. A few of my readers may

remember the celebrated Leith smacks which derived their name from

trading between that port and the Thames, carrying on, before the

invention of railroads, a great portion of the passenger and goods

traffic between Edinburgh and London.[446] Although the line of

maritime communication, thus opened in 1809, was conducted in these

smacks with considerable success, they were, subsequently, in part,

replaced by clipper schooners, vessels of great speed, which maintained

their position for some years against the steamers of the General Steam

Navigation Company; but the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company, to

whom they belonged, were obliged, in 1853, to adopt the new mode of

propulsion, so that all the most valuable portion of this trade is now

conducted by steamers. Indeed, they now encircle the whole of the

coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and there is hardly a port in

the kingdom which has not its steam-ship communication either with the

respective capitals or elsewhere.

[Sidenote: Dublin and Holyhead Mail Packets.]

Although constructed chiefly for the conveyance of goods, most of these

lines have excellent accommodation for passengers, especially those I

have just specified. This is also the case with the steamers plying

between London, Dundee, and Aberdeen, Glasgow and Liverpool, and with

many of the lines connecting Ireland with England and Scotland. Among

the most celebrated are the Dublin and Holyhead packets, whose work is

confined exclusively to the conveyance of the mails and passengers.

Before the introduction of steam-vessels, it was no unfrequent

occurrence for the sailing-packets, then engaged in this service,

to be three or more days in crossing the Irish Channel; and, from a

Parliamentary return issued in 1815, we learn that, for the space

of nine days in the previous year, only one packet could sail owing

to adverse winds. In 1819, the passage of the sailing-cutters then

employed averaged twenty hours from Holyhead to Dublin. In the summer

of that year, however, the _Talbot_, of 156 tons, built by Wood of Port

Glasgow, with engines of 30 horse-power each, by Napier, was placed on

the station; and the _Ivanhoe_, of somewhat the same size, by Scott of

Greenock, with engines also by Napier, followed in the course of the

ensuing year.

[Sidenote: Their great speed and regularity.]

The unexpected success of these steamers overcame the professional

prejudices of the commanders of the sailing mail-packets, who had

recently recorded as their opinion “that no vessel could perform the

winter passage with safety but sailing-cutters.” The wish alone in

this case must have been father to the thought, for, when the steamers

_Royal Sovereign_ and _Meteor_ soon afterwards took up their station

on the line, the cutters disappeared from it for ever. In fact, these

steamers had so fully established the numerous advantages to be derived

from the employment of vessels of this description, that, as early as

1823, a company was formed to carry on the communication regularly

throughout the year by means of steam-vessels only. Subsequently,

vessels superior to those of the class of the _Meteor_ were constructed

for this important service, and there were no faster or finer vessels

of the period than the _Banshee_ and the _Llewellyn_, which, in 1848,

were placed on this station, having on their trial trips attained a

speed of upwards of 18 statute miles per hour.[447]

[Sidenote: Dimensions, power, capacity, and cost.]

But the public soon required still faster and more commodious steamers;

and a committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the

subject recommended the construction of vessels of 2000 tons each,

with power sufficient to attain a speed of upwards of 20 statute

miles the hour. Consequently, four ships were built, the _Connaught_,

_Ulster_, and _Munster_ by Messrs. Laird and Sons of Birkenhead, and

the _Leinster_ by Mr. Samuda of London.[448] The engines of all these

vessels are on the oscillating principle. In the two pairs constructed

by Messrs. Ravenhill, Salkeld, and Co., for the _Leinster_ and the

_Connaught_, the cylinders are 98 inches diameter with a length of

stroke of 6 feet 6 inches. The eight boilers are multitubular, four

being at each end of the engine-room space, arranged in pairs, with

one funnel to each pair. The paddle-wheels are on the feathering

principle, and are each 31 feet extreme diameter. On the trial trips

the engines worked at the rate of 25½ revolutions per minute, under

a steam pressure of 25 lbs. per square inch. The mean of the runs of

the _Leinster_ at the measured mile in Stokes Bay was at the rate of

20½ statute miles an hour, a greater speed by one mile an hour, than

had up to this time (1860) been obtained by any other vessel in this

country:—but the _Connaught_, when subsequently tried at the measured

mile, attained a still higher result, the mean of her runs showing the

speed of 20¾ statute miles per hour.[449]

