1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



133 



or cargo, lias been increased to the extent of upwards of 200 tons. She is 

 also to have new paddle-wheels, which are nearly finished, and in progress of 

 fitting in place. The directors observe : — 



" Mr. Ashton, the well-known shipbrolier and auctioneer, was employed to 

 effect a sale of your works, either by private contract or by auction, and your 

 directors regret to announce ineffectually. The time is now fast approaching 

 ■when they will be closed, unless parties come forward to take them off your 

 hands. Situated as your premises are, with water-side frontage, ample space 

 for building, a graving dock of the first-class, and in other respects a more 

 convenient engineering and ship-building establishment than any in the king- 

 dom, your directors long since expected that they should be able to commu- 

 nicate to you that the mechanics and other able hands, who before their 

 establishment were many of them strangers to Bristol, would not have had 

 occasion to turn their backs upon the city ; they still trust these hopes may 

 be realized, and that the time will not arrive when it will be advisable to sell 

 the tools and the materials piecemeal. Your directors have, on more than 

 one occasion, suggested to you the good effects to be anticipated from your 

 arming them with authority to tender for Government vessels, or otherwise 

 to work for the public. The opportunities have been numerous, and if they 

 had been authorised to have accepted some of them, Bristol, they think, 

 ■would by this time have become a steam-ship building port of the first class, 

 and your establishment, in all probability, in a flourishing condition, instead 

 of being, as it has a prospect of being, on your hands, subject to an outlay 

 for rent, taxes, and maintenance, of not less than Jt'400 per annum." 



Prince Albert's visit and the undocking of the Great Britain are then 

 briefly alluded to, it being stated that " the whole of the expenses of that aus- 

 picious occasion were defrayed from the fund arising from the sale of tickets, 

 or from visitors to the works." The report then goes on to state that, " for 

 the purpose of opening the bank fronting the dock in the most inexpensive 

 way," the Great Western Steam, ship Company had obtained the permission 

 of the Dock Company to lower the water in the float six feet. Circum- 

 stances, however, had rendered it necessary to lower the water " considerably 

 below the six feet asked for ;" and on the 13th December, nearly six months 

 after the event, the Dock Company made a claim for £312 Ms. lOd. for 

 damage done to the ship Aiujmta in consequence of the lowering of the 

 water. The payment of this sum had been resisted, and the " not acceding 

 to this demand, the directors have reason to fear, has operated injuriously 

 upon the consent of the dock hoard to the passage of the Great Britain 

 through the locks." The report then goes on to speak of the Great Britain. 



" The size of your ship Great Britain was not finally settled until the year 

 1839. At your annual meeting, in 1840, her dimensions were made known 

 to you, and a model was laid before you. Before, however, the final settle- 

 ment of her power and capacity, deputations from the public bodies had been 

 for months sitting in committee, with the view of arriving at some conclusive 

 recommendation to the city, by and through which it was anticipated that 

 the trade of the port would be relieved by arrangements with the Dock Com- 

 pany, and its locks throivn open for the ingress and egress of a larger class 

 of steam vessels than those which are of necessity, your directors believe, 

 confined to Bristol only ; and one of the resolutions which were reported 

 to your town council on that occasion as the result of the inde- 

 fatigable exertions of the gentlemen composing that Committee was, ' that 

 it is essential to the trade of the pott that the entrance to the floating harbour 

 should be made wider' — at the same time your consulting engineer, Mr. 

 Brunei, was employed by the council to survey the harbour and rivers, and 

 did, after completing the same, hand in estimates for widening the old locks, 

 or forming a new one. The Great Britaiu's beam and form were a good 

 deal affected by the width of the locks, which were supposed to be 45 feet 

 nearly all the way up and down ; ou measuring, however, your engineers 

 have since found they are much narrower, even at the average high water 

 mark. The great buoyancy of iron ships is such, that to gain draft of water, 

 which in then as well as in the present state of knowledge of ship-building 

 was supposed to he necessary to give stability and the other qualities neces- 

 sary for a sea-going steamer, the usual form of steam-ship building had to be 

 abandoned, and the breadth towards the bottom considerably contracted ; 

 capacity, conseqently, had to be looked for above rather than below the water 

 line. This and other considerable advantages led to the adoption of the form 

 in which the Great Britain is built, her widest part being far above the line 

 of flotation ; and they have great pleasure in stating that she has been visited 

 by most of the eminent ship-builders and engineers of this and the neigh- 

 bouring kingdoms, and her construction and form not merely highly approved 

 of, but greatly admired. About the middle of the year 1841, your engineers 

 reported to your directors that a great saving would follow putting the boilers 

 on board in dock, and at the same time they were informed that it was not 

 likely tne ship would be allowed to occupy nearly a whole side of Cumber- 

 land. basin for so long a time, as it was then discovered would be necessary to 

 complete her equipment ; and in 1842 your directors reported to you that 

 the most economical way of getting the machinery on board would be through 

 an aperture in her side while in the dock, by which the necessity of floating 

 her would be avoided. Your directors were fully aware that by this decision 

 they would have to seek the consent of the dock directors for a temporary 

 removal of two or three of the upper courses of stones of the lock, and the 

 unshipping of the gates of either one or both sides for a few days, which 

 they were assured by your consulting engineer, who acted in the same capa- 

 city for the dock directors, would be a matter comparatively inexpensive in 

 execution, without risk, easy of accomplishment, and in no way Ukely to in- 

 convenience the trade of the port." 



