ON STEAMSHIP PERFORMANCE. 285 
necessary hereafter to repeat many particulars as to the dimensions, &c., of 
the ships, and the power and other details of the engines of such of H.M.’s 
ships of which your Committee may, from time to time, receive returns of 
performances at sea. 
In the previous Reports, the records of special trials with propellers of 
various kinds, in the steamships ‘ Flying Fish,’ ‘ Bullfinch,’ ‘ Doris,’ &c., 
were given; and the Committee are now enabled to furnish another series 
of experiments with Her Majesty’s gunboat ‘ Stork,’ which are very interest- 
ing, and to which is added a short abstract of the trials of the ‘Shannon’ 
and ‘ Psyche.’ 
The Steam Transport Service—A series of tables, prepared by Mr. G. 
Murdoch, Superintending Engineer at Constantinople during the Crimean 
War, and now Inspecting Engineer of Her Majesty’s Steam Reserve at Ports- . 
mouth, haying been carefully calculated for the purpose of showing the 
respective values of the several steamships, classified according to the nature 
of the employment or the special character of the duties required to be per- 
formed, have been placed at the disposal of your Committee. These tables, 
besides giving the expense of moving each ship 1000 miles, and the cost of 
conveying sick and wounded officers and troops, cavalry, cattle, and cargo, 
over the same distance, give the daily coal-consumption and the distance 
run for each ton of coal consumed. They have also the additional value 
arising from contrasting the different results obtained, and costs incurred, 
when propelling the same vessels at different speeds. 
Royal Mail Service—Your Committee have been favoured with a copy of 
the Engine Register kept by the West India Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, 
showing the exact performances of some of their largest steamships. The 
tabulated statement, which will be found appended to this Report, is for the 
twelve months ending June last, and has reference only to the steamers em- 
ployed on the West India Transatlantic route between Southampton and St. 
Thomas. 
To this Form of Return your Committee would invite special attention, 
as they are not aware that such is kept by any of the other large Steam 
Packet Companies or steamship-owners; and the great value of the informa- 
tion it affords, as also the very complete form in which that information is 
rendered, will, it is thought, be admitted by every one who is conversant 
with such matters. The importance of such a record to a corporation like 
the Royal Mail Company can hardly be over-estimated, when it is considered 
that they have no less than nine distinct routes of steamers in the West 
Indies and the Brazils, and that exactly the same system is adopted in regard 
to all these ; so that the performance of every vessel engaged on these lines 
is, on the completion of each succeeding voyage, thus carefully analysed and 
brought under the immediate notice of the managers. 
In addition to the above, indicator diagrams are taken from the engines 
on every yoyage, and sent home for inspection; the particulars of these are 
further entered in a register kept for that purpose. The Royal Mail Company 
have kindly furnished your Committee with a copy of their register of the 
diagrams taken on all the voyages comprised in the first-mentioned table, 
thus affording a complete synopsis of the working both of their ships and 
engines on the West India Transatlantic route, during the twelve months 
referred to. 
Your Committee have included also the dimensions and other particulars 
