The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-10-18 00:00:00

TRIAL TRIP OF THE GREAT EASTERN.

Hon-tit:An, October 10.
The Great Kluitern arrived here this sfternoon, at
3.4, having accomplished the voyage round under the
wost favourable circumstaucu. The average rate of
speed for the whole trip wu a little over 13 knots,
though during the greater part of the time the engines
never went snore than half speed, the muldles, averaging
10, and the screw 38 revolutions, working at 20Ib.
steam. The motion at all times was must alight. though
the weather was very squally, and at times a lung sea
rail high. At all times, however, the vessel was under
the most perfect control; she was tried under both
screw and paddle engines, united and singly, and on
both occasions with perfect /MOWN.
HOLYHEAD, Oct. H.

The few lines I was enabled to send off' on Saturday
afternoon from l'ortland just iuformed your readerri that
the Great Eastern was then getting under weigh. it
is more gratifying now to be able to report that the
cruise has been brought to a mucceasful termination under
such favourable circumstances as I give pleasure to
all interested in the welfare of the greateat maritime
and annuiercial undertaking which of its kind has
ever yet been attempted. The little cruise which
terminated yestenlay, though short, was quite sufficient
in its results to be termed emphatically a great success;
greater, verbal., when all things are fairly coneitlered,
than could well have been hoped, and certainly than
was expected. The short notice from Portland simply
told that at 1 o'clock on Saturday steam was up and all
was ready for a start. Soon after 2 the crew were sent
forward to heave up the anchor, the eteam-gear for
assisting in getting round the capstan having broken
down entirely during l'huneley and the flay previous.
l'ontrary to the opinion of most on board, which rather
leaned to the belief that Captain Harrison would have
to borrow some hundred men or so from the Trafalgar
before there was any chance of seeing her anchor at the
bows, the work of weighing went on easily and well, and
SO men sufficed to drag the Great Eestern up to and
over her moorings. Bringing the anchor out of the
ground, however, was not ea easily managed; and it
was not till all the musical resources knewn to sailors inn
such occasions were nearly exhausted that the tenacious
grip of Truttuan's patent was released, when allow drift
with the tide showed that the great ship was again set
free. In another minute, without shouting, oonfusion,
or hurry of any kind, and with less noise than is made
by a 1110. ton coaster, a slight vibration through the ship,
with a thin line of foam extern, Klemm' that the screw
engines were at work and the vessel once inure under
weigh. With such ease, with such perfect quietness
And good order was everything accomplished that the
occasional cheering from the yachts and steamers was
abated the fiat token given to those on board that the
trial trip had commenced. At a quarter to 4 the" way"
on the vessel was rapid; her head went round like
turning • pleasure-boat, and so little sign was given of
the ship being under 'team that it seemed rather as if
the breakwater had got adrift and was slowly floating
past than that the monster vessel was really cleaving the
blue waves with a force which cm yet we have seen no
wind or *ea to resist or check. One or two of the yachts
and crowded strainers reisied a hurrah as the vessel left,
but on the whole the enthusiasui wail limited and tillAC.
Weylllollol 110 CA MA appear to be a very de trative
place, and its dull influence seemed to extend to Her
Majesty's ship Trafalgar, which gave no cheer and made
no ergo, though such • compliment was due if only to
induce dome on board the big ship to forget their care.
lemmata in firing ehotted guns. As the Great Eastern
worked eerily up to the head of the breakwater, MAI
before any considereble momentum had la-en gained by
the screw engines, the eteam was shut off. Yet slight
air was the impetus then aapiired compared to her full
steaming power, the yewl held her way over the water
for upwards of a mile against A strong tide and gentle
wind. Gentle as MU the latter, however, it gave a
pressure of more than MU tons on her stupendous bulk,
yet no more affecting her onward course than the little
ripple on the sea which shone and glenced in the clear
sunshine. Just before leaving the harbour the last and
latest verities came on board, including among othert,
Mr. C. Talbot, Mr. Appetit', Captain Mangles, Mr.
Biddleecombe, R.N. Mr. Ogilvie and one er two others
IA leas note. At tins time (4 ;10) the vessel was well
clear of the breakwater, though the long buainess of
getting the anchor to the bows was still going on,
involving sonic tight and slack rope feats on the part of
the sailors to which M. Blondin's efforts must have been •
joke. Lowering men over in hitches and bights of
hawsers Ito walk about and exercise mitumal agility on
the stock of a muddy anchor is an effort which " must
be seen to be appreciated."
As yet, from all that has been seen, the stronger the
wind a-head and the rottglier the MCA, the easier this
vessel items to take it. It i inure than prelable that,
till this vessel incite with an Atlantic gale she will never
move as much as she did on this trial trip round to
Ilelyhead. Soon after ten o'clock the Great Eastern
must have been abreast of Holyhead, though the wea-
ther was so thick that it was impossible to make the
land, and on such • coast and with such a wind i: was
not considered prudent to ;pm too near, so then the great
ship wound her course up Channel, ineeting the waves,
which were rising with fast increasiiig might, literally
with all the steadiness of a rock. A short and heavy
sea can generally be met with in the Race of Holyhead,
and on Monday morning, though not • tithe of what it
would have been if the wind had blown from the op-
posite quarter, there was still a wicked swell on, and
quite enough to fairly fry an ordinary vessel. Some-
times the bows of the Great Easteru were left almost
hare as the turgid waver ran under her, sometimes it
almost reached the spunaons of the paddle wheels, rirting
and falling more than tweitty feet on her raid hulk, but
making no manner of difference upon her way whatever.
Just AA OA the first trial trip off Lover, she held her
course without moving to the right or left, and showing
less unskediatess in a really heavy sea than she hail done
in a calm on leaving Portland. Soon after ten o'clock
the helm was put hard a-port and the Great Eastern, for
the first time since she has Is err built, made • fair turn
round in the open ACA. The helm wax put over to 17
degrees and the ship went completely round at mode-
rate speed in minutes, and in a distant., of • mile and
• quarter. This, as regards both time and distance, was
very little more than half of what it would have taken
any hue-of-battle ship in Her Majesty's service to aocuni-
Pl4ll.

