The first mail steam-ship line between Liverpool and Canada was started by McKean, McLarty, and Lamont of Liverpool in 1852 under contract with the Government, but the effort was a failure, and in the next year H. and A. Allan undertook the work. Their first steamer was the Canadian in 1853, followed by the Indian, North American, and Anglo-Saxon, and as the Grand Trunk Railway was completed next year to Portland, this town became the winter terminus of the line and Montreal the summer terminus. Upon the completion of the intercolonial railway in 1876, connecting Quebec with Halifax, the Nova Scotian port became the winter terminus of the Allan Line. By 1882 the service had increased to such an extent that the sailings were made weekly instead of fortnightly. In 1862 the Allans established a line between Glasgow and Montreal; a few years afterwards sailings were made between London and Canada, and more recently still Continental calls were added.

The Donaldson Line, established in 1855, has for many years maintained a service between Glasgow and Montreal, its vessels ranging from sailers to some of the finest steamers entering the St. Lawrence River. Its present service is performed with the twin-screw steamers Athenia and Cassandra, and nine single-screw boats; and another twin-screw boat, the Saturnia, is shortly to be delivered, and will be of about 8000 tons, the largest in the company’s fleet. The salient feature of the Donaldson Line passenger steamers is the carriage of one class of cabin passengers only, called second cabin. This enables travellers to enjoy the best the ships afford, the accommodation being equal to that on many long-distance steamers, such as those that go to Australia. Its first steamer to Montreal was the Astarte in 1874, upon the withdrawal of the line from the South American trade in which it had been engaged up to then; and its Canadian service, fortnightly at first, became weekly in 1880. A line to Baltimore, Maryland, was established in the winter of 1886-7, and the winter service to Canada began with the Baltimore boats calling at Halifax on their west-bound voyages.

No further attempt was made by the Americans to establish a line of steamers across the Atlantic until 1871, but in that year Messrs. Cramp of Philadelphia received orders for four large steamers of over 3000 tons each, and these with some English vessels maintained the service of the American Line. In 1884 the Red Star Line took over the line and ran the boats as cargo steamers. They were again transferred in 1893 to another American Line which three years later sold them. In the meantime, the later American Line ordered a number of vessels and, besides buying up the Inman Line, absorbed the Inman and International, which owned the steamers City of Paris and City of New York. The new owners dropped the words “City of,” and also had two steamers built in America to comply with the Act of Congress under which the line was formed.

The screw propeller was naturally not long in commending itself to the builders of ships for the long voyages to India and Australia.

Mr. John Dudgeon, in an article published in 1856 on steam expansion and the suitability of expansion engines for long voyages, was almost prophetic in his remarks on the relative value of the screw propeller and the paddle-wheel. In the article he said:

“The application of this property in steam to Australian screw steam navigation, would, if adopted, effect a radical change in the whole question. When we find that vessels of the magnitude of the Great Britain have to run thousands of miles out of their course to get a fresh supply of coal, it becomes a question whether that state of matters may not be amended. I therefore propose that vessels of, say, 2000 tons be built and fitted with engines working up to 1100 horses actual power, which would ... consume 1609·5 lb. of coal per hour, and with this power the vessel would steam at least 10 knots an hour ... equal to 19 tons 4 cwt. per day and a speed of 240 knots; 500 tons of coal would therefore be enough for a run of twenty-five days, and 6000 nautical miles. Should it be deemed prudent to carry a reserve stock, coal for an additional 1500 miles would still not seriously interfere with the carrying properties of a large vessel, while it would obviate the necessity of having any stoppage but the Cape between Great Britain and Port Phillip. A vessel of 2000 tons builders’ measurement will carry at least 2000 tons dead weight, over and above her own weight of ship and machinery. Presuming that she takes coal for 9000 miles, or 750 tons, we still have a balance of 1250 tons for cargo and, in a well-arranged vessel, room for 350 passengers. Now I apprehend that as regularity and multiplied means of communication are the prime wants in all commercial matters, we should do better to sail such ships as these, with frequent departures, than if we were to build vessels of double the size, and have double the time to wait for a full freight and a full complement of passengers. No doubt that in a vessel double the size we may manage to carry coal for the whole distance to Port Phillip, but I apprehend that the delay of waiting for freight and passengers would more than balance the delay of coaling at the Cape. It must also be cheaper to send out coals in vessels adapted for the trade of carrying coal, than to occupy the valuable room in even a large vessel which ought to be appropriated to the carriage of that class of goods which will pay for rapid steam communication. The sole question at issue is: Can a vessel of from 2000 to 3000 tons be worked with an economy equal to a vessel of from 4000 to 6000 tons? I contend that not only is such the case, but that the balance of returns, and convenience to the public, must be in favour of the moderate-sized vessel. With such Leviathan vessels there is, first, the double outlay upon one ship and corresponding interest of capital; secondly, there is a double risk in case of losing the ship; a correspondingly higher premium of insurance; additional risk of not having full cargo; additional time required for procuring freight, stowing, and loading vessel, and the almost impossible feat to be performed of finding a sufficiently large body of passengers ready to go at the same time; the impossibility of entering the ordinary docks in the kingdom necessitating the use of a port of embarkation at a distance from the main channel of business. The whole of these weighty objections then have to be balanced by the economy theoretically presumed to be attainable by the increased capacity of vessels for carrying coal, cargo, and passengers. It appears obvious that coal-carrying can be done cheaper by auxiliary vessels, where the station is in a direct line, than by the vessel carrying them herself. It is only when the power of carrying coal is so small or the consumption is so large, that the vessel is forced to make a great number of stoppages, and make considerable detours to arrive at coaling stations, that stopping to coal becomes so serious an evil.”

