The deck was still nothing but an immense timber-yard given up to an
army of workmen. I could not believe I was on board a ship. Several
thousand men—workmen, crew, engineers, officers, mechanics,
lookers-on—mingled and jostled together without the least concern, some
on deck, others in the engine-room; here pacing the upper decks, there
scattered in the rigging, all in an indescribable pell-mell. Here
fly-wheel cranes were raising enormous pieces of cast-iron, there heavy
joists were hoisted by steam-windlasses; above the engine-rooms an iron
cylinder, a metal shaft in fact, was balanced. At the bows, the yards
creaked as the sails were hoisted; at the stern rose a scaffolding
which, doubtless, concealed some building in construction. Building,
fixing, carpentering, rigging, and painting, were going on in the midst
of the greatest disorder.
[Illustration: CARPENTERING, RIGGING, AND PAINTING.]
My luggage was already on board. I asked to see Captain Anderson, and
was told that he had not yet arrived; but one of the stewards undertook
to install me, and had my packages carried to one of the aft-cabins.
“My good fellow,” said I to him, “the ‘Great Eastern’ was announced to
sail on the 20th of March, but is it possible that we can be ready in
twenty-four hours? Can you tell me when we may expect to leave
Liverpool?”
But in this respect the steward knew no more than I did, and he left me
to myself. I then made up my mind to visit all the ins and outs of this
immense ant-hill, and began my walk like a tourist in a foreign town. A
black mire—that British mud which is so rarely absent from the pavement
of English towns—covered the deck of the steam-ship; dirty gutters wound
here and there. One might have thought oneself in the worst part of
Upper Thames Street, near London Bridge. I walked on, following the
upper decks towards the stern. Stretching on either side were two wide
streets, or rather boulevards, filled with a compact crowd; thus
walking, I came to the centre of the steam-ship between the paddles,
united by a double set of bridges.
Here opened the pit containing the machinery of the paddle-wheels, and I
had an opportunity of looking at this admirable locomotive engine. About
fifty workmen were scattered on the metallic skylights, some clinging to
the long suction-pumps fixing the eccentric wheels, others hanging on
the cranks riveting iron wedges with enormous wrenches. After having
cast a rapid glance over these fitting works, I continued my walk till I
reached the bows, where the carpenters were finishing the decoration of
a large saloon called the “smoking-room,” a magnificent apartment with
fourteen windows; the ceiling white and gold, and wainscoted with
lemon-coloured panels. Then, after having crossed a small triangular
space at the bows, I reached the stem, which descends perpendicularly
into the water.
Turning round from this extreme point, through an opening in the mists,
I saw the stern of the “Great Eastern” at a distance of more than two
hundred yards.
I returned by the boulevards on the starboard side, avoiding contact
with the swaying pulleys and the ropes of the rigging, lashed in all
directions by the wind; now keeping out of the way, here of the blows of
a fly-wheel crane, and further on, of the flaming scoria which were
showering from a forge like a display of fireworks. I could hardly see
the tops of the masts, two hundred feet in height, which lost themselves
in the mist, increased by the black smoke from the tenders and colliers.
After having passed the great hatchway of the engine-rooms, I observed a
“small hotel” on my left, and then the spacious side walls of a palace
surmounted by a terrace, the railings of which were being varnished. At
last I reached the stern of the steam-ship, and the place I had already
noticed where the scaffolding was erected. Here between the last small
deck cabin and the enormous gratings of the hatchways, above which rose
the four wheels of the rudder, some engineers had just finished placing
a steam-engine. The engine was composed of two horizontal cylinders, and
presented a system of pinions, levers, and blocks which seemed to me
very complicated. I did not understand at first for what it was
intended, but it appeared that here, as everywhere else, the
preparations were far from complete.
And now, why all these delays? Why so many new arrangements on board the
“Great Eastern,” a comparatively new ship? The reason may be explained
in a few words.
After twenty passages from England to America, one of which was marked
by very serious disasters, the use of the “Great Eastern” was
temporarily abandoned, and this immense ship, arranged to accommodate
passengers, seemed no longer good for anything. When the first attempt
to lay the Atlantic cable had failed,—partly because the number of ships
which carried it was insufficient—engineers thought of the “Great
Eastern.” She alone could store on board the 2100 miles of metallic
wire, weighing 4500 tons. She alone, thanks to her perfect indifference
to the sea, could unroll and immerse this immense cable. But special
arrangements were necessary for storing away the cable in the ship’s
hold. Two out of six boilers were removed, and one chimney out of three
belonging to the screw engine; in their places large tanks were placed
for the cable, which was immersed in water to preserve it from the
effects of variation of the atmosphere; the wire thus passed from these
tanks of water into the sea without suffering the least contact with the
air.
