382 



GREAT EASTERN 



GREAT SALT LAKE 



supplemented by astronomical observation, prevent 

 a ship from being kept for any length of time with 

 certainty on a prescribed track, and thus may neces- 

 sitate the calculation from time to time of a new 

 path, in practice the accurate projection of a great 

 circle track on the chart would be a waste of time. 

 Some ignorantly object to great circle sailing on 

 the ground that, on account of constant change of 

 the course steered, a ship cannot be kept with 

 absolute precision on the correct great circle track. 

 But, in fact, all that is required of a navigator 

 is to sail as near to his great circle track as con- 

 venient ; and each separate course will be approxi- 

 mately a tangent to his track, and the shorter these 

 tangents are made the more will the length of a 

 voyage be diminished. 



Great Eastern. This great ship, the largest 

 piece of marine architecture ever put together, 

 was planned (1852) by Brunei and Scott Russell 

 at the instance of the Eastern Steam -navigation 

 Company, a vessel being wanted for the route to 

 Australia round the Cape which could carry enough 

 coal for the voyage out and home, and have besides 

 space for a large number of passengers and cargo. 

 The scheme was for a ship that would accommodate 

 1000 passengers, 5000 tons of goods, and 15,000 tons 

 of coal. As at first arranged for, the measurements 

 were : length, 680 feet between perpendiculars, or 

 692 feet upper deck ; breadth, 83 feet, or 118 over 

 paddle-boxes ; height of hull, 60 feet, or 70 to top 

 of bulwarks. Ten partitions of plate crosswise of 

 the ship divided the interior into 11 watertight 

 compartments, further subdivided by longitudinal 

 partitions. The propelling power comprised both 

 paddle and screw. The 4 paddle-engines had 4 

 boilers ; the 4 screw-engines had 6 boilers. The 

 smoke from the furnaces ascended 5 funnels, 100 

 feet high by 6 in diameter. Setting aside the 

 nominal power, all the 8 engines at full force 

 were estimated to work up to 11,000 horse-power. 

 There were 6 masts, 5 of them iron. The vast 

 wall-sided compartments of the ship had facilities 

 for conversion into cabins for 800 saloon passengers, 

 2000 second-class, 1200 third-class, and 400 officers 

 and crew ; or 5000 might have been accommodated 

 in all if emigrants or troops. The height of the 

 'tween decks was 13 feet. Such were the plans for 

 the mighty ship, which were never fully carried 

 out in all their details, owing to numerous altera- 

 tions and refittings. 



During 1854-57 the operations proceeded at 

 Millwall, in spite of frequent and heavy financial 

 difficulties. By November 1857 the ship had 

 advanced to the launching condition ; but it 

 required various attempts, between November 3, 

 1857, and January 31, 1858, and an expenditure of 

 60,000, to effect the launching. During 1858 and 

 1859 the works continued as fast as the company 

 could supply money ; and altogether the vessel was 

 estimated to have cost 732,000. Uncertain how 

 far the original intention of a trade to and from 

 Australia could be realised, the directors determined 

 on a trial trip across the Atlantic. It was a disaster. 

 The ship left the Thames, September 8, 1859 ; an 

 explosion of steam-pipes took place off Hastings ; 

 seven persons were killed and several wounded ; 

 and the voyage abruptly came to an end at Port- 

 land. The ship started again on June 17, 1860, 

 from Southampton, crossed the Atlantic in eleven 

 days, and reached New York on the 28th. During 

 the remainder of 1860 and the greater part of 1861 

 she made many voyages to and fro, including the 

 conveyance of Foot Guards to Canada, losing money 

 by the insufficiency of the receipts to meet the 

 current expenses, and constantly requiring repairs. 

 For the arrangement and services of the ship in 

 1865 and 1866 in paying out the Atlantic cable, 

 iee ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. In 1867 she was 



chartered to bring passengers from New York to 

 Havre in connection with the Paris International 

 Exhibition, but the scheme proved a fiiilure. 