The writer goes on to contend that the propeller should be placed outside the rudder, so that a coarse pitch may work with proper effect, “as it is clearly proved that working the propeller in the deadwood destroys a large portion of its useful effect, so much so that an increase in the pitch of a propeller to the extent of one-third does not show more slip (when used behind the rudder) than the two-thirds when used before it.” He further contended that the proportion of stroke to diameter should be greater in an engine that is to drive a screw propeller direct than what is required for applying the same power to a paddle-wheel, and it would soon be found that as an instrument of propulsion, even for great speed, the screw would not be inferior to the most approved patent paddle-wheel.

One has only to read a declaration of this character, by one of the leading shipbuilders of his day, and then compare the situation, the difficulties of which appeared to him wellnigh insuperable, but every one of which has passed away, with the frequent sailings of the enormous vessels which journey the whole of the way between England and Australia under steam alone without stopping, and carry passengers by the hundred, to realise the phenomenal developments which have marked the progress of the last fifty years.

Races between steamers fitted with the rival modes of propulsion were not uncommon, but did not always take place with official sanction, though the results were carefully noted. One most exciting race was held by arrangement in the Channel to test the relative capacities of twin-screw and paddle boats in March 1865, the competitors being the twin-screw steamer Mary Augusta and the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company’s new steamer La France, said to be the fastest boat in the Channel service. The screw boat left Greenhithe early in the morning and steamed down to Dover to wait the departure of the mail steamer. The latter, when time was taken, was about three cables’ length ahead of and on the weather bow of the Mary Augusta. The screw drew level, but a hot bearing developed in her starboard engine, necessitating that engine making fewer revolutions and causing her to steer badly. She continued to gain however, her rival, according to a contemporary record, “emitting such immense volumes of steam and smoke from her two funnels as satisfactorily proved that the engines were having more steam than they could make use of, and that La France could never at any time or under any circumstances during her yet short career have been driven with more purpose to win than at the present.” After the heated bearing was cooled the Mary Augusta resumed her full speed and the race was her own from that moment, and she reached Calais Pier three and a half miles ahead. The Mary Augusta returned to England at full speed without entering Calais Harbour. The time occupied by her in the double run from Dover to Calais and back was 2 hours 45 minutes 10 seconds, a rate of speed never equalled by any screw steamer before. She went to the Thames at full speed in a violent north-east gale and was back at Gravesend at a quarter-past nine the same evening.

We will now continue the history of the steam-ship services to the East, Africa, and South America. The P. & O. steamer Himalaya has already been mentioned. She was built of iron, was launched at Mare’s shipyard at Blackwall in May 1853, and was originally intended to carry paddle-wheels driven by engines of 1200 horse-power, but at an early stage in her construction it was decided that she should be a screw boat. Her engines, by John Penn and Son, were of 700 horse-power. This steamer was 340 feet between perpendiculars and 46 feet 2 inches beam, and of 3550 tons.

One notable steamer the company had was the Delta, launched in 1859 by the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company, and described as the handsomest of her class yet built on the Thames. She was a clipper-bowed vessel, carrying stump bowsprit, had two masts, and was fore and aft schooner-rigged. Her masts and her two funnels raked aft considerably, and gave her the appearance of possessing great speed. She was 350 feet in length over all, with a beam of 35 feet 3 inches. The engines, by Penn of Greenwich, were previously in the Valetta, from which they were taken to make room for machinery of less power. The change was of benefit to the Valetta, as she did equally well with her new engines. At her trial in Stokes Bay the Delta averaged rather more than 14¹⁄₂ knots an hour, stated to be a greater speed than had been attained there by any previous vessel. She was double the tonnage of the Valetta and carried 300 tons more coal, and had 1200 tons more displacement. Her engines, of 400 nominal horse-power, gave an indicated horse-power of over 1600.

