for Inland Navigation. 
171 
passengers. This was the only thing wanting, we believe, toensure the successful and 
geneial establishment of steamers on the Ganges. To those who are not sufficient- 
ly familiar with the subject, Captain McKonochie’s statement of the advantages of 
the tug system will be interesting. 
“ It has been ascertained by actual experiment in America, that to enable a vessel 
to stem a current with un absolute velocity equal to half the velocity of the current, 
it requires three times the motive power, if that power act on board a vessel, that 
would he necessary if the power were applied to a rope hauling her.” 
“ It has been found that steam paddles (on the common construction) act with 
greater effect when they dip no more than 1 8 or 20 inches into the water ; but when 
a heavy cargo is embarked on board of the same vessel as the engine, the paddles 
are sure to be sunk so low as to have their power materially impaired, at the very 
time when power is most required. Steam tugs would be wholly exempt from this 
inconvenience.” 
“ The propelling power of an engine depends also greatly on the proportion 
which the breadth of the paddles bears to her power ; but in steam boats, which 
have to take on board passengers and freight, it is necessary to make the paddles 
of less than the most efficient breadth for two reasons : first, for the sake of conve- 
nience, that they may go close along side piers and quays ; and second, because, 
carrying their cargo on deck, their centre of gravity, when laden, lies high, and 
the paddles must be light to suit this peculiarity. Steam tugs have no similar dis- 
advantages to encounter. They may have their paddles precisely of that breadth 
which is best.” 
“ A boat with only a powerful engine on hoard, may he made to swim in four 
feet water and under (few steamers draw less than six or seven*) : while the engine, 
which is now such an incumbrance to steam boats that carry passengers, would, 
by its weight, be positively beneficial to the tug ; because she must have substance 
as well as power (bone as well as blood) to fit her for draught. Tlie engine, it might 
have been added, can always be placed in a tug, exactly in the centre of the vessel, 
where its power can be applied with best effect ; while, in a boat fitted to receive 
passengers, this consideration has generally to yield to convenience. 
“ Passage vessels that are to be towed may of course be constructed of far less 
draughtof water, than when they are to carry an engine. Flat in the floor, and buoy- 
ant with any cargo, they might, even in the worst weather, be conducted by a tuga- 
long side a shallow pier, and land passengers and goods in comfort and safety, long 
after approach was impracticable to a loaded steam or sailing boat of even the same 
dranuht of water. Flat bottomed boats are so buoyant that to superficial observers 
they" appear dangerous craft; but in the smooth water of a tug they would 
be steady ; and they arc in all circumstances, as every experienced seaman knows, 
the safest of all boats. The Yarmouth keels which take stores and provisions out 
to the men of war, are open boats, sunk to the gunwale when their cargoes are on 
board, yet no accident ever occurs to them. The Campeche droguers are, in like 
manner, square boxes, with scarce a sharp end to go foremost, yet they too load 
ganwale deep, take cargoes out through heavy rolling seas to ships four leagues 
off, and survive all the apparent dangers of their passage.” 
” Passengers would be much more comfortable , and safer, than they can possi- 
bly be when embarked with a Steam engine. The heat, smell, smoke, dirt, and 
jarring, unavoidably caused by an engine, are all serious evils, and aggravate, in no 
small degree, the pains of sea sickness. A small neglect of the machinery may at 
any time produce a nreat calamity : tire chances of such neglect are greatly multi- 
plied by the presence of passengers on board, and by their occasional curiosity ; 
while the weight of the engine, in the event of collision with any external object, 
gives a great additional impetus to the shock, and causes the vessel, when a hole 
happens to he made in its bottom, to go down like a stone. Were tug boats adopt- 
ed, all these drawbacks on steam navigation would be obviated. At a distance 
from the tug, and the means of anchorage on board, the passengers in a vessel in 
*ow would be safef in it whatever happened ; and as every corner in the passage 
vessel might then be given up to accommodation, a thousand conveniences would 
be introduced which are at present unthought of.” 
* The Hoogly draws about four feet. 
+ “ The exemption from danger would not however be so complete as is supposed; 
for a late accident at New Orleans show's that an explosion in a tug may do barm 
to vessels in tow. But it would be so great comparatively, as to form a consider- 
ation of the first importance.” Ed. Mech. Mag. 
