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

THE GREAT EASTERN.

We extract the following from a very sensible
article in the l'imes of Friday last :—The Great
Eastern has performed her voyage to Holyhead in a
manner which we are informed n wandered highly
satisfactory, and even to surpass the
_expectations of
the most sanguine of her projectors. We say we are
informed, because, owing, as it appears to us, to
certain little items of mismanagement, which might
easily have been avoided, we are not presented with
any clear or precise solution of the great experiment,
but only with data from which hypothetical results
may be drawn, It would be more satisfactory to
us, and we suspect to the public at large, who make
no profession to any technical engineering know.
ledge, to know what the Great Ship can do by what
she has achieved, rather than by inferences drawn
from her performance under drawbacks and difficul-
ties. The Great Eastern has gone from Portland to
Holyhead without giving the public any accurate
means of kuowing what is the speed she can attain
by the aid of her screw and her paddles, what speed
she can attain by her sails alone going before the wind,
and what speed she can attain by the united aid of
wind, saraw, and Mikai with set
Mire may be, however, reasons with which we are not
acquainted which interfered with the completeness of
the trial, and, tantalizing as the result is, sniping ac-
cept it for what it is worth until we can obtain fuller
and more particular information. Without feeling dis-
appointment, we must confess to an impression that
the results, so far as at present known to us, do not
appear to establish the wisdom of this enterprise, or
show that we have in the Great Ship the model of
future naval architecture. There seems, indeed, to
be a great similarity between the Great Eastern and
the Great Western Railway. Both were bold inno-
vations, both extorted admiration, but we venture
to think that neither will find many imitators. The
Great Western Railway attained great speed, but
there seems no reason why a speed nearly, if not
quite, as great may not be obtained by railways on a
smaller scale and of leas expensive construction.
Possibly the same may be found to be the came with
the Great Eastern. She is more than four times the
tonnage of the Persia, but the difference of speed has
not as yet been proved to be very considerable.
Unless the Great Eastern presents a more decided
superiority to smaller vessel than she at present
seems to do, she will hardly be taken for a model.
Her speed, we believe, is not, on the most sanguine
estimate, greater than that which has already been
obtained by several commercial vessels, laid certainly
nothing like that attained by Her Majesty's yacht, the
difference being chiefly in the power to carry fuel
enough to obtain that speed during • long voyage.
This is, no doubt, of great importance, but may it
not be obtained at an easier rate than is paid for it in
the case of the Great Eastern? The advantafie
which the Great Ship presents must be paid for at
a very high price. The ship cost an immense 1411111
of money in building, and cannot be worked except
at a great expense, burning as she dues at least two
hundred and seventy tons of coal a thy, and carry-
ing an enormous crew. There are very few harlsoirs
that she can enter, and an unsuccessful voyage would
visit the proprietors with an enormous loss. The
question will arise among practical men whether
almost all the advantages of the Great Eastern may
not be olitaineil by vesels of a smaller size, especially
as we do not seem likely to secure that which has
been hitherto insisted on—the absence of inotion and
sea-sickness. May it not turn out, after all, that
this wonderful and brilliant experiment is destined
to prove the wisdom of the .t re gradual and cautious
course of improvement which has in a period of
twenty years given us vessels like the Persia and the
Arabia in the place of the Sirius and the Great
Western? Whether destined to be the future
model of shipbuilders or no, we wish the Great
Eastern the fullest success It is impossible to
regard without the bighted admiration the talent
which conceived so vast a scheme, and the untiring
perseverance which has brought it to completion.
We confess, however, that it will be a great satisfac-
tion to us to learn that the machinery which propels
that splendid hull has worked without a breakdown
at full speed on her first voyage. We are informed,
and we hope it is true, that there is every wish on
the part of the Directors to conform to the requisi-
tions made by the Board of Trade, and we therefore
trust that whenever the Great Eastern shall leave
these shores she will be able to otter her passengers
greater speed, safety, and comfort than have ever
been enjoyed on a sea voyage before.