The company kept abreast of the times in its steam-ships, and without displaying any recklessness was not behind in adopting innovations likely to be advantageous. Its experiences with the compound engine were not such, however, as to encourage it to take the lead with new inventions. Its first essay in this direction was in the Mooltan, built in 1860, and by 1864 several steamers had been constructed with the new and costly engines.

“But the result was a grave disappointment. The economy was undoubted; but the machinery, although it had been fitted by one of the most eminent firms in the country, regardless of cost, was found to be unreliable. The accidents were numerous, and although comparatively slight, they occurred so frequently that the efficiency of the mail service was in danger of being impaired. The result was that several of the ships thus fitted had these costly engines replaced by less complex machinery, involving the company in serious loss. The Mooltan was an example of a vessel fitted with appliances in advance of the age. Not only were her engines of the new type, but she was likewise fitted with hydraulic steering gear and refrigerating machinery; and all these appliances had eventually to be removed, because they could not be relied on to work satisfactorily throughout a long voyage. It was not until 1869 that the company succeeded in building a steamer with high and low pressure machinery which could be considered thoroughly successful.”[88]

The African Steamship Company was incorporated in 1852 to carry out a contract with the British Government for conveying the mails monthly to the principal ports of the west coast of Africa and to Madeira and Teneriffe, and also to establish a line of steamers between Sierra Leone and the West Indies. The contract for the mails was entered into by Mr. Macgregor Laird in December 1851, and was for ten years from the ensuing December, commencing with an annual payment of £23,250 and diminishing by £500 a year during the continuance of the contract, thus averaging £21,500 per annum.

Five steamers were built for this service by Laird of Birkenhead; they were of iron and were screw-propelled vessels. By 1860 the company was in difficulties and it was proposed to wind it up, but the directors were persuaded to try a service between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa, with excellent results to all concerned for a time, but the control of the company was not too efficient in London and the concern dwindled until, in 1891, it passed into the possession of Elder Dempster and Co., and then progressed even more rapidly than it had previously declined.

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, who it will be remembered launched their first steamers in 1841, adopted the screw propeller in 1849 when they launched the Esk. They were the first to adopt screw propulsion for the conveyance of mails. The company assisted the Panama Railroad Company in 1850 by lending them 125,000 dollars towards the completion of the railroad across the isthmus, and in January 1851 opened a mail service from Southampton to Brazil and the River Plate. Several of their steamers were chartered as transports during the Crimean War. The Dee was chartered in 1860 to the French Government to convey the “Irish Brigade,” which had been raised in Ireland to fight for Pope Pius IX. against Garibaldi, from Havre to Cork on their return from Italy.

In the following year the Confederate States commissioners, Messrs. Slidell and Mason, were taken by force in West Indian waters by the Federals from the R.M.S.P. Trent. The “Trent affair,” as the ensuing international crisis was called, ended in January 1862, when the company’s La Plata arrived at Southampton with the two commissioners on board.

The Shannon, one of their steamers, arrived at Southampton in August 1864 from the West Indies with a record consignment of specie, consisting of gold and silver to the value of £1,511,426 in 2207 packages, which was transferred to the Bank of England in forty-one waggons. In 1869 the R.M.S.P. transatlantic steamers extended their voyage from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Ayres, thus avoiding transfer to smaller vessels at Rio de Janeiro; the Douro being the steamer inaugurating this extension.

The steam-ship Victoria, built of iron in 1852 for the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, gained the prize of £500 offered by the colonies for the fastest voyage to Australia. Her time from Gravesend to Adelaide was sixty days, including two days’ stay at St. Vincent. She was designed by Messrs. I. K. Brunel and J. Scott Russell for a speed of ten knots under full steam, and to provide as much passenger accommodation and space for high-priced cargo as her coal requirements would permit. She was 261 feet on the water-line and registered 1350 tons. The entrance and run of the ship were of the wave-like form, while the central 45 feet were parallel; the bilges were round, the topsides tumbled home, and there was no external keel, so that she was very heavy in a seaway. The hull was in twelve water-tight compartments, and longitudinal bulkheads were carried through from the engine and boiler rooms so as to separate the coal from the machinery. The engines were of the oscillating type. The ship had four masts and a sail area of 1540 square yards. Under steam alone the engines at full power made 59 revolutions per minute and gave a speed of 11 knots, with a coal consumption of 37 tons per 24 hours. Under sail alone, with the screw held vertically, the speed was 5¹⁄₂ knots, but when the screw was allowed to run freely the speed increased to 7¹⁄₂ knots. Her average speed was nearly 11³⁄₄ knots.

The Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s operations were confined to the west coast of South America until 1865, when, in pursuance of a supplemental charter, it extended its sphere to the River Plate. Steamers were specially built for the service, and in 1868, the Pacific, after being about three years on the coast, sailed for Liverpool from Valparaiso to inaugurate the new mail service. Six other iron screw vessels were added and the venture proved so profitable that it was determined to make the sailings fortnightly, and the steamers Chimborazo, Aconcagua, Garonne, Cuzco, and Lusitania were built. All these steamers were afterwards in the Orient Line’s service to Australia, together with the John Elder, which was one of the earlier batch of boats on the Liverpool-Valparaiso route. Seven more steamers were added in 1871, and by 1873 the number of new vessels totalled eighteen. They were all clipper-bowed barque-rigged steamers and were very handsome craft. After this the company went in for the straight stem and pole-masted type of steamer.

The rivalry in the various over-sea trades was very great, and no sooner did one shipowner secure a vessel which surpassed its competitors than other owners sought to improve upon it. The sailing ships were soon obliged to give way to the steam auxiliary vessels, especially when craft like the Lightning appeared. The Lightning was built by the Hendersons of Glasgow, and so pleased were her owners, Messrs. Apcar of Calcutta, and their representative, Captain Durham, with her, that he ordered the Thunder. The Thunder was built by Mr. Lungley at his yard on the Thames and engined by Messrs. Dudgeon, and was an improved edition of her predecessor.

The Thunder was launched in December 1859, and soon demonstrated that she was the fastest steamer yet provided with a screw propeller. She was a handsome vessel, ship-rigged, with clipper bows, and her masts and funnels had a slight rake which gave her a very attractive appearance. Her length was 240 feet between perpendiculars, beam 30 feet, depth 22¹⁄₂ feet, and her tonnage, builder’s measurement, was 1062. The engines were of 210 nominal horse-power with cylinders of 55 inches diameter, and a piston stroke of three feet. A peculiarity in her boilers was that they consumed the fuel and heat in furnaces and tubes to the point that the remainder escaped up the chimney and heated the superheater to a temperature of 300 degrees, without regulation. On her trial trip she travelled at the rate of at least seventeen statute miles per hour, and afterwards did even better. Her coal consumption also was the lowest then attained, being about one pound per indicated horse-power per hour. Her screw was of the ordinary type and was placed outside the rudder. The Lightning and the Thunder were both employed in the China trade.

The first ocean-going screw steam-ship of her class to which the modern double or twin-screw system was applied was the iron vessel Far East, which was launched from Dudgeon’s yard, Millwall, towards the close of 1863. She was intended for the China tea trade of the owners of the Lightning and Thunder. The Far East was 227 feet between perpendiculars and 210 feet on the keel; 34 feet beam, 22 feet moulded depth, and 20 feet 6 inches depth of hold; her depth at load water-line was 17 feet, her displacement 2200 tons, and her builder’s measurement tonnage 1258 tons. On her upper deck she had a capacious poop and forecastle, and there were deck-house and cabins amidships. Her engines were of 150 nominal horse-power, driving a two-bladed lifting screw under each quarter. The engines had annular combined cylinders, the diameter of the high-pressure cylinder being 24 inches and of the expansive cylinder 50 inches, with a piston stroke of 24 inches. The screws were 8 feet 2 inches in diameter, with a pitch of 16 feet. Each of the two boilers had six furnaces with 109 square feet of firebar surface, and a tube surface of 1883 feet. The shafting of the screws projected through a wrought-iron tube of great strength bolted to a false iron bulkhead clear of the ship’s frame. The tube at its outer end was connected with a wrought-iron slide, which guided the screw to the well when being lifted, or to the shafting when being lowered. The screws were raised by a worm and barrel apparatus. The lower and top masts were of iron bolted together through flanges, and the topgallant masts fitted closely into the topmast heads, so that the masts from deck to button looked like immense slender poles. There were no tops, but light iron cross-trees spread the rigging, and preventive top and topgallant backstays were carried far aft of the lower rigging. Her funnel was placed well abaft the main-mast. She was given a full rig on all three masts, and in addition carried fore and main try-sails.

No sooner was she afloat than the double-screw steamer Pallas was sent into the water from the adjoining slipway; this being the first time on record that two iron twin-screw vessels were launched from the same yard on the same day.