The engines of the _Ulster_ and _Munster_ (constructed by James Watt

and Co.) as well as their lines, very much resemble the other two, the

main difference being that the diameters of the cylinders are each

96 inches, with 7-feet length of stroke. The internal arrangements

of all the vessels are planned, with the object of providing for the

comfort and accommodation of the public, in the way best calculated

to mitigate, and, as far as possible, to prevent, the sufferings

often accompanying the passage of the Irish Channel. In this and in

most other respects, great success has attended the objects their

designers had in view. Their saloons and cabins are large, lofty, and

well ventilated; the principal one being upwards of 60 feet in length

by 17 feet in breadth, and 9 feet 6 inches in height. Nor have these

magnificent vessels failed to meet the requirements of Government.

The regularity of their voyages has been surprising;[450] and I am not

aware of any loss of life or property which has occurred in connection

with them since they started in 1860.

[Sidenote: Dover and Calais Mail Packets.]

[Sidenote: The _Victoria_.]

[Sidenote: Her speed.]

Among the numerous other steamers now employed in the short voyage

mail service, may be mentioned the small swift vessels running between

Calais and Dover, Folkestone and Boulogne, Dover and Ostend, as well

as between Southampton and the coasts of France, the Channel Islands,

Jersey and Guernsey. They are beautiful boats of their class, and,

considering their size and the rough weather they are frequently

obliged to encounter, they perform their respective passages with

remarkable speed and regularity. It is a rare occurrence for these

packet-boats to be detained by a storm; and the manner in which they

dash out of Dover or Calais harbours, at almost full speed, against a

strong gale and an angry cross sea, shows that, if the British sailor

has, from want of practice, deteriorated in seamanship, he has lost

none of his native _pluck_. I know no more spirited and daring men than

the masters of most of these small mail steam-packets, unless it be the

Deal boatmen. They are cool and unruffled, while the smart little craft

under their charge forces its way through the waves at the rate of

twelve or thirteen miles an hour in the face of a gale which a landsman

would describe as a “violent storm.”

On the next page is an excellent illustration of one of these vessels

on her passage from Folkestone to Boulogne.

This smart vessel, the _Victoria_ (well known no doubt to many of my

readers), was built by Samuda, and her engines by Penn. On her trial

trip over the measured mile, she attained a speed of 16½ knots or

upwards of 18 statute miles an hour, which has been well maintained on

the service in which she is engaged.[451]

[Illustration: S.S. “VICTORIA.”]

[Sidenote: Proposed tunnel]

These boats, however, are in their turn about to be superseded: at

least, various other means have been suggested for crossing the English

Channel between Calais and Dover. The two most gigantic schemes are

a bridge over the channel and a tunnel below it, both having one

chief object in view, relief from sea-sickness during that short,

and, to most landsmen, very unpleasant passage. The bridge, though

it had a few influential and enthusiastic supporters, appears to

have been abandoned as wholly impracticable; but the tunnel is still

contemplated, and experiments are now being made to ascertain the

nature of the soil beneath the bed of the sea at the requisite depth.

Its projectors, who are men of influence and experience, are sanguine

of success, but as its cost will be enormous, though estimated at

not more than one-half that of the Suez Canal, and, as it cannot

be completed for many years, other plans have been in the meantime

suggested, two of which have been already partially put in operation.

[Sidenote: and other modes of crossing the straits of Dover.]

It would be entirely beyond my province to offer any opinion as to the

practicability of either a bridge or tunnel, but I shall endeavour to

furnish my readers with a brief outline of the novel description of

vessels now prepared to cross this narrow strait.

The question of bridging, tunnelling, or otherwise crossing the channel

by easier modes than the existing mail packets has long occupied the

attention of men of science, however much they may have differed with

regard to the best mode of effecting the object in view. Among various

modes, the one suggested by Mr. Fowler, C.E., in 1864, for which plans

were deposited in 1865 and 1867, and which was fully brought before

Parliament in 1872, seems to be well worthy of further consideration,

embracing as it does the extension of the “through traffic” without

change of carriage to all parts of the continent. This is one of the

important objects sought to be achieved by the tunnel, but at four

times the cost.

[Sidenote: Mr. Fowler’s plan.]

