EXTEAORDmAEY SHIPS. 
5 
Her lengtli is 256 feet ; breadtli and depths of course alike_, 
16 feet; her deep displacement — for she will be from two- 
thirds to three-fifths immersed — will be 500 tons. Her longi- 
tudinal curves are arcs of a circle of 1_,028 feet radius ; the 
length of hull to beam being 16 to 1^ or about double 
the proportion of an ordinary ship. About one-fourth of its 
length projects at each end beyond the raised deck and bul- 
warks ; the object of this arrangement being to avoid the 
shipping of seas in rough weather. The skin-plates are of 
excellent u*on in the lower part^ and in the uppei% or arching 
over^ of toughened steel_, strengthened for 130 feet in her 
middle portion by four longitudinal ribs. 
She is divided by bulkheads and an internal longitudinal 
deck into eight water-tight compartments. Her propel- 
ling apparatus^ it is stated, will consist of two screws, 
22 feet in diameter, with which the conical ends (Plate e afh) 
of the ship itself will revolve. We confess ourselves surprised 
at the enormous diameter of these screw-propellers ; for, ex- 
ceeding the widest diameter of the hull, Mr. WinaAs yacht can 
never be allowed to take the ground in a tidal harbour, but must 
always be kept afloat. The great sweep of screw will give high 
speed if it can be worked at anything like a competent number 
of revolutions ; but taking the largest screw of the Great 
Eastern, which is but 2 feet 
more in diameter, for compari- 
son, we may well doubt if two 
screws of such nearly approxi- 
mate size as 22 to 24 feet can 
be efiectively worked by so 
much smaller a vessel. The 
G^^eat Eastern is a big ship 
designed to develop the ca- 
pacities of mere bulk and the double application of paddle- 
and-screw propellers. Of “^^big ships we had in 1838 
the Great Western, 1,340 tons; in 1845 the Great Britain, 
3,200 tons ; in 1855 the Persia, 3,300 tons ; in 1858 the Diihe of 
Wellington {msuH-of-wsLr) 3,7 69 tons; and in 1859 the huge Great 
Eastern, the biggest ship ever floated, exceeding even HoalTs 
ark. We leave the Warrior and the iron-clads out of the 
purely big ship class. The accompanying sketches give the 
relative sizes of those large ships. The exact dimensions of 
the Great Eastern are 692 feet length ; 83 feet beam ; 58 feet 
depth ; 22,500 tons bulk ; 28 feet draught of water. Compare 
this with the dimensions of Winan^s yacht, given above, and it 
is certain that with steam-power worked at the same pres- 
sure, the smaller vessel could not make as many revolutions of 
her two half-immersed screws as the ^Teviathan^-’ ship. It is not 
Fig. 9. — The Duke of Wellington. ' 
