THE GREAT EASTERN.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1326, 21 November 1883, Page 2

THE GRE AT EASTERN.

t , v> + Londoners (says the Daily Telegraph) will bear with interest that there is some probability of their once more beholding the famous leviatbiau steamship, the Great Eistern, making regular passages to and from the river Thames. Years have elapsed since the huge fabric was nearer to the city of London than the Medway. It is stated that a company has been formed to purchase the vessel, and that she will l.c employed in the coal trade between the Firth of Forth and the Thames. As much as 20,000 tons of coal, it is calculated, can be stowed in her vast interior in sacks Those who were answerable for her existence have passed away, and neither Biunel nor Bcott Russell will witness the enormous craft stripped of the splendid decorations of her saloons and cabins and converted into a collier. It will be strange if she should prove a success in this, i her latest -undertaking: So- hopelessdid'she as a commercial venture, even before she was launched, that Mr -. Liudsay, the shipowner, relates that when Mr Brunei asked him, " How will she pay?" ho answered that she would never pay as a ship, and that the best tiling to do would be to send her to Brighton, dig out a hole iv the beach and bed her there, and make a | promenade of her, wifch a grand hotel in her 'tween-deok, where room could be found for water baths and dancing saloons. If she should '!4>ay" now, the triumph will have come Ifcte, but it will baa triumph for the great old sliip, for all that. She was the outcome of the Eastern Steam Navigation Company, and the idea of her was owing to Mr I. K Brunei, who recommended the building of a huge steamship to trade with India. She | was to have been one of a fleet ; but one was quite enough for the Compaay. The scheme was to build a ship big enough to carry all the fuel she might require for the longest voyage out and home, and Mr Scott Russell went to work with Mr Brunei to devise the best kind of vessel for such and other requirements. The former gentleman was responsible for her as "a piece of naval architecture," to qno?e his own words, and to Mr Brunei was due the idea of usius; two pots of engines and two propellers, and of introducing a cellular construction like that of the top and bottom of the Britannia Bridge. They began building herun May 1, 1854. The ground for receiving so vast a weight had been prepared by upwards of oi-.e thousand five hundred huge piles of timber being driven into the soil, on the top of which was a platform with launching ways composed of iron rails. One may conceive what that weight was whpn it is stated that on her completion in I the building yard the iro^ that formed her hull was equal to no less than eight thousand tons, while the whole launching weight amounted to about twelve thousand tons. Her length was 692 ft and her breadth 88ft, " equalling," says Mr Granthan, "the width of Portland Place, one of the 1 roadest streets in London." The depth of the hull was 60ft, and the weight of the whole hull, when fully laden, not less than 20,000 tons. Th-e number of iron plates in her were said to be about 10,000, and these were secured by 3,000,000 rivets. It is thirty years ago siuce she was built, and during that time shipbuilding has made gigantic strides as respects dimensions of craft j therefore, if we in this age, cannot reflect without wonder upon the mass of material wLich entered into the Great Eastern's construction, what must hava boon the amazement and ihe enthusiasm excited by her, in the public of the age of which she fairly belonged? She was furnished with engines forher paddles and screws, whose combined power was equal to that of eleven thousand horses. Her interior was designed to afford accomodation for four thousand passengers. As even with a speaking trumpet at his mouth her captain was unable to make his orders heard, she was fitted with semaphores for clay use and coloured lamps at night, and also an , lectric telegraph by which hei* commander made his instructions known. Her saloons in their original form were truly magnificent, furnished with massive lookingglasses, ornamented panels, nobly decorated columns, softs covered with Vtrecht, velvet, portieries of rich crimson silk to all the doorways, and so forth. She carried twenty large boats and two small steamers, each 100 ft. long. Under full sail she spread six

ihousand five hundred yards of canvas, [here were ten anchors and eight aundred fathoms of chain cable, whilst ler nve funnels were each 100 ft, high frith ten furnaces to every paddle toiler, of which there were ten. Such was the truly wonderful ship at the time of her completion. Many alteritions no doubt have been made in ber since, but they ro .bed her of little if anything, of her supremacy as an example of vast marine architecture.