Mr. Fowler proposes to build a steam-boat fit to receive a railway

train complete, and carry it bodily across the channel from the South

Eastern and London and Chatham lines to those of the North Eastern

of France. To effect this object, it will be necessary to increase,

materially, the existing facilities of Dover Harbour, and to construct

a new harbour on the French coast, of sufficient depth of water to

receive, at all times of the tide, vessels of the dimensions he

suggests. The transport of railway trains, by means of vessels across

broad sheets of water, has, already, been proved to be practicable. The

operation may be seen, not merely in various parts of the United States

and on the Lake of Constance, but in Scotland, where “the North British

Railway Company carry trains across an arm of the sea, five miles in

width.”[452] Nor is the plan suggested for connecting the steamers with

the lines of railway, so that the carriages may run on board, either

novel or impracticable. The ferry-boats of New York dove-tail, if I

may so express it, into the end of a street and carry the whole of its

traffic in one continuous line of passengers, carts, and waggons to

Brooklyn, or across the Bay of New York to Staten Island and other more

remote places: so that, in this respect, there is nothing visionary or

impracticable in the scheme proposed by Mr. Fowler. Nor, so far as my

nautical knowledge extends, are there any valid objections to it in

other respects except the cost. There is no doubt that these vessels,

from their immense weight, size, and speed, will realise every comfort

by way of stability that can be attained in crossing the English

Channel at its narrowest part, while their vast dimensions afford

ample space for every possible convenience to passengers, and, even,

luxuries, if desired.

[Illustration: LONGITUDINAL SECTION

SECTION OF BOAT & HOIST

_Showing Carriages being run on board_

DIMENSIONS

LENGTH 450 _feet_

BEAM 57 ”

DEPTH of HOLD 14 ”

DRAUGHT 12 ”

FREEBOARD 8½ ”

TRANSVERSE SECTION

CHANNEL PACKET PROPOSED BY MR. FOWLER, C.E.]

But in order that my readers may more clearly understand Mr. Fowler’s

proposal, I furnish (page 559) longitudinal and transverse sections of

the boat he contemplates, with an illustration of the mode by which

the carriages are to be transferred from the lines of railway on board

the vessel, and, in a footnote,[453] his explanatory remarks. Further

explanations will be found in detail by reference to the evidence

given before a Committee of the House of Lords, but the more important

points of that evidence with the number of the question is supplied

herewith.[454]

The other boats, which have been already built, do not contemplate the

transport of the railway carriages, but are simply meant to afford an

easier mode of transit for passengers than at present exists.

The first, planned by Captain Dicey, formerly Master Attendant at the

port of Calcutta, proposed, according to the prospectus issued by the

company, “To provide ample accommodation for all classes of passengers

under shelter as well as on deck; to reduce the motion of rolling and

pitching of the vessel to a minimum; and to keep the draught of water

of the vessel to 6 feet, so that she may enter the ports on either side

of the channel at all hours of the tide.”

[Sidenote: The _Castalia_.]

To accomplish these objects, the company has built, at the Thames Iron

Works, a ship named the _Castalia_, which may be roughly described as

the two halves of a longitudinally divided hull, 290 feet long, placed

26 feet apart, and strongly bound together by a system of girders upon

which is erected, as may be seen by the following woodcut, a raised

deck inclosing cabin space. Under this deck in the water-way between

the halves of the hull, work a pair of paddle-wheels side by side upon

two separate shafts so that each wheel can be worked independently;

these wheels are driven by two pairs of engines, one pair in each half

of the vessel. The division and separation of the hull provides a deck

of no less than 60 feet in width, with a stability much greater than

any ordinary vessel possesses. Before and behind the engine, there are

various state saloons inclosed by the hurricane deck, running the whole

width of the vessel. These spacious rooms are handsomely decorated,

and provide various comforts seldom attainable at sea, while the top

platform affords a magnificent promenade 14 feet above the level of

the water-line. There are, also, decks below running fore and aft to

within a few feet of the double bow or stem in the separate hulls.

The _Castalia_ has accommodation for somewhere about 1000 passengers.

Her estimated cost was only 60,000_l._, but the actual outlay must

have been considerably in excess of that sum. Captain Dicey states

that, in designing this vessel, he was in some measure guided by

the performances of the “outriggers” that ply in the harbour of

Galle—“long cranky boats hollowed out of tree-trunks, and steadied in

the water by a log of timber fixed to the end of two wooden outriggers

which project some way from the vessel’s side.”[455]

[Illustration: CHANNEL PACKET “CASTALIA.” (BETWEEN DOVER AND CALAIS.)]

[Sidenote: The _Bessemer_.]

