8o Book of Steamships 



quite small vessel, let us glance at the 

 remarkable ship of Brunei's which boasted 

 both paddle-wheels and screws. 



We might have guessed that that great 

 engineer would do something remarkable 

 when he set out to build what was for 

 more than forty years the biggest vessel 

 sent down launching ways. I refer to the 

 Great Eastern, which was launched, after 

 a rather serious mishap, in 1858. Here 

 are brief details of Brunei's great master- 

 piece, which was unfortunate enough to 

 have been born many years before either 

 engines or cargo space were sufficiently 

 developed. 



The Great Eastern had a length of 

 680 ft., beam of 83 ft., and an average 

 draught of 25 ft. Although this huge 

 vessel huge for those days had a ton- 

 nage of 18,915, she was very much under- 

 engined. If one looked at her five funnels, 

 and reads that she had 112 furnaces, 

 engines driving paddle-wheels of 2,000 

 horse-power, plus engines of 4,700 horse- 



