698 REPORT—1868. 
hours, there (by means of the hydraulic machinery which our President 
invented, amongst the other inventions which distinguish his name) dis- 
charges her cargo in ten hours, returns: in thirty-two hours, and thus com- 
pietes her voyage in seventy-six hours. The ‘James Dixon’ made fifty-seven 
voyages to London in one year, and in that year delivered 62,842 tons of 
coals, and this with a crew of only twenty-one persons. To accomplish this 
work on the old system with sailing colliers would have required sixteen 
ships, and 144 hands to man them. 
One of the great difficulties we had to encounter in perfecting these vessels 
was in the ballasting. To dispense with the necessity of shipping shingle or 
chalk as ballast, many costly experiments were tried, and at length, by a 
system of double bottoms, the construction of which adds to the strength of 
the ships, the ballasting of the vessels with water was brought to a highly 
satisfactory result. The water is allowed to run into the spaces between the 
two shells as the vessels pass down the Thames; when the spaces are full 
the cocks are closed, and so remain until the arrival in the Tyne, when the 
water is pumped out by means of an apparatus provided for the purpose. 
This system allows the vessel to be ballasted without loss of time at either 
end of her voyage, and does not impair in the slightest degree her power of 
carrying coals. The introduction of the screw collier has revolutionized the 
coal-carrying trade, and has had a most beneficial effect upon commerce 
generally. Besides accomplishing the purpose for which it was designed, 
this class of vessel has been proved capable of rendering very important 
services to the Royal Navy. When, in the latter part of the year 1854, 
information reached this country that the commissariat department of our 
army in the Crimea had broken down, and that the salvation of our troops 
depended upon a rapid despatch of supplies, it was found that screw colliers 
were admirably adapted for the work, and the majority of them were tempo- 
rarily taken out of the coal trade and employed in the transport service. 
The Government admitted on that occasion that screw colliers had proved 
to be more useful and economical than any other class of vessels they had 
employed. 
In the year following the launch of the ‘ John Bowes,’ namely, in 1843, 
the first iron vessel built on the Wear was released from its blocks. The 
Tees, with great energy and considerable success, followed the example, and 
on both those rivers, as we shall see presently, a very considerable trade in 
iron shipbuilding is carried on. 
The first iron vessel for war purposes constructed in this district was 
‘The Terror,’ one of the large iron-cased floating batteries designed during 
the Russian war to operate against Cronstadt. This vessel, of 2000 tons, 
250 horse-power, carrying 26 sixty-eight-pounder guns, was built in three © 
and a half months, and she would have been completed in three months had 
not the declaration of peace slackened the energies of our men, which, up to 
that time, had been maintained so nobly by their patriotic feelings. 
It was in the building of this vessel that. rolled armour-plates were first 
used. The demand for forged armour-plates was so great that the forges of 
the kingdom could not supply it, and recourse to rolling was unavoidable. 
At that time the largest plate mill was at Parkgate, and we accordingly 
employed Messrs. Beale and Co., the owners of Parkgate works, to roll the 
plates we required. To the use of these rolled plates, however, the Admiralty 
opposed itself; but we feeling convinced, by experiments which we made, 
that the rolled armour-plates were at least equal to the forged, invited the 
Admiralty to a trial of their efficiency. 