The other vessel, the _Bessemer_, is in many respects as different from

all other steam-ships afloat as the _Castalia_; but was constructed

with exactly the same objects in view, viz., to insure great speed,

light draught of water, and, more especially, the smallest possible

rolling or pitching motion. In a word, to afford to passengers crossing

the channel the quickest means of transit with the greatest amount

of ease, at an immersion so small, that the vessels could enter the

existing English and French harbours at all times of the tide. This

was the problem to be solved, and each inventor set about it in a

wholly different way. Nor was this surprising, considering that each

had been trained in an entirely different school. The projector of

the _Castalia_ is a sailor of great nautical experience; the designers

of the _Bessemer_ are an engineer and iron worker together with a

scientific shipbuilder. Perhaps, had the originators of the two schemes

consulted, amicably, instead of entering on a needless rivalry, they

would have produced a better and much swifter ship than the _Castalia_;

and a considerable sum of money expended on experiments would also have

been saved.

The _Bessemer_, of which an illustration is given on next page, was

designed entirely by Mr. E. J. Reed (late Constructor to the Royal

Navy), with the exception of the so-called “swinging saloon,” and was

constructed at Hull by Earle’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Company:

she is built entirely of iron, is a vessel of immense strength, and

has, as may be seen from the illustration, very much the appearance

of a breastwork turret ship of war. Her form is the same at bow and

stern and, for 48 feet from each end, she has a freeboard of about 3

feet only. Her extreme length at the water-line is 350 feet, and the

raised central portion, rising 8 feet above the low bow and stern, is

254 feet long, and, extending the whole width of the vessel, is 60 feet

over all. The ends, as will be perceived, are very sharp and low. The

engines and boilers, which drive the two pairs of paddle-wheels, are

fitted in the hold at either end of the raised portion of the vessel. A

series of deck-houses for private parties, refreshment bars, and other

rooms are carried fore and aft of the paddle-boxes on the breastwork

deck; there is, also, a covered walk between these and the windowed

sides of the “swinging saloon,” which rises about 8 feet through the

breastwork deck, with a flat roof pierced by two companion hatches.

[Illustration: S.S. “BESSEMER,” BUILT FOR SERVICE BETWEEN DOVER AND

CALAIS.]

The nominal horse-power of the engines of the _Bessemer_ is 750, but

they can work up to an indicated power of no less than 4600, and were

calculated to drive the vessel at a speed of from 18 to 20 statute

miles an hour. The two pairs of paddle-wheels are placed 106 feet

apart, and each wheel is 27 feet 10 inches in diameter, fitted with

twelve feathering floats. Many of the inventions first produced in

the _Great Eastern_ have been adopted also in the _Bessemer_, such as

hydraulic gear for starting the engines and for steering, telegraphic

wires leading from the bridges to the engine-rooms, and various other

ingenious contrivances to facilitate the working of the ship and her

machinery.

[Sidenote: Her swinging saloon.]

The “swinging saloon,” the invention of Mr. Bessemer, is in the centre

of the vessel, and is entered by two broad staircases leading to a

landing connected with the saloon by a flexible flooring. The saloon

itself is upheld on its axis by four steel supports, one at each end

and two close together in the middle. The aftermost of the two central

supports is hollow, and serves as part of the hydraulic machinery for

regulating the motion of the saloon itself, a spacious and elegant

apartment 70 feet in length, 35 feet wide and no less than 20 feet

high. It is presumed, that the hydraulic machinery will enable the

person in charge of it to keep the floor of this cabin perfectly level,

even when the ship herself is rolling violently in a heavy sea.[456]

Such are the vessels contemplated to supersede the existing Dover

and Calais packets. Although the _Castalia_ has not realised the

anticipated speed, and the _Bessemer_ has been found altogether

unsuitable for the service for which she was built, it would be

premature to condemn even her as a failure, while the _Castalia_, from

the comparative comfort she affords, is daily increasing in public

favour. I have not, however, hesitated to furnish my readers with full

particulars of these vessels, because they are interesting from their

novelty, and no great strides have, hitherto, been made, as we have

seen, in the art of ship-building or in the mode of propulsion, without

the aid of men, who have been bold enough to enter on novel and,

frequently, very costly experiments.

[Sidenote: The cigar ship built at Baltimore, 1858.]

[Sidenote: Similar ship built on the Thames in 1864.]