In January 1865 the double twin-screw steam-ship, Louisa Ann Fanny, was launched, and as it was thought she might possibly be acquired by the Confederates, the bunkers were so arranged as to afford ample protection for her engines from hostile shot. Her machinery consisted of horizontal direct-acting engines with cylinders of 40 inches diameter, and 22¹⁄₂ inch stroke, driving two three-bladed screws of 9 feet 3 inches diameter and a pitch of 17 feet 3 inches, the distance from centre to centre of the screws being 10 feet 10 inches. She attained, when loaded, a speed estimated at 15³⁄₄ miles an hour after allowing for the tide.

Want of space has prevented the relation of further details of the steam-ship history of the period, though a few from the long list of steam-ship companies of other countries may be mentioned. The Messageries Maritimes de France grew out of a company formed to carry inland mails. In 1851 they contracted to carry some of the oversea mails, and extending their operations as the years went on are now the largest steam-ship company in France. The next largest French company is the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, which was formed in 1862 and is also a mail carrier. To this company belong the largest steamers ever constructed in France. The Hamburg-America Company of Germany launched its first steamer, the Borussia, in 1855 for the Atlantic service, and the Norddeutscher Lloyd followed in 1856 with the Bremen. These boats were, however, built in Great Britain, as all large German steam-ships were until comparatively modern times. The Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Company, which belongs to Trieste, was founded as far back as 1836 for the Mediterranean service.

This chapter may be fitly brought to a conclusion with a reference to the Great Eastern—the wonder and the failure of her age in popular estimation. To the general public she appeared as an extraordinarily large ship which was a complete failure as a commercial undertaking. To a few she was the embodiment of all that skill and scientific genius had conceived in construction up to that time. She was the great illustration of the longitudinal system of construction invented by Scott Russell, and of the use of longitudinal and transverse bulkheads.

Scott Russell’s invention of the longitudinal frame was due to his perception of the fact that as vessels increased in size the longitudinal strain would become greater, especially when they were carrying heavy machinery amidships or nearly so. In the vessels of the size then constructed the longitudinal strain experienced by small iron ships was comparatively small. One method adopted to strengthen hulls longitudinally was to give them a number of floor-plates, forming a strong continuous keelson. Other keelsons were also constructed to run fore and aft near the bilges; a bilge stringer was added, while on the outside, bilge keels were sometimes fixed. Russell introduced the system in 1835, but the registration societies did not look with approval on the innovation and nothing came of it at the time.

As ships were made larger, however, the nature of the stresses they had to bear became better understood, and precautions had to be taken to prevent the hogging and sagging to which they are subjected by the motion of the sea, besides the lateral and other stresses. In 1835-6 Mr. Russell built three small iron vessels, one of which had a longitudinal middle-line bulkhead and four transverse bulkheads connected by longitudinal stringers and without transverse frames. The other two had no longitudinal bulkheads but were fitted with a greater number of transverse partitions and stringers. He applied the latter method in 1850 to a small iron screw boat on the Humber, and in her some deep web plates were fastened by angle irons to the shell-plating and were also stiffened with angle irons along the inner edge. The inventor described this arrangement as being ordinary transverse bulkheads with the whole of the centre portion removed. The same year he built an iron paddle-steamer, 145 feet in length by 15 feet beam, and 7 feet 6 inches depth, on the longitudinal principle. Notwithstanding its extraordinary length in proportion to its beam and depth the vessel was a perfect success. One notable vessel constructed on this principle was the Rhenus, 197 feet over all, by 25 feet extreme breadth, and 9 feet depth, and drawing only 3 feet of water. These vessels, which were almost experimental in character, were followed by several others of a more highly developed type, such as the Baron Osy, a fine and fast paddle-steamer launched in 1855 for the London and Antwerp service. She was strengthened with the partial or open bulkheads of the type already described, which acted as frames, and had broad top stringers under the deck. This vessel had an oscillating condensing engine with two cylinders, and her paddles gave her a speed above that of other vessels on the route. The success achieved by her, both in regard to constructional strength and seaworthiness, had not a little to do with the designing of the Great Eastern. Before this, however, in 1852, Scott Russell designed with Brunel, who was consulting engineer to the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, two steamers, the Victoria and Adelaide, on the wave-line principle, but they were not on his longitudinal system though including some of its features. In these vessels he introduced for the first time fore and aft bulkheads amidships combined with a part iron deck. They had an important influence on the adoption of the longitudinal system, as the constructional strength of the vessels was provided for by the addition of a flat keelson extending almost to the bilges and connected at either side with a longitudinal bulkhead which formed the coal bunkers and rose as high as the main deck, the hull thereby being transformed into a powerful box-girder. The experience derived from these vessels caused them to be the forerunners of the Great Eastern, and like her they were a financial failure. They could not carry enough fuel for the voyage, and this and other considerations led Brunel to design the great ship in an attempt to solve the difficulties to which these vessels had directed attention. He estimated that the vessel would be able to attain a speed of 15 knots at a less coal consumption per ton than any steamer in existence. The Eastern Navigation Company was formed in 1851 and decided on the construction of a steamer in accordance with his views. It was proposed to run a line of big steamers to the East, via the Cape of Good Hope, and as the vessels were referred to as Leviathans the name Leviathan was chosen for the first (and, as it happened, the last) vessel the company ever owned. This was the Great Eastern. The lines of the vessel were designed by Russell, who also built the hull. The details of the ship’s construction were settled by Russell and Brunel; the longitudinal system was adopted, together with the bulkhead system, to which Russell attached such importance.