It was calculated on board that going round on the
port side, with the help of the wind, might easily have
been done in five ininutes less time. A little after 11
o'clock the dull bleak mountain of Holyhead showed out
on the liorhain like a cloud of unusual density and me-
-1 mice. Still the weather was too thick, and the wind too
high to venture all at once upon the harbour, b 0 it was
resolved at the last to try the vessel under screw ant
paddle before taking her up to her moorings. The dig.
therefore, was pretty well kept off the dark mass
which loomed through the haze and 'narked the land,
and the revolutions of the screw were slackened down
to 12, leaving the paddles to carry on the ship alone.
Under this trial, which it was equally important and in-
teresting to all amoenied to have carefully solved, the
paddle engines behaved splendidly. At first the screw
aas worked at 20, when the revolutions of the paddles
fell off from 10 to less than nine, the ship going 9 knots.
The screw wan then stopped dead, and the paddles had
to tow it. Under this strain, though still working ea
noiselessly and easily as before, the paddles fell from nine
revolutions to below seven, gradually recovering them-
selves to seven and a quarter, ibe ship going from seven
and • half to eight knots, against the wind a-head.
So far, then, this trial was considered, and most justly,
to be satisfactory in the highest degree, and the general
impression left was, that even greater results would have
been obtained if the paddles bad nut been so much reefed
as to give them less power in the water. If the screw
had been disconnected from the machinery, this also
would have added to the speed f the paddles, at the rate
,d at least a knot an hour. It is, however, hard labour
for an hour or more to disconnect the screw, and this
waste of time was not thought prudent when no result
beyond what was already known could be obtained.
The Great Eastern was next tried under her screw
alone. At the first start the paddles were turned at
the rate of six revolutions to save the screw from the
labour of turning them and the massive machinery to
which they were attached. The screw then worked at
30, the vessel going 111 knots. The paddles were then
in the course of a short time brought to • dead stop,
and this reduced the revolutions of the screw to 33, and
the speed of the vessel to nine knots. In both cases the
result was almost precisely what has been calculated and
anticipated, excepting always the allowance to be made
for each engine having in turn to overcome the resist.
anise offered by driving the paddles or towing the screw.
What, perhaps, was not anticipated, was the immense
accession of momentum gained by the union of both
engines and which has now placed the immense speed
and consequent success of the Great Eastern beyond all
chance of doubt.

