MEMOIR OF HER MAJESTY'S STEAM SHIP THE MEDEA. 99 



the possibility of the arms or lugs coming in contact with them when the wheel springs in a 

 sea way steaming, which every steam-vessel's wheels are more or less liable to. A hole two 

 inches in diameter, nicely leaded, is bored in one of the steps at the fore and after part of 

 the paddle-box, through to the inside, at a convenient height for a man to pull from, in a 

 horizontal position, and at an angle sufficient to prevent the inner end of the paddle-boards 

 picking up the bight of the hawser in its rotatory progress ; which angle also guides the posi- 

 tion for the two leading blocks, one of which hooks on to a timber-head on the forecastle, 

 and the other at any convenient length abaft the wheel, according to the number of men who 

 are to clap on the hawser, which is a three-and-a-half cable, cut to a convenient length, and 

 has an ' Elliott eye' spliced on each end. This hawser is rove as follows : one end is first 

 passed through the after-hole, then through the foremost fair-leader over the iron lugs alter- 

 nately, then through the aftermost fair-leader, (crossing the feeding part between the fair- 

 leaders,) and brought out through the foremost hole, where it is lashed with small line to the 

 other end, which in the mean time has been rove through the after and foremost leading 

 blocks, and brought to the foremost hole in readiness. When the lashing is secured, the after 

 leading block is braced taught with a jigger the larboard and starboard watches man their 

 respective messengers, the band strikes up, and ofFshe goes." 



It may perhaps to our non-professional readers simplify the description thus given by 

 the inventor of the plan, if we state, that the wheels were set in motion by a rope acting, and 

 resting on certain fixtures attached to the radii at a regulated distance from the periphery ; 

 and that this endless rope, being extended to and passed over fixed pulleys near each ex- 

 tremity of the vessel, presented to the crew a continuous line on which their labour could be 

 expended as they walked or ran along the deck, and produced the rotatory action much in 

 the same way as distant machinery receives its impulse by a band connected with some 

 steam-engine or other prime-mover. 



Thus the Medea was occasionally moved, when the shortness of the distance, or other circum- 

 stances rendered it inconvenient to use steam, and in one instance proceeded through the 

 entrance of Malta harbour against a light breeze, at the rate of two knots an hour. 



We have now laid before our readers such facts connected with this vessel, (the only 

 government steamer that has been for a lengthened period on a foreign station, or extensively 

 employed as a sailing vessel,) as we think may be interesting to those who would form a 

 correct estimate of the means which have been adopted for the benefit of the public service in 

 thus creating a novel description of war vessel, to accord with a new era in navigation. 



T. B. 



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