 From 1869 onwards the Great Eastern successfully 

 laid some of the most important telegraph cables 

 across the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, 

 &c. After acting as a coal-hulk at Gibraltar in 

 1884, the gigantic vessel was sold in London by 

 auction for 26,200. Finally, after having been 

 used for a time as a ' show ' ship, she was sold by 

 , auction at Liverpool in November 1888, to be 

 broken up, the five days' auction fetching 58,000. 



Great Fish River, ( 1 ) in Cape Colony, rises in 

 the Sneeuwberg Mountains, and, after a gener- 

 ally south-easterly course of 230 miles, enters the 

 Indian Ocean in 33 25' S. lat. and 27 E. long. The 

 Midland Railway which connects Port Elizabeth 

 and Port Alfred with Kimberley skirts part of the 

 river ; there is an iron bridge at Cradock, and Fish 

 River Station is 207 miles from Port Elizabeth. 

 (2) Great Fish River, or Back's River, in North 

 America, enters an inlet of the Arctic Ocean in 95 

 W. long., after passing through Lake Pelly. Sir 

 George Back (q.v.) traced its course to the ocean. 



Great Grimsby. See GKIMSBY. 



Great Kanawlia (pronounced Kanaw'wa], an 

 affluent of the Ohio River, is called New River 

 in the upper part of its course, and rises in the Blue 

 Ridge of North Carolina. It has a course of 450 

 miles, and is navigable to a fall 30 miles above 

 Charleston, and about 100 miles from its mouth. 



Great Marlow. See MAKLOW. 



Greatrakes, VALENTINE (sometimes called 

 Greatorex and Greatarick), the 'touch doctor,' was 

 born at Affane, near Lismore, in County Water- 

 ford, 14th February 1628. During the troubles 

 of the Rebellion his mother fled in 1641 to Eng- 

 land, and settled in Devonshire. From 1649 till 

 1656 he served as an officer in the Parliament- 

 ary army, and from 1656 till the Restoration he 

 acted as a magistrate in his native place. About 

 1661 he began ' touching ' for the king's evil, in 

 obedience, he said, to a divine impulse, and ere 

 long he touched or ' stroked ' for ague and for all 

 manner of disease. He was summoned to the king 

 at Whitehall ; multitudes flocked to him, and his 

 cures were witnessed and attested by men so emi- 

 nent as Robert Boyle, Ralph Cudworth, and Henry 

 More. This predecessor of Mesmer did not profess 

 to be always successful ; but his claims provoked 

 much controversy, and in 1666 he published in his 

 own defence his Brief Account of himself and his 

 cures. He seems to have died in 1682. 



Great Salt Lake, in Utah, stretches along the 

 western base of the Wahsatch Mountains, about 

 4200 feet above the sea, forming a principal drain- 

 age centre of the Great Basin (q.v.). Well-marked 

 shore-lines on the mountains around, reaching 1000 

 feet higher than the present level, show that the 

 lake had formerly a vastly greater extent ; this 

 prehistoric sea has been named Lake Bonneville. 

 Great Salt Lake is over 80 miles long and from 

 20 to 32 broad, but for the most part exceedingly 

 shallow. It contains several islands, the largest, 

 Antelope Island, about 18 miles long. Its tribu- 

 taries are the Bear, Ogden, Jordan, and Weber, the 

 Jordan bringing the fresh waters of Lake Utah ; 

 but Great Salt Lake has no outlet save evaporation, 

 and its clear water consequently holds at all times 

 a considerable quantity of saline matter in solution ; 

 in 1850 the proportion was 22'4 per cent., in 1869 

 it was only 14 '8. Between these dates the annual 

 tribute exceeded the evaporation, and the area of 

 the lake increased from 1700 to 2360 sq. m. ; more 

 recently, it has again been slowly receding. 

 Several species of insects and a brine-shrimp have 

 been found in its waters, but no fishes _ lanre flocl* 