The Great Eastern was built with an inner skin from the keel to the water-line, thus being a double-hulled vessel. The inner and outer skins were of the same thickness of iron plates, the bottom plates being one inch thick and the other plates three-quarters of an inch. The space between the two hulls was 34 to 36 inches, and this was estimated to hold 2500 tons of water-ballast if required. The transverse iron bulkheads divided the ship into a number of compartments, each sixty feet long, and in order to add to the strength of the ship and increase her safety in case of collision, there was no opening in these bulkheads lower than the level of the second deck. For 350 feet of her length the vessel had two longitudinal bulkheads 36 feet apart, beside which there was a second intermediate bulkhead up to the main deck, forming a coal bunker. Five of her six masts were of iron and hollow, and the sixth of wood.

The project of building this enormous ship was received with enthusiasm by the public. Every item of news, correct or otherwise, was welcomed eagerly, and the newspapers vied with each other in the extravagance of their assertions. She had both paddle-wheels and a screw propeller, and it was confidently stated that she would attain a speed of even twenty-five miles an hour, and this, it was thought, might be exceeded if she had a strong favourable wind and used both her mechanical aids. Her size was expected to make her indifferent to the storms of the ocean, and her behaviour at sea was confidently prophesied under all sorts of conditions.

Chambers’ Journal published an article in which the powers of the vessel were set forth, and in which it said:

“It has generally been conceived that the ill-fated President steam-ship snapped across some Atlantic wave, as a match might be snapped between the fingers; the still more gigantic Great Western, Himalaya, Atrato, and Persia have, however, since that unfortunate accident, continued to plough their ways in safety through the ocean storms. The Great Britain lay for months among the breakers of the rock-bound coast of Ireland, and yet finally floated off unscathed, to render good service to the British Government as a transport in time of need. The grand experiment of the cyclopean order of naval architecture is, however, in preparation, and shortly to be put to the test. The Great Eastern Steam Navigation Company have for some time been engaged in building an iron ship upon a scale, both as regards absolute dimensions and strength of material, that will at once change all its leviathan predecessors into pigmies.

“The upper deck runs flush and clear from stem to stern for a breadth of about twenty feet on either side, thus affording two magnificent promenades for the passengers just within the bulwarks. These promenades will be each rather more than the eighth part of a mile long. Four turns up and down either of them would exceed a mile by 256 feet. The vessel when launched will be more than as long again as the steam-ship Great Britain; it will be nearly three times as long as the line-of-battle ship the Duke of Wellington, and nearly as long again as the Himalaya; eighty-eight feet more would make it as long again as the Persia, at present the longest vessel afloat upon the ocean.

“It is anticipated that this multiplication of internal braces and supports will be sufficient to enable the hollow hull to resist, as a whole, very much more violence and much heavier strains than the elements can ever inflict upon it.

“It is calculated that a sharp long wedge of this kind, impelled by the force of nearly 4000 horses, and extending its length on the water along a distance of nearly 700 feet, will pass through it with the speed of twenty miles an hour. This would be amply sufficient to enable it to make the voyage to India, round the Cape of Good Hope, in thirty days, or to Australia in thirty-three days.

“The anchors alone will weigh 55 tons, and there will be 200 tons of capstans, cables, and warps connected with them. These ponderous implements obviously could not be wielded by human hands, and accordingly steam-sailors will be prepared to do what the flesh-and-blood sailors would not be able to accomplish. There will be journeymen steam-engines stationed conveniently for effecting the anchoring and weighing, and, indeed, for performing many other services ordinarily carried out by the crew. Possibly there will be steam-steersmen for the guidance of the mass. It is on account of this supplementary and subsidiary steam-service that only 400 men will be needed to work so vast a ship.