The laying of the cable having been successfully accomplished, and the
object in view attained, the “Great Eastern” was once more left in her
costly idleness. A French company, called the “Great Eastern Company,
Limited,” was floated with a capital of 2,000,000 francs, with the
intention of employing the immense ship for the conveyance of passengers
across the Atlantic. Thus the reason for rearranging the ship to this
purpose, and the consequent necessity of filling up the tanks and
replacing the boilers, of enlarging the saloons in which so many people
were to live during the voyage, and of building extra dining saloons,
finally the arrangement of a thousand berths in the sides of the
gigantic hull.
The “Great Eastern” was freighted to the amount of 25,000 francs a
month. Two contracts were arranged with G. Forrester and Co., of
Liverpool, the first to the amount of 538,750 francs, for making new
boilers for the screw; the second to the amount of 662,500 francs for
general repairs, and fixings on board.
Before entering upon the last undertaking, the Board of Trade required
that the ship’s hull should undergo a strict examination. This costly
operation accomplished, a long crack in her exterior plates was
carefully repaired at a great expense, and the next proceeding was to
fix the new boilers; the driving main-shaft of the wheels, which had
been damaged during the last voyage, had to be replaced by a shaft,
provided with two eccentric wheels, which insured the solidity of this
important part. And now for the first time the “Great Eastern” was to be
steered by steam.
It was for this delicate operation that the engineers intended the
engine which they had placed at the stern. The steersman standing on the
bridge between the signal apparatus of the wheels and the screw, has
before his eyes a dial provided with a moving needle, which tells him
every moment the position of his rudder. In order to modify it, he has
only to press his hand lightly on a small wheel, measuring hardly a foot
in diameter, and placed within his reach. Immediately the valves open,
the steam from the boilers rushes along the conducting tubes into the
two cylinders of the small engine, the pistons move rapidly, and the
rudder instantly obeys. If this plan succeeds, a man will be able to
direct the gigantic body of the “Great Eastern” with one finger.
For five days operations continued with distracting activity. These
delays considerably affected the enterprise of the freighters, but the
contractors could do no more. The day for setting sail was irrevocably
settled for the 26th of March. The 25th still saw the deck strewn with
all kinds of tools.
During this last day, however, little by little the gangways were
cleared, the scaffoldings were taken down, the fly-wheel cranes
disappeared, the fixing of the engines was accomplished, the last screws
and nails were driven in, the reservoirs filled with oil, and the last
slab rested on its metal mortise. This day the chief engineer tried the
boilers. The engine-rooms were full of steam; leaning over the hatchway,
enveloped in a hot mist, I could see nothing, but I heard the long
pistons groaning, and the huge cylinders noisily swaying to and fro on
their solid swing blocks. The muddy waters of the Mersey were lashed
into foam by the slowly revolving paddle-wheels; at the stern, the screw
beat the waves with its four blades; the two engines, entirely
independent of each other, were in complete working order.
Towards five o’clock a small steamer, intended as a shore-boat for the
“Great Eastern,” came alongside. Her movable engine was first hoisted on
board by means of windlasses, but as for the steamer herself, she could
not be embarked. Her steel hull was so heavy that the davits to which it
was attached bent under the weight, undoubtedly this would not have
occurred had they supported them with lifts. Therefore they were obliged
to abandon the steamer, but there still remained on the “Great Eastern”
a string of sixteen boats hanging to the davits.
Everything was finished by evening; not a trace of mud was visible on
the well-swept boulevards, for an army of sweepers had been at work.
There was a full cargo; provisions, goods, and coal filled the stewards’
room, the store, and the coal houses. However, the steamer had not yet
sunk to the load water-line, and did not draw the necessary thirty-three
feet. It was an inconvenient position for the wheels, for the paddles
not being sufficiently immersed, caused a great diminution in the speed.
Nevertheless it was possible to set sail, and I went to bed with the
hope of starting next day. I was not disappointed, for at break of dawn
I saw the English, French, and American flags floating from the masts.