In these novelties, the Americans have, during recent years, taken

the lead, and, on this subject, I cannot omit to mention one of the

greatest maritime curiosities of this age, the cigar ship built at

Baltimore in 1858 by Messrs. Winans of that city,[457] who also,

subsequently, built another somewhat similar vessel on the Thames. Her

model in all respects resembled a cigar, or, in other words, she is a

great iron tube tapering away to a point at each end, and presenting

perhaps the strongest possible form for a ship, her deck being merely

the arc of a circle, on which were riveted staunchions for rails,

and between these a raised platform with seats on each side. She had

neither keel nor cutwater, and, in the language of the inventors, there

was “No blunt bow standing up above the water-line to receive blows

from heavy seas, no flat deck to hold, or close bulwark (as in the case

of ordinary vessels) to retain the water that a rough sea may cast upon

the vessel; neither mast, spars, nor rigging.” “The absence of sails,”

they add, “not only renders the parts thus abandoned by us useless,

but their abandonment in such a vessel as ours, will, we believe, most

materially promote safety, easy movement, or diminished strain of

vessels in rough weather; will save dead or nonpaying weight, insure

simplicity and economy of construction, and will give greater speed

in smooth water, less diminution of speed in rough water as well as

diminished resistance in moving power at all speeds in all water, and

result in shortening the average time of making sea voyages. The length

of our vessel,” they continue, “is more than eleven times its breadth

of beam, being 16 feet broad and 180 feet long. This whole length

is made available to secure water-lines, which are, materially, more

favourable to fast speed, and also to diminished resistance to moving

power of all speeds, than the water-lines of any of the sea-going

steamers now built, the best of which, looking to speed and ease of

movement, have a length of only eight times their breadth of beam:

the portion of our vessel not immersed, has the same lines as that

immersed, so that it will pass through the heaviest sea; while, from

its form and construction, no water can be shipped that will sensibly

affect the load, or endanger the safety of the vessel, which may, we

believe, be propelled at its highest speed in rough weather with an

impunity which is far from being attainable with vessels as now built,

to be propelled wholly or in part by sails.”

She was fitted with high pressure engines, and her boilers were on

the principle of those used in railway locomotives. With regard to

the propelling power it was a very novel application of the screw,

being a ring to which blades were attached at certain angles to

strike the water, the ring being itself made to revolve round the

vessel with great rapidity by the engines fitted in the centre of the

vessel; but Messrs. Winans do not furnish any further explanation

beyond stating that “Its position is such that its minimum hold of the

water will be much greater in proportion to the tonnage of the vessel

than the maximum hold of the propelling wheel or wheels in ordinary

steam-ships.” In the illustration to which I have referred there will

be found cross and longitudinal sections of this curious vessel.

[Sidenote: Perkins’s economical steam-engine,]

These “cigar” ships appear to have failed through want of sufficient

stability, or, more especially, on account of the novel and complicated

character of their machinery, yet the facility with which they can be

driven through the water may suggest a clue to further improvement

in the construction of ships or at least in their form. There is,

frequently, only a narrow line between the sublime and the ridiculous,

and, in the scheme of a madman (called mad because he proposes

something apparently wild and useless), there _may_ be found the germ

of really useful and grand inventions. Such fancies, therefore, ought

not, in all cases, to be cast aside with contempt, even though they may

create a smile from their novelty. Columbus was pronounced to be mad by

the most learned men of Spain, when he talked of exploring the Atlantic

in search of a world to the west. If Franklin, when he drew a spark

of lightning from the clouds by means of his kite, had spoken about

controlling that spark and rendering it the means of communication with

other parts of the globe, all men would have called him mad.[458] Even

the steam-boat herself was long considered the dream of a schemer.

Something useful may therefore still be learned from the plan of the

“cigar ship,” absurd as she may appear to the practical seaman. With

these feelings I read the other day with great interest a prospectus

brought casually under my notice of a plan for applying an improved

steam-engine (patented by Messrs. Perkins and Sons, Engineers, London),

to a vessel very similar in design to the cigar ship. The value of

this “economical steam-engine,” as it is termed, would seem to be the

greatly improved principle adopted by the patentees in the construction

of the boilers, which, they say, “will work with a pressure of steam

of 300 lbs. to the square inch, and on a consumption of coal not

exceeding 1½ lb. to the indicated horse-power per hour when working at

full speed.”[459] If anything like this can be really achieved, another

surprising stride will be made in the path of progress. The Lords of

the Admiralty, who have not hitherto been prone to adopt “novelties,”

appear to be of opinion that it can, as I understand that an engine

has been ordered from the Yorkshire Engineering Company on Messrs.

