GREAT EASTERN. 



351 



the following Thursday, by which time she was 

 about 280 miles westward of Cape Clear. Then 

 she was met by a fresh breeze, which speedily 

 swelled into a hurricane of most destructive 

 violence, yet seemingly but partial in its range. 



At this time one of the forward boats broke 

 from one of her davits, and hung suspended 

 from the other. Efforts were made to secure 

 the boat, but these proving unavailing, the cap- 

 tain ordered it to be cut away, at the same time 

 directing the paddles to be stopped and the 

 helm to be put down, to bring the ship up in 

 the wind, in order that the boat might drift 

 clear of the wheel. The vessel did not answer 

 her helm, but the boat fortunately went clear. 

 The captain then directed several of the head 

 sails to be hoisted for the purpose of bringing 

 her head up, but they had hardly been set 

 when they were blown to ribbons. Very 

 shortly after that a terrific noise was heard in 

 the engine-room, and on looking down, several 

 large sheets of lead were seen knocking about 

 with great violence from side to side. Just 

 then a heavy sea struck the ship as she was 

 lurching, and almost immediately after a grating 

 noise was heard in the paddles. On examina- 

 tion, it was found that they were bent from 

 their true position, and were scraping against 

 the sides of the vessel. They, however, still 

 continued to revolve, but the captain, fearing 

 that they would tear holes in the sides of the 

 ship, ordered them to be stopped, and trusted 

 entirely to the screw to get the vessel on. 

 During the whole of the remainder of the day 

 the gale blew fearfully, the sea running moun- 

 tains high, and the ship, not being able to head 

 to, rolling frightfully. Things thus continued 

 until the following morning, when it was found 

 that the paddles had been broken clean away. 

 It was at the same time discovered that the top 

 of the rudder-post, a piece of iron 10 inches in 

 diameter, had been smashed. The ship now 

 lay quite helpless, like a log on the water, and 

 tossing and rolling in the most alarming man- 

 ner. On many occasions her decks were at an 

 angle of 45 degrees. Crockery and culinary 

 utensils went crashing about in all directions, 

 chairs and tables were broken to pieces, chan- 

 deliers and mirrors were smashed to fragments, 

 and the whole interior of the vessel presented 

 one scene of utter confusion. Six of her boats 

 were swept away, and two of those remaining 

 were stove so as to be rendered completely use- 

 less. On Friday an attempt was made to turn 

 the ship's head by the well-known device of 

 throwing overboard a heavy spar with a haw- 

 ser attached to each end, the two hawsers be- 

 ing brought up on opposite sides of the vessel. 

 This was found to be entirely useless. On 

 Saturday, after a thorough examination of the 

 working parts of the rudder and the fracture 

 of the post. Mr. Hamilton E. Towle, a civil en- 

 gineer of Boston, Mass., a passenger, suggested 

 a plan for working the rudder and controlling 

 the vessel. 



The rudder of the Great Eastern weighs 30 



tons, and instead of being attached to the ship 

 in the ordinary way, by pintles, it is supported 

 by a collar resting upon friction rollers, the 

 lower end being stepped in a shoe which ex- 

 tends backwards from the bottom of the VL-.--.-I. 

 The arrangement is represented in the accom- 

 panying engravings, a being the rudder post of 

 wrought iron, 10 inches in diameter, and c the 

 supporting collar. This collar is of cast iron, 

 and consists of a central sleeve fitting upon the 

 rudder-post ; a flat bottom plate, with a groove 

 for the rollers, and six radiating flanges, 2 inches 

 in thickness. It is 18 inches in height, of coni- 

 cal form, pretty closely resembling in shape a 

 church bell. This conical collar is keyed to the 

 rudder stem and secured by a massive nut. 15 

 inches in diameter and 12 inches in length, 

 which is screwed on the post above the collar. 

 It was just above this nut that the rudder stem 

 was broken, the fracture extending downward 

 into the nut. The idea occurred to Mr. Towle, 

 that a large chain-cable might be wrapped 

 around the collar and connected with pulleys, 

 and in this way the rudder might be controlled. 

 The objection to this plan was the small size 

 of the collar, (2 feet 9 inches in diameter at the 

 base and 15 inches at the top,) giving a very 

 short l^ver to resist the tremendous power 

 of the waves against the broad rudder. This 

 difficulty he proposed to overcome by wrapping 

 successive coils of cable around the collar until 

 he had obtained a diameter sufficient to give 

 him the leverage required. He examined the 

 collar to see if the cable could be secured to it, 

 and fortunately found holes some 3 inches in 

 diameter through the bottom plate a hole be- 

 tween each pair of the radial flanges. The 

 plan formed was to place one end of each alter- 

 nate link of a heavy cable between each pair 

 of the radial flanges of the collar, and secure 

 the link in place by lashing it with a smaller 

 chain passed repeatedly through the holes and 

 around the flange and link. He measured the 

 several parts and then went down into the hold 

 and measured the largest cable. The tiller was 

 18 feet long, and the chain provided to operate 

 it was ^ the size of the main cable, requiring a 

 drum 4 feet in diameter, in order to give a 

 length of lever proportioned to the strength of 

 the cable. A drawing of the plan was pre- 

 pared and submitted to the officers of the ship, 

 and although opposed by the engineer, he was 

 authorized by Capt. Walker to proceed with 

 his efforts. 



It was 5 o'clock in the evening when his 

 operations commenced, the awful scenes on 

 board the wallowing ship having continued for 

 more than two days and nights. The first step 

 was to screw back the nut to its place, which 

 the engineer had attempted to remove for the 

 purpose of securing the lower tiller to the rud- 

 der-post in its place. There was a wrench on 

 board fitted to the nut, having projections for 

 entering holes drilled in the periphery of the 

 nut. In conformity with all the proportions 

 of the great ship, so massive was this wrench 



