Ul 



STEAM-VESSEL. 



STEAM-VESSEL. 



810 



It U, perhaps, imponible to over-estimate the importance of the 

 building of the Great Eastern u an iron ship. In many prior caws 

 team vhipa had been eared from foundering by Wing built of 

 The writer wa< one who encountered the fearful hurricane of 

 September, 1853, in the Ravensbourne in the North Sea, and long 

 previous experience of the sea enable* him to declare that no vessel 

 built of wood could hare braved uch a prolonged tempest with 

 impunity, inasmuch a> the twisting* of the frame of the ship must 

 have started trenails and butt ends, to her inevitable destruction, and 

 that of the crew and passengers. Tin' will known instance of the 

 Great Britain lying a whole winter on shore in Dnndrum Bay, exposed 

 to the action of heavy surf, is a powerful fact in favour of iron ships. 

 The introduction of water-tight comiartinente has also long been a 

 consideration. Steam vessels are greatly strengthened by means of these 

 water-tight bulkheads or transverse partition* in the hull, the general 

 adoption of which, more than any other improvement, increases the 

 safety of steam navigation. In a vessel of the ordinary construction a 

 small local injury from striking upon a rock, from collision, or from 

 any other cause, may occasion the sinking of the vessel, because the 

 water has free access* to every part of it. Fire also, wherever it may 

 commence, is pretty sure to spread through the whole length of the 

 boat. The adoption of water-tight bulkheads, to confine the effect of 

 an accident to the particular division of the vessel in which it origin- 

 ates, was suggested by Dodd as early as 1818. He mentions them in 

 if the treatise which has been alluded to in the former part of 

 thin article, proposing to use them between the engine-room ami the 

 cabins ; and he states that he intended to introduce them in two boats 

 which 'he was then building. Whether he did so or not we are 

 unaware ; but the adoption of this excellent precautionary apparatus 

 appears to be due to Mr. C. W. Williams, managing director of the 

 City of Dublin Steam-packet Company. A minute description of his 

 bulkheads, and a very satisfactory statement respecting their import- 

 ance and their efficiency, are given in a communication from that 

 gentleman to the commissioners on steam-vessel accidents in 1839, 

 which is printed in the appendix to their report. He therein states 

 that he first applied water-tight bulkheads in an iron steamer called the 

 Oarryowen. 



Many instances have occurred in which water-tight bulkheads have 

 saved life and cargo. One of our largest paddle-steamers, in Match, 

 1857, struck an iceberg with such force as would have shivered a 

 wooden ship (or a badly-built iron one) to pieces. As it was, extensive 

 damage to the forefoot caused the fore compartment to fill with water, 

 but so little did it affect the duration of the voyage, that the passengers 

 were unconscious of anything beyond the concussion; nor did the 

 public ever hear of anything beyond the shock, as the next voyage was 

 performed without thorough repair. 



In the Great Eastern, not only has a complete system of water-tight 

 compartments been carefully arranged, but these have been longi- 

 tudinally crossed by fore and aft bulkheads, in such a manner that 

 neither one nor several perforations of her bottom would disable her ; 

 and, in addition to these, a considerable portion of her is doubled, so 

 that the outer skin of plates, separated above two feet from a complete 

 water-tight inner bottom, renders her not only the safest, but the 

 strongest ship in the world ; for these two separate bottoms are so 

 broai and stayed, and the whole is so contrived, that her construction 

 may be called cellular or tubular. She is a ship perfect on Scott 

 Hussell's wave principle [Siiir-BuiLDura], with 120 feet of midship 

 portion, the sides of which are perfectly parallel ; but with this portion 

 the lines of the stem and stern portions are so gracefully combined, 

 that her form is considered the finest afloat. 



It is difficult for non-nautical persons to comprehend the disparity 

 in size between the Great Eastern and all that preceded her. The best 

 mode of comparing her with other vessels is by noticing that the 

 engine-room of the Great Eastern occupies a cubic space of 5571 tons. 

 Now the Duke of Wellington, a splendid three-decker of 121 guns, is 

 of 8826 tons. Not only, therefore, would the Duke of Wellington 

 stow in the Great Eastern's engine-room, but there would remain 

 surplus space for one of our fine frigates say, for example, the Orestes, 

 of 1702 tons; and as regards the remaining portions of the Great 

 Eastern, she could, in addition, stow away H.M. ships Waterloo, of 

 'Jl guns, with the Goliath, Meanee, and Vanguard, each of 80 guns. 

 And again, whereas the Great Western carried 600 tons of coal as fuel, 

 the Himalaya 1000 tons, and the Golden Age 1200 tons, the Great 

 Eastern carries 10,000 tons. And further, the Great Eastern, when 

 immersed to her load water-line, requires 95 tons to be placed on 

 board her in order to sink her one inch deeper, while the Persia 

 requires only 30. 



The great inducement for increasing the size of merchant ships, and 

 which has led in particular to the building of the Great Eastern, is 

 that large ships alone are fit to carry fuel sufficient for a long voyage ; 

 coal, when supplied at intermediate stations, being often much aug- 

 mented, perhaps quadrupled, in cost. 



