^0 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



engines are lisecl for clearing the bilge and for some otlier pur- 

 poses ; three or four for loading and unloading cargoes ; one 

 for the anchor and the sails ; one in part for supplying water 

 closets with water; one for operating a steam steering apparatus; 

 one for operating a newly devised governor, which so controls 

 and governs the propeller that it cannot make more than a cer- 

 tain number of revolutions per minute. This last takes the place 

 of a man who had formerly to devote all his time to this work. 



These engines are in addition to the main engine for ^jumping 

 out the ship. There are six water tight iron compartments in 

 the ship, and if one should be stove in or should spring a leak 

 from any cause, the otjiers would float her while the great cir- 

 culating pump of the condenser would be brought into requisi- 

 tion, whose jDower to discharge water is very great. 



The crew number forty-seven, and the monthly pay-roll is 

 about $2,000. The powerful and complicated machine requires 

 constant watchfulness and the greatest care. To lubricate it 

 one and one-half barrels of oil are used every trip. The aver- 

 age consumption of coal is 130 tons for a round trip. The aver- 

 age length of the voyage is from fifty-five to sixty hours. The 

 Savannah has once gone from dock to dock in fifty-two hours 

 and thirty minutes. 



The regular sea route from New York to Savannah is not 

 through any part of the Gulf Stream, that immense river of 

 warm water, a thousand times larger than the Mississippi, which 

 flows in a cold water bed, and helps to temper the severity of 

 the frigid and frozen North ; but between that great and, as yet, 

 inexplicable phenomenon of the ocean, and its beautifully wind- 

 ing western shore, our steamer grandly plowed its way. Like 

 the ''shining shore" of the "better land,'' we well knew, that 

 although invisible to our material eyes, it was near at hand. 

 This passing in a few hours from ice-bridged rivers with snow- 