The report then proceeds to detail the unsuccessful negotiations with the 

 Dock Company, respecting the facilities afforded for getting the Great 

 Britain into aiul out of Cumberland basin ; the directors observing, that they 

 had not anticipated such a termination to the negotiations, more especially 

 as " the actual dues on the Great JVesiern^ received by the Dock Company, 

 have amounted to £2,500, while those upon her several cargoes, which the 

 directors have no means of computing, must have been considerable." The 

 consequence of this want of agreement between the two companies is that, 

 instead of getting the Great Britain into Cumberland basin on the 21st inst., 

 and out of it for Kingroad on the 4th April, it is " the painful duty" of the 

 directors to inform the Steam-Ship Company, that they anticipate so much 

 delay from the plan which they are now driven to adopt, that they think it 

 will be impossible to keep the advertised dates of the sailings of the Great 

 Britain. The Report then goes on to state : — 



" The expenses for experiments on the Archimedes have been reported to 

 you. Your directors regret that she was taken away before they were com- 

 pleted. A three-armed screw made for her at your works, was tried by Mr. 

 Guppy, on the French man-of-war Napoleon, a vessel of more than double 

 the power of the Archimedes, and with it a high speed vias attained ; and 

 your directors believe with a screw of proper size on a similar plan, she is at 

 this moment admitted to he the fastest man-of-war afloat. Your consulting 

 engineer's services have been engaged by the Lords of the Admiralty to report 

 upon screws, and for this purpose her Majesty's ship Rattler, of 800 tons 

 and 200 h.p., has been placed at his disposal. Her experiments have been 

 frequently attended by one or other of your officials, as were also experiments, 

 three years ago, upon her Majesty's ship Polyphemus, a sister vessel, with 

 paddle wheels. In her a speed of nine knots was attained in Southampton 

 water. The late results of the Rattler have been nine and a half, better than 

 half a knot over the speed of the Polyphemus, as well as of another sister 

 vessel of the same power, and in the same place with paddle-wheels — her 

 Majesty's ship Prometheus in the Thames. Y'our directors have been induced 

 to dwell upon this subject, not merely in consequence of its importance, but 

 because of garbled statements of speeches in the House upon the navy esti- 

 mates, or of assertions not founded on the real facts of the case, having led 

 many of the proprietors to seek for information at your office. Y'our con- 

 sulting engineer and Mr. Smith, the patentee, are acting with the most per- 

 fect understanding, and the speed of the Rattler has been improved with 

 every alteration of the screw, the principle, your directors believe, remaining 

 the same. Your directors greatly regret that it became necessary to put the 

 Great Britain's screw in hand before the experiments in the Rattler were 

 concluded. They will not quit this subject without reminding you that it 

 has never been asserted that a higher rate of speed is expected to he attained 

 in perfectly smooth water, with a screw than with paddles; but that it has 

 numerous advantages over the paddle for long voyages on the ocean, and 

 that the averages are likely to be better ; and as certain authorities have 

 asked what the speed of the Rattler is or what about 11 statute miles per 

 hour is to 15 or 10, or even more, which is reported to have been attained 

 by fast boats on the Thames, the Hudson, and other rivers; you are to re- 

 collect that the power in her Majesty's ships is seldom more than one horse 

 to four tons, while in the fast river boats it is about as one to two tons, or 

 even less, and that few, if any of them, would be safe at sea in l)ad weather, 

 from the slightness of build and disproportion of weights. The Elberfelt, 

 recently caught crossing the Channel, is a case in point. If your directors 

 are rightly informed she was built for the Elbe, of iron one-eighth thick, and 

 did not draw two feet of water. The accounts of the company are appended 

 to the report, and after reserving the sum of £430 13s. for the reduction of 

 the preliminary expenses of the company, and £767 in reduction of stock, a 

 dividend has been declared of 21. 10s. per share, or 7^ per cent, on the ori- 

 ginal cost, or 9^ per cent, on the reduced cost of the Great Western, which 

 will become payable on the 15th inst., free of income tax, leaving a balance 

 of £1,511 9s. \d. to be carried to the reserved fund, making the amount, 

 with interest, £13,139 3j. 4d. in reduction of the original cost of the Great 

 Western, 



Subjoined to the report is a statement of accounts, in which the following 

 is given as the 



COST OF THE " GRF.AT BRITAIN." 



Hull, engines, and boilers . . . £66,790 3 10 



Fittings . . . . . 8,908 13 8 



Masts, rigging, boats, pumps, cables, and stores . 2,110 9 4 



General expenditure, including screw experiments 19,344 17 6 



£97,154 4 4 



THE PROPOSED NEW BUILDING ACT. 



We have now in the House of Commons another bill " Far better Regu- 

 latiny the Building of the Metropolitan Districts, and to provide for the 

 Drainage thereof." The bill that we noticed last year, and which was read 

 a second time in the House of Commons last session, proved an abortion. 

 The present bill appears to have been got up with great labour and care, and 

 with some few alterations may prove acceptable ; the principal fault is, the 

 bill is too verbose; however, we are not disposed to be too nice, knowing the 

 difticulties the framers must have had to contend with ; we shall for the 

 present only give an outline of the bill, with a few extracts of the most 

 important parts. 



