242 Original Ariicles. | April, 
so that we have not effected much in the economy of fuel within the 
last twenty-five years. 
This admirable steamer was broken up only a few years since in 
the Thames. 
By a strange coincidence, a steamer called the ‘ Sirius’ started on 
the same day with the ‘Great Western,—the 8th April; she also 
was designed with the same object as the ‘Great Western,’ but she 
occupied 19 days in making the voyage from Cork to New York, not- 
withstanding that she was aided by her sails; so that to the ‘ Great 
Western’ is due the glory of having first completed a successful trans- 
atlantic voyage, and she crossed the Atlantic no less than 84 times 
between her first voyage and the year 1844. 
The complete success of the ‘ Great Western’ led the directors of 
the Great Western Steam-Ship Company, under the advice of the late 
Mr. Brunel, to greatly extend their former efforts, and a steamer of 
colossal dimensions was projected as being likely to prove a propor- 
tionately greater success, both as a ship and as a mercantile speculation. 
The celebrated steamer ‘ Great Britain’ was the result of this deter- 
mination. But at this time the use of iron in preference to wood for 
shipbuilding purposes was strongly advocated by many able men, and 
several iron steamers had already been most successfully constructed ; 
hence, after careful investigation into the comparative merits of iron 
and wood, and with the advice of Mr. Brunel, it was resolved that the 
new ship should be built of iron. Her principal dimensions are— 
length between perpendiculars, 289 feet; breadth, 51 feet; depth, 
323 feet; tonnage, 3,433 old measurement. The keel of the vessel 
was laid in July, 1839, and she was launched in the presence of his 
Royal Highness the late Prince Consort, 19th July, 1843.* At that 
time she was considered of gigantic proportions, and we cannot but 
admire the bold enterprise and masterly conception of the projectors. 
She naturally excited intense curiosity, and was visited by immense 
numbers of spectators, including shipbuilders, engineers, naval officers, 
and distinguished savants of every nation. At this time Mr. Smith 
had most satisfactorily developed the fitness of the screw as a propeller 
for steam-ships in the elaborate experiments of the ‘ Archimedes’ and 
H.M.S. ‘ Rattler.’ It was with the latter vessel that an interesting 
experiment was tried, for the purpose of comparison between the screw 
and paddle-wheels as propellers. The ‘ Rattler’ was precisely the 
same form and power as the ‘ Polyphemus’ paddle-steamer. The two 
ships were tied together, and steamed away as rapidly as they could ; 
the result being that the ‘ Polyphemus’ had to give in to her rival, the 
‘Rattler. Mr. Brunel, in consequence, strongly advocated the appli- 
cation of the screw to the ‘ Great Britain,’ and it was finally determined 
that she should be fitted with one. She was therefore provided with 
very ponderous machinery of 1,000 horse-power ; the engines consist- 
* A period of four years. What would become of Steam Navigation, and in 
fact, of the commerce of this country if shipbuilding had remained stationary in 
this particular? ‘There are now firms in England who can, zn one year, execute 
orders for vesscls in the aggregate amounting to six times the tonnage of the 
‘Great Britain.’ - 
