=Source.=--_Annual Register_, 1856, vol. 98; _Chronicle_, p. 1.
A magnificent iron paddle-wheel steamship the _Persia_, built by Napier
and Sons, of Glasgow, for the Cunard Company, has made her trial trip.
This ship will be the largest steamship afloat in the world, until
another shall have been built which shall surpass her. Such have been
the advances made in our ideas of ships, and especially of steamships
of late years, that the giant of to-day is the pigmy of to-morrow;
and the chief use of these records is to show what was a magnificent
ship at the commencement of 1856. The _Persia_ is built of iron; her
dimensions are: Length from figurehead to taffrail, 390 feet; length in
the water, 360 feet; breadth of the hull, 45 feet; breadth over all, 71
feet; depth, 32 feet; burden, 3,600 tons; diameter of paddle-wheels, 40
feet.
By the Government rule of measure, her steam-power would be equal to
900 horses; according to Watt’s mode of reckoning it would be equal to
4,000 horses at least. The ship is of beautiful model, and combined so
as to secure the greatest mechanical strength. Her keel-plates are of
sheet-iron, 11/16 of an inch thick; the bottom plates 15/16; up to the
water-line, 11/16. She is divided into seven water-tight compartments,
besides which she has, in effect, a double bottom. She has two engines
and eight boilers. She will afford separate and roomy accommodation
for 260 passengers, and will carry a crew of 150 men. Besides splendid
saloons and all other requisite apartments for her passengers, she has
a bakery, butcher’s shambles, scullery, cow-house, carpenter’s shop,
doctor’s shop, ice-houses, bath-rooms, and twenty water-closets. The
builders’ calculations as to her speed were not disappointed, for on
her voyage round from Glasgow to Liverpool she made an average of more
than 16 knots, or 19 miles an hour.