THE "GREAT EASTERN." 



129 



MR. I. K. BRUNEL. 



MR. SCOTT RUSSELL. 



(From a Photograph by Mayatt, 1858.) 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE HISTORY OF SHIPS AND SHIPPING INTERESTS (continued}. 



The Largest Ship in the World History of the Great, Eastern Why she was Built Brunei and Scott Russell Story of 

 the Launch -Powerful Machinery Employed -Christened by Miss Hope Failure to move her more than a few 

 feet A Sad Accident Launching by inches Afloat at last Dimensions Accommodations The Grand Saloon 

 The Paddle-wheel and Screw Engines First Sea Trip - Speed In her first Gale Serious Explosion on Board o F 

 Hastings Proves a fine Sea-boat Drowning of her Captain and others First Transatlantic Voyage Defects in 

 Boilers and Machinery Behaves splendidly in Mid-ocean Grand Reception in New York Subsequent Trips- 

 Used as a Troop-ship to Canada Carried out 2,600 Soldiers An eventful Passenger Trip--Caught in a Cyclone 

 Hurricane Her Paddles almost wrenched away Rudder Disabled Boats Carried Away Shifting of Heavy 

 Cargo The Leviathan a Gigantic Waif on the Ocean -Return to Cork. 



MANY competent authorities doubt whether the ships of the future will be so very much 

 larger than the largest now in use, but it is one of those questions on which it is idle to 

 theorise, and absurd to dogmatise. The greatest ship of this or any other age has not 

 proved a success, except for some very special purposes for which no other vessel would have 

 proved available. The history of the Great Eastern is one of interest to all, and especially to 

 too sanguine and over-ambitious individuals and companies. 



In reply to an advertisement from the Admiralty in 1851 for the conveyance of the 



East Indian and Australian mails, was an application from a new organisation, the Eastern 



Steam Navigation Company. This offer was declined, and then some of the directors, on 



the suggestion of Mr. I. K. Brunei, the great engineer, recommended the construction of a 



57 