“Once again, how will the winds and the waves affect this leviathan mass, when they chance to be in their surly and ungenial moods? A connected mass of 27,000 tons is not as easily heaved as a cork or a cockle-shell; but the storm-winds and the storm-waves of the open ocean have a tremendous power. What will they do then, with this stupendous morsel, when they have it fairly within their clutches? The heaviest hurricane-wind blows with a force that would act upon a square foot of resisting surface with a pressure equivalent to a weight of 40 lb. Such a wind could only heel the leviathan with its full load out of the perpendicular to the extent of six inches even if it struck it quite on the side! The waves of a fresh sea run about 100 feet long. Those of a moderate sea are 300 feet long. Of such the leviathan would take two at once, and would preserve the while almost an even keel. The highest storm-waves ever seen on the wide and deep ocean are only 28 feet high from trough to crest, and 600 feet long from trough to trough. Of course the leviathan would still take two at a time, when the crest of one was near to the bow, and the crest of the other near to the stern. Under the most unfavourable circumstances such waves would not disturb the horizontal equilibrium of the deck line to the extent of more than five degrees.... The captain of the leviathan will have a cabin for himself, situated conveniently near the centre of his domains, on the mid-deck, and between the huge paddle-boxes. But placed here like a spider lurking in the centre of its web with outstretched attentive feelers, he will have to use his telescope to see what is going on at the bows and stern; and the old contrivance for issuing orders, the speaking trumpet, will be altogether out of date and valueless in his hands. His voice, even with this aid, would hardly be heard half-way to the stern. He will have to signal his directions to his officers by semaphore arms by day and by coloured lamps by night. He will also have electric-telegraphs ramifying to the engine-rooms, and to other places to which it may be necessary that his instructions should be instantaneously communicated. The compasses will be placed aloft on a staging reared forty feet above the deck, to remove them from disturbing influences inherent in the vast masses of iron below; and it is proposed that strong shadows of the needles shall be cast from a tube, so that the steersman may at once watch these shadows, and so follow exactly the movements of the compasses as they traverse. It is also proposed to carry a perpetual moonlight diffused around the ship, emanated from an electric light planted on the foremast head.

“Up to the present time £350,000 has been expended upon this wonderful construction, and by the time the vessel is ready for sea, this sum will have been augmented into nearly £800,000. It will, however, be understood that there is a fair capacity in the vast vessel for yielding a revenue ample enough to render the undertaking a commercial success, notwithstanding this great cost, when it is borne in mind that if the fares for a single outward or homeward passage to India or Australia for the three classes be fixed only at £65, £35, and £25 respectively, the passage-money alone for the voyage out and home would amount collectively to something beyond £300,000 if all the berths were occupied. It is an interesting fact that naval engineers fix the amount of tonnage required in a steam vessel designed for any particular voyage by a very simple standard; they consider that one ton of burden is needed for every mile to be traversed; hence it is that this vast steam-ship has been made capable of carrying 25,000 tons. It is intended to go in every voyage 25,000 miles: it is a distance equal in extent to the circumference of the world.

“It is estimated that this great vessel with 5000 tons of merchandise and her complement of 4400 living beings would still be able to store enough coal for her consumption during a complete circumnavigation or a voyage out and home.”

The iron plates used in the construction of her hull weighed 10,000 tons and to fasten them together required three million rivets. Her length was 680 feet, breadth 82¹⁄₂ feet, depth 58 feet, and displacement 27,384 tons. The paddle-engines were of 1000 nominal horse-power and worked up to 3411; and weighed no less than 836 tons. The four cylinders weighed when finished 28 tons each, they were 74 inches in diameter and had a stroke of 14 feet. Each of the two right-angle cranks was driven by two cylinders, inclined at a mean angle of 22¹⁄₂ degrees from the vertical. Each paddle-wheel was worked by a complete double-cylinder engine and could be revolved without the other if necessary. Four double-ended tubular box boilers supplied steam for the paddle-engines at 24 lb. pressure. They were each 17¹⁄₂ feet long by 17 feet 9 inches wide, and 13 feet 9 inches high, and had forty furnaces and 4500 square feet of heating surface. Each boiler weighed fifty tons and contained about forty tons of water. Her first paddle-wheels were 56 feet in diameter, but these were damaged in some rough weather, and the next pair, only 50 feet in diameter, were much stronger and equally serviceable in the matter of speed and lasted out the ship. Her calculated speed under both screw and paddles was 15 knots and under the wheels alone seven knots. She certainly never approached the fanciful speeds predicted for her by the newspaper enthusiasts, and it is only fair to her builders and designers to say that these prophecies did not originate with them.