It would be impossible to enter upon the merits of various kinds ol 

 vessels now afloat, a large number of which are either fitted with screw 

 or paddle ; but we remark that so many vessels are now built 

 t'nt it has been thought necessary by the committee of l.luyl'.- 

 London, to keep a check upon their mode of construction, in defence 

 of the interests of underwriters, by instituting a few regulations as to 



the dimensions of the framing, plates, &c., of iron vessels. As an 

 example, no vessel of 3000 tons, built of iron, ix allowed to have a keel, 

 stem, or stern-post lew than 12 inches by 84. The upright ribs, which 

 correspond with " timbers " in the wooden ships, must be 18 inches 

 apart, and be formed of angle iron of OJ in. x 4 x }J. The thickness of 

 ilates for garboard atrakea to stand as A 1 for >ix \ears. If, in. ; for nine 

 ears, 1 in. ; for twelve years, 1 , in. Platen between garboard strokes 

 and bilge and the shcer-strakes, for six years, jj in. ; for nine yean, 

 J in. ; and for twelve years, 1 in. Thickness of plates for beams, f in. ; 

 or bulkheads, /in. Anglo iron for beam and stringers, or kc 

 Cj in. x 5J x ;. Thickness of wood for upper decks, &c., 4 in. . while 

 yen t lie sizes of the rivets are determined in proportion to the thick- 

 ness of plates: as an example, {in. plates must have rivets at least ,';,iii. 

 n diameter; * in. plates, Jin. ; Jin. plates, JJ in. ; and 1 in. plates, Jin. 

 thick. So important an item of the building of an iron ship has the 

 use of rivets been found to be, that very elaborate experiments were in 

 1857 undertaken by the committee of Lloyds, under the direction of 

 ,heir surveyor, Mr. Mumford, to discover a system of joining iron 

 ilates by iron rivets which, while they secured suffit h. h id 



10 tendency to facilitate the rusting of the plates at the rivet-holes. 



A piece of iron plate ' in. thick was subjected to a strain in the 

 lydraulic press, and lie breaking strain was found to be about 65 tons 

 a the foot breadth of the plate. Riveted plates were afterwards sub- 

 lected to strain in the same machine, each rivet being ;in. in di. 

 and the rivets were in each plate varied in position. We give the 

 'ollowing as illustrations ; the whole particulars of each experiment 

 may be seen in the surveyor's report, as published in full in the 

 Transactions of the Institute of Naval Architects in I860' : 



llivcts 4 diameters apart. 



Solid plate. 



r 



Lapped plates. 

 Plato 13$ in. brond. 

 Breaking strain 42 tons. 

 Strain upon 12 inches 3S'03 tons. 

 Fracture through the counter- 

 sunk plate. 



Tlutc 3 in. thick by 12J in. 



biuiiil. 



lir4hcing strain 67 tons. 

 Strain upon 12 inches 65-03 



tons. 



If we now turn our attention to the arsenals of war, a like series of 

 novelties in steam-shipping awaits us. The question of iron armour for 

 our wooden ships, for ships built entirely of iron, or built partly of iron 

 and partly of wood, or of iron entirely with heavy plate armour, is at. 

 the present time an exciting subject. Under the presidency of Sir 

 John Pakington, the Institute of Naval Architects has already con- 

 sidered the question of a screw fleet with advantage ; and the veteran 

 Sir Howard Douglas, the Earl of Hardwicke, Captain E. P. Halsted, 

 H.N., &c., have entered upon the subject with characteristic earnest- 

 ness and professional zeal. To detail what is doing would be premature. 

 It is enough to say that the question of steam-ships was never one of 

 such importance to England as at present. Much might be said of an 

 experiment made by France in building ships coated with heavy 

 armour, like La Gloire. Opinions, however, are so conflicting on 

 various vital points, that, having touched briefly the prominent out- 

 lines of the subject, it must be left to the future to chronicle the 

 ultimate success or failure of such experiments. 



Two noble vessels called the Wan-ior and the Black Prince, the "in- 

 built recently on the Thames and the other on the Clyde, will bear 

 prominently on the future history of steam shipping; a brief di i ip- 

 tion, therefore, of one of these wul be interesting, and the more so as 

 a sort of rivalry ltween ourselves and another country exists in the 

 'ii which is likely to influence very materially the nature of 

 future naval warfare. 



And first, the La Gloire is a fine wooden ship, having a length of 

 252 feet between perpendiculars, her breadth is 55 feet, and her draft 

 at load water 27i feet. She is steamer-rigged, having square sail> only 

 on her foremast Her masts are small in proportion to the hull. It i.s 

 supposed that her ports are only between 6 and 7 feet above water, in 

 consequence of the weight of her defensive armour, which consists of 

 plates of iron about 2 feet wide and 44 inches thick, extending from 

 stem to stern, and for a distance below water. Her hone-power is 

 supposed to be 900, with screw propeller, and she carries 34 fifty-four 

 pounders on her main deck, and 2 screened heavy shell guns forward. 

 Her ports are 11 4 feet apart on the main deck, a formidable arrange- 

 ment as compared with every ship that preceded her. But the 

 Warrior is a greatly superior ship, as the following dimensions will 

 prove. (The Black Prince is of the same size and build as the 

 Warrior.) 



The length of the Warrior is 380 feet h< -(ween perpendiculars (420 

 feet over all), she is of 58 feet beam, 414 f eet depth from spar-deck to 



