THE LARGEST STEAMSHIP IN THE WORLD.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1208, 15 December 1882, Page 2

THE LARGEST STEAMSHIP IN THE WORLD.

—I • • (From Harper's Weekly, 9th sept.) The Old Colony Steamship Company operating the Fall River Line of boats, and owners of the splendid steamship Bristol and Providence, wanted another steamer that should exceed even these in size, elegance of finish and speed. To satisfy their demands,. Messrs. John Roach and Sons undertook to build for them the fastest steamboat in the world. Last July the hull of this monster craft was launched from the famous Chester ship yard, and was christened, in honor of the old Bay State, the Pilgrim. The huge boat, designed and built by constructor Faron, has a length overall of 890 feet, an extreme beam of 87 feet and a draught of 12 feet. Her normal rate of speed is to be twenty miles an hour. Thus she is 10 feet longer than the Bristol, 2 feet wider, 1 foot deeper, and is designed to travel two miles an hour faster. She is built with two iron hulls, one inside of the other, and so ridgely braced as to equal in strength a solid hull of tne thickness of the space existing between the two, and capable of being driven through the ice, that sometimes obstructs Long Island Sound, as though it were cardboard. The space between the hulls is divided into ninety-six, and the inner hull beneath the iron main deck, into seven watertight compartments so that it is beyond the limits of possibility for any known form of accident to sink the vessel. After being launched, the Pilgrim was towed to New York, where she will be finished ready for service, a labor that will take five months to complete, and she will not make her first trip until the opening of the next summer season. The paddle-wheels of the Pilgrim are 41 feet in diameter, and to turn them the largest shaft in the world has been constructed. The Great Eastern was originally a sideboard steamer, but each of her wheels was driven by its own engine, so that two shafts were used, neither of which was as large as this one of the Pilgrim. The shaft was forged in two sections, each of which weighs 40 tons. The great hammer by which it wos beaten into shape weighs 17,0001 b, and driven downward by steam-power, is capable of delivering a blow of GO. OOO 1b weight. After being forged the huge mass of metal wns placed in a lathe, anrl turned nicely j and with as great accuracy as through i it wore a pinion of a watch. The huge ; cylinder, weighing 3G tons, having an ; interior diameter of 9 ieet 2 inches and ! a 1 1-foot stroke, was cast in the same foundry, and its removal from the yard ai;d cirelVi placing v .'an the iron : huh -wis . mn-.-.t serous undertaking, a lie 1 , oi.o r'jijui":;\g the utmoot .skill and

attention. The great walking be»m| of the Pilgrim is 26 feet long by 14 j feet 6 inches across at its widest part, and weighs 38 tons. In the intorier of the vessel every compartment in which fire is used is inclosed within iron walls, not wooden walls sheathed with iron, but solid plates of boiler iron rivetted together, and absolutely preventing the escape of any fire inolosed within these protecting limits. Every room in this magnificent steamboat is to be furnished with small electric lights, and the total costs of the Pilgrim, when completed, will be nearly a million and a half of dollars."