These trials, with the turnings and slackenings they
involved, brought the vessel close ler the South
Stack 1.4..dit at Holyhead, which row in the now clear
sunshine in all its rugged magnificence of light and
shadow, its splintered masses apparently falling to
decay, like the ruin of wine island of the olden time.
The good folks in the Stack Light seemed es idently not
a little puzzled to account for what appeared from land
to be • series of moat meaningless evolutions. Certainly
to the non-initiated the wayward and eccentric course
of the Great Eastern must hare looked unusual, to say
the least. The value of the experiments, however, was
undoubted, and the results achieved were on the whole
of the most satisfactory character.
At :1 o'clock the weather had cleared and set in fine,
and the Great Eastern, at last having solved all the
questions which were capable of being solved under
steam in such a narrow channel, stood in for the harbour
of Holyhead. It is not a very easy place to take a
vessel in f the length and depth of the Great Eastern.
but Captain Harrison had the ship, as much under com•
mend as a Thames wagerboat, and moving her easily up
to the spot selected for her, the anchor was let go in
about nine fatbonts and the vessel moored at • few
minutes to 4 o'clock. Thus terminated, under the most
favourable auspices, the second trial trip of this ship ;
the whole distance accomplished being 480 knots in
about 40 hours, exclusive of the time devoted to the ex-
perituenta. 'ibis gave an average on the whole run of a
little over 12 knots (15 miles) an hour, and for more
than three-fourths of the while voyage the ship was
only going at half speed. Fairly estimated, the result
exceeded even sanguine expectations, and Captain Har-
rison now feels confident that the vessel may be de-
pended on to average 159 knob; or 18 statute miles an
hour, and under ordinary favourable circumstances of
s, iiiiiii er wind and weather to make stretches of from
17.3 to 18 koots an hour. During the whole voyage the
paddles insole 2:1.870 revolutions, and the screw 81.010.
In neither engines was there au approach either to
heating or noise. On Monday the escape valve on one
of the screw cylinders of Messrs. Watt and Co. got
jimmied open in a similar manner to the screw on
Saturday. The mere accident, if such it may be called,
is scarcely worth mentioning, if it were not for the fact
that speed had to he reduced to remedy the defect. The
questii,u now arises -how long the Great Eastern will
remain at Holyhead, and whether or 110 she will start
for America this winter As far as can be judged from
the successful results of this trial trip it would seem
that the ship is capable of going anywhere and doing
anything. Nevertheless, much remains to be done in
the way of making ready for an Atlantic cruise, and at
present thens amine as little probability of the Great
Eastern starting across the Atlantic this month as of
Holyhead itself.
The visit of Her Majesty is still expected next week,
though whether it will take place on Monday or Tues-
day is still uncertain.

TH Z LATE I. K. BRUNEL AND THE ACCIDENT nts
lioA HD THE :KMAT E %STERN. —We have heard that
Mr. Brunel, though so ill, and confined to his bed,
learned, a day or two after it was generally known, of
the accident on hoard the Great Eastern, Mem which he
had a telegraph sent to his friend and assistant, Mr.
Vroude, who was then at Torquay, to come to him at
'wanton. On Mr. Fronde reaching Duke-street he
Count Mr. Brunel so intensely anxious about what had
occurred, that he thought it best to tell him all, and
when be mentioned that the cock on the valve had been
closed, and thus caused the explosion, Mr. Brunel, with
much excitement, exclaimed, in words somewhat indis-
tinct but still intelligible, "Who nit on the cocks? I
warned then, not to nit on the cocks." This matter ap-
peared to trouble him almost up to his last moments.
People speak of jealously between the ate engineer and
Mr. Scott Russell, and to this circumstance, we hear.
was partly attributable the fortunate absenm, of the
rompany from the saloon when the accident occurred.
II was hinted that a friend of Mr. Scott 'UMW!I
to propose his health after dinner, as the originator of
the (Meat Eastern, when Captain Harrison, getting
some inkling of the intention, and thinking it would
lead to unpleasant iliffercnca+, conceived the plan of get-
ting the company upon deck immediately after dinner,
let the pretext of their seeing the coast near
Hastings.