The engines for the screw propeller by James Watt and Co. were horizontal and direct-acting, and were of 1800 nominal horse-power and 4886 horse-power indicated. They weighed 500 tons. Six double-ended tubular rectangular boilers gave steam at 25 lb. pressure. The propeller was a four-bladed cast-iron screw 36 tons in weight, and of 24 feet diameter and 44 feet pitch. The shaft of the propeller weighed 60 tons and was 150 feet in length. So as not to interfere with her speed when the screw should not be working, two small auxiliary engines were fitted to keep it revolving when disconnected from the main engines. Her speed under the screw alone was about nine knots.

Her longitudinal bulkheads were carried to the uppermost deck, which was perfectly flush and extended from one end of the ship to the other. An iron deck connected the head of each longitudinal bulkhead with the ship’s sides and this, being at the greatest possible distance from the bottom of the girder, was in a position to contribute most to the longitudinal strength. The Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits has its top and bottom flanges of cellular construction, and Brunel practically repeated this formation in the Great Eastern, by making both the bottom and the upper deck cellular.

The launch of the Great Eastern was arranged for November 3, 1857, and it was not till then that it became known that this was to be the vessel’s name and not Leviathan. The vessel moved only a few feet and then stuck. One of the causes of the hitch was that the ship was being launched sideways, thereby greatly adding to the difficulties of the operation. Another attempt a few days later did not move her an inch. On January 11 she was got a little nearer the water and the next day was moved a little farther; she was finally launched at the next spring tides at the end of the month.

“It is incomprehensible how so eminent an engineer as Brunel should have made such a mistake as to attempt to force so huge a fabric broadside-on into the river. The costly experiment added £120,000 to the cost of the ship, and practically ruined the company.”[89]

As the company had not the money to finish her, it was wound up and the ship was sold to another company, formed to take her over, the price being £160,000. It was necessary to raise another £300,000, and as the financiers would not find the money, the public was appealed to and responded to the extent of £50,000 from some of the humblest classes in the community, “without any expectation of profit, but solely that they might hear of the great ship, which they looked upon as the pride of England, being fairly afloat on the deep waters.”[90]

Her first trial trip took place in September 1859 and was marred by an explosion which killed six men, wounded several others, and wrecked the saloon. She was designed to carry 800 first-class passengers, 2000 second-class, and 800 third-class, or 10,000 troops, it being expected that the Government would utilise her as a troopship. Her first voyage was made, not to India, to which she never went, but to New York, to which she took 36 passengers. She left Southampton on June 17, 1860, and arrived on June 28, all New York turning out to see her. Her best day’s run was 333 miles, and at no time did she exceed 14¹⁄₂ knots an hour. On her homeward voyage she did rather better, as she carried 212 passengers and a large cargo in a passage of 9 days 11 hours. Her one experience as a trooper was when she took 2125 soldiers to Canada at the time of the Trent affair. On her next outward voyage she met with a gale in which her steering gear was rendered useless and she was nearly lost. In 1865 she was engaged in laying the Atlantic cables. She was employed in this kind of work for some years, off and on, until in 1886 she was acquired by an enterprising drapery and tea firm and used as a show-place and advertisement. In 1890 she was sold to be broken up, and thus disposed of in small lots at little better than old iron prices. The Great Eastern was an unlucky ship from start to finish. From the bankruptcy of Mr. Scott Russell some time before she was launched until she was left to rust on a Mersey mud-bank, almost every one concerned with her had a share of her misfortune. The one task in which she acquitted herself well was the Atlantic cable-laying.

But her significance in the history of steam-ship construction must not be under-estimated. Sir William H. White’s opinion on this point was given in his address to the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1903, as follows; “Having recently gone again most carefully through Brunel’s notes and reports, my admiration for the remarkable grasp and foresight therein displayed has been greatly increased. In regard to the provision of ample structural strength with a minimum of weight; the increase of safety by water-tight subdivision and cellular double bottom; the design of propelling machinery and boilers, with a view to economy of coal and great endurance for long-distance steaming; the selection of forms and dimensions likely to minimise resistance and favour good behaviour at sea; and to other features of the design which need not be specified, Brunel displayed a knowledge of principles such as no other ship-designer of that time seems to have possessed, and in most of these features his intentions were realised. To him large dimensions caused no fear. ‘The use of iron,’ he remarks, ‘removes all difficulty in the construction,’ and experience of several years has proved that size in a ship is an element of speed, strength, and safety, and of greater relative economy, instead of a disadvantage, and that it is limited only by the extent of demand for freight, and by the circumstances of the ports to be frequented.”