182 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
such vessels being good carrying capacity and sea-worthiness, with the ability to make 
headway against strong winds and heavy head seas. One who has sailed many months 
in a steam-carrier told the writer that he never had seen a time when that vessel 
would not keep on her course, and make good progress, when she was bound to 
market. 
The London steamers are celebrated for having more than the usual amount of 
sheer — indeed, they are decidedly crooked, with their ends well up from the water 
even when they are deeply loaded. But, as a rule, vessels of this class are not re- 
markable for having a strong sheer, and some of them are rather straight on top. 
The steam-carriers built and engined by Earle’s Ship building and Engineering 
Company (limited), of Hull, enjoy a very high reputation amongst those interested in 
the beam-trawl fisheries. The illustrations (Figs. 1 and 2, Plate 19) are a longitudinal 
section with sail plan and deck plan of the Australia, one of the latest built and best 
of the steam-carriers produced by the above-mentioned firm. 
The form of this vessel is excellent, considering the purpose for which she is 
intended. She has a moderately sharp bow, rather Strongly convex above the water, 
which gives her good lifting power, or buoyancy, forward, when plunging into a sea; 
her stem is straight and nearly vertical above the water-line, but curved below. She 
has a long, rather flat midship section, with low, rounding bilge, short but clean run, 
and a rather light and graceful stern. 
The following are the nnder deck arrangements: Abaft the forecastle, and sepa- 
rated from it by a bulkhead, is the ice-room, this being entered through a hatch which 
is located just aft of the forecastle companion. The ice-house is 9 feet long, fore and | 
aft, and holds 25 to 35 tons of ice. Abaft this, and between it and that portion of the | 
vessel where are placed the engine-room and coal bunkers, is the fish-room in which 1 
boxes or “trunks” of fish are stowed and iced, whether the vessel is fishing on her j 
own account or acting only as a carrier.^ I 
The coal-bunkers are forward of the boiler, and next to the after bulkhead of the ] 
fish-room, directly beneath the bridge. They extend from the deck to the keelson, and, ] 
when filled with coal, prevent the heat from the furnaces penetrating the bulkhead of | 
the fish-room. Aft of the engine-room is the cabin, where the captain, engineer, and j 
other officers sleep and eat. 3 
The Australia, like other vessels of her class, is ketch-rigged, but has no bowsprit, j 
the jib-stay setting up at the stem-head. The forecastle, which affords accommoda- 
tions for the crew, is partly above the main deck forward ; aft, the quarter-deck is 
flush with the main rail, and underneath this is the cabin. 
“ The length of the vessel is 135 feet, breadth 22 feet 6 inches, and depth to floors 11 
feet. With about 50 tons of permanent ballast on board, the draught forward would 
be 4 feet 10 inches and aft 10 feet 6 inches, the freeboard being 4 feet 6 inches. The 
engines are compound surface-condensing, with cylinders 21 inches and 40 inches in 
diameter, and 27 inches stroke. The cooling surface in the condenser is 617 square feet, 
the indicated horse-power being 380. The boiler is of the ordinary return-tube type, 
12 feet in diameter and 9 feet 6 inches long, having a total heating surface of 1,205 
1 Mr. Charles Hellyer, a smack owner of Hull, is my authority for stating that these vessels occa- 
sionally engage in trawling, jiarticularly when, owing to calms or other interruptions, the sailing 
trawlers are detained somewhat from working, and therefore have not enough fish to load the carrier 
when she arrives at the fleet. 
