The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-08-30 00:00:00

WEYMOUTH.
THE GRE.4T EASTERY.

The day is now fast approaching when the great
question of the success of this noble vessel as a kind of
ecean lad way will be finally set at rest. Saturday was
the last occasion when the public were admitted on
hoard, as the whole of the present week will be entirely
devoted to getting her ready for sea. Among other
things, sonic kitchens have to be fitted up, and cooking
ranges fixed, and several of the cabins to be painted and
furnished. Accommodation is aloo ordered to be pre-
pared for 410 passengers to I line in the SO-feet saloon
aft. Several births have yet to be fixed, and Fill
additional sofas provided. The yards have alao to be
crossed and the sails bent, and the steering apparatus to
be fixed in place and tested. All these Resins SePIIII
make a vast amount of work yet to he .lone. hut this is
tia only in appearance. Almost all these details belong
to different departments, sad all can be going forward
without hindrance at the same time. liar was necessary
not the least doubt is felt that as far as these matters
are concerned the ship could be made ready for sea in
from 24 to :16 hours at furthest. The new shearing
apparatus, which deserves particular mention, will,
perlialos, take a few days to fix and regulate. This
sinaph; but most ialgemiious invention is due to Mr.
Langley, the shipbuilder of li,ptfoord. By means of
this t'aptain Harrison, or the officer of the watch sin the
bridge, will be enabled to *tear the ship by is signal
indicator with as much certainty as if lie guidit t he
wheel himself. A small illuminated dial, wh a
movable index, is fixed on the bridge, in front of th e
officer of the watth, and connected with another of the
the same description in front of the nun at the helm.
Moving the index finger of the machine on the bridge to
port or suarboard anoves the index of the machine
before the helm at the oname time, so that
not a second is lost in patting the helm hard up
or down. In the &IWO manner the rudder itself
is connected with another small dial before the belong-
men, which tells by its index that they have exactly
obeyed orders, while this again communicating with a
similar machine on the bridge shows the officer of the
watch the instant his counuands are executed. The