244 Original Articles, [| April, 
The ‘ Scotia’ is a sister-ship, but a little larger. 
Then we have the superb fleet of the Peninsular and Oriental 
Company—the ‘Pera,’ ‘ Ceylon,’ ‘ Massilia,’ ‘ Delta,’ ‘Simla;’ and 
for this Company also was built the magnificent screw - steamer 
‘ Himalaya,’ by Messrs. C. J. Mare and Co., in 18538; her extreme 
length being 372 feet ; breadth for tonnage 46 feet 2 inches, and depth 
of hold 24 feet 9 inches; she is fitted with horizontal-trunk engines, 
by Messrs. J. Penn and Son; cylinder 84 inches diameter, and 3 feet 
6 inches stroke; her propeller is 18 feet diameter, and 28 feet pitch. 
She was purchased by Government for a transport ship during the 
Crimean war, and on one occasion she conveyed 418 troops and 
372 horses from Liverpool to Constantinople, a distance of 3,620 miles 
in a little over 14 days, although she partly lay-to from stress of 
weather between Cape St. Vincent and Gibraltar. 
We now arrive at a period in the history of steam navigation to 
which it is impossible to refer without a passing word of reflection. 
In the beginning of this article we spoke of the extraordinary enter- 
prises that Man has from time to time undertaken, as it were, by 
inspiration ; and if, in this respect, there be one more marked than 
any other, illustrating at the same time the active restlessness of his 
reasoning nature, it is the undertaking we have now to record, namely, 
the construction of the ‘Leviathan, or, as she is at present called, 
the ‘Great Hastern.’ 
In days of yore, the “wonders of the world” presented indelible 
records of Man’s superstition, of his artistic taste, and of his prowess 
in war; and we have surviving to the present time the Sphinx, the 
ruins of beautiful temples, the Great Wall of China, &c.; all enter- 
prises of the same essential nature. The construction of the ‘ Levia- 
than’ is, however, not only characteristic of the great attribute of our 
age, namely, utilitarian enterprise, but it has developed the minds of 
men in a new direction, and thus led to a greatly-extended application 
of the physical forces. The origin of the idea which led to the 
building of the great ship was this :— 
All the steamers to which reference has been made, great as they 
were, could not carry sufficient coal for a very long voyage without 
deviating so much from the direct route to obtain fresh supplies of 
fuel at the coaling stations, as to greatly lengthen the voyage; thus 
in steaming round the Cape to India or Australia they would have to 
call at St. Vincent, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius, to 
obtain coal, which had to be sent out to those places. Hence steamers 
which have accomplished the voyage to Australia in a very short 
time have lost immense sums of money through the ruinous price of 
fuel at these stations, in spite of their having both a full cargo and 
complement of passengers; and in extra long voyages fast-sailing 
clippers have altogether beaten the steamers, inasmuch as they have 
effected the passage to Australia in quite as short time as the fastest 
steamers. 
Brunel therefore proposed that a ship should be built of such 
dimensions as would enable her to carry sufficient coal for the longest 
voyage ; and as the cost of this coal at home would be about one-third 