Perkins’s principle, and is now in course of construction to be fitted

on board her Majesty’s ship _Pelican_, a sea-going ship of war.

[Sidenote: and proposed fast boat,]

Combining this new principle with a form of hull somewhat resembling

the cigar, Messrs. Perkins propose “to construct and run an

experimental fast express steamer from England to New York for the

speedy crossing of the Atlantic, by passengers and mails as well as

parcels and light goods ... with a light draught of water, great length

and stability, and possessing steam power greatly in excess of any

steam-vessel now afloat.”

The general design of the steamer they propose is represented as

follows.

[Illustration]

It is proposed that she should be 800 feet in length with 40 feet beam,

and, having a flat bottom, it is calculated that she will not draw

more than 11 feet of water with her cargo, passengers, and 500 tons

of coal on board—the quantity estimated to be sufficient to take her

from Liverpool to New York. The midship part of the ship, of which the

following is a transverse section, will, Messrs. Perkins state, be

“400 feet in length, or about equal to that of a first-class Atlantic

steamer of the present day; she is to have every modern convenience”

to accommodate “1000 first-class passengers.” “This vessel,” the

projectors add, “is to be fitted with four separate and distinct

engines, working independent screws, two of which will be at either end

of the boat; they are to be of the collective working power of 12,500

horses, calculated to make the passage either way in 100 hours;” at the

average rate of 30 knots an hour.[460]

[Illustration]

Considering the great resistance which the displaced fluids must offer

to a speed on the ocean so enormous, it is not easy, with our present

state of knowledge, to conceive its realization; but the projectors are

sanguine of success, and, therefore, while recording the results of the

past, I place before my readers such information as is likely to be

interesting, or may prove useful for the future. History is of little

value, unless it teaches lessons to those who are to fill our vacant

places, and, even at the risk of wearying my readers, I have for this

reason gone more into detail than I should otherwise have done on such

subjects, with a full conviction, that we have still very much more to

learn, and especially as regards ships, than one man can hope to teach.

[Sidenote: The Engine of the _Comet_.]

Though the different stages of improvement on the steam-ship have been

carefully and fully recorded, it may be interesting to notice briefly

the progress which has been made in the marine steam-engine itself.

With that object I present my readers with a woodcut of the engine of

the _Comet_ constructed by James Watt and fitted into that boat by Mr.

Robertson, who is still living, and whose photograph accompanies the

illustration. This famous machine is now exhibited at South Kensington,

in the Museum of Patents.

[Illustration: “COMET” ENGINE.]

This engine, which was a “high pressure” one, is simple in construction

and light in weight, and, though many improvements have been made

since it first drove the _Comet_, to the wonder of the people on the

Clyde, few of these changes have embodied any important principles.

Although great strides have been made in the economy of fuel, and in

the harmonious working of engines, the general principle of their

action has undergone no change. By the reciprocating movements of a

steam impelled piston within a closed cylinder, the motive power of the

modern steam-ship is obtained, as in the _Comet_; yet, probably, on

no other subject has more mechanical ingenuity been lavished than on

the marine engine. Twenty years ago, almost every engineer had his own

peculiar type, comprising the “side lever,” the “steeple engine,” the

“grasshopper,” the “trunk,” the “oscillating,” and the “direct acting

engine,” with an endless variety of sub-combinations; but, after all,

these were only variations in the engine left to us by Watt, which, a

few years ago, might be seen in some of the small coasting craft plying

between the Mersey and the Dee and elsewhere.[461]

[Sidenote: Modifications in the construction of Marine Engines.]

It was only when surface condensation and the compound principle were

adopted, with improved boilers, and superior modes of raising steam and

of more effectually applying its power, that the marine engine made

any substantial advance. Thirty or forty years ago the usual pressure

in a marine boiler seldom exceeded from 3 to 4 lbs. above that of the

atmosphere, and, consequently, one of its most necessary fittings was

a safety-valve opening inwardly, and called a “vacuum valve,” so as

to prevent the boiler collapsing if the steam pressure should chance

to fall below that of the atmosphere,[462] but now the usual working

pressure is 60 lbs., and 300 lbs. is the pressure to which many men of

science think we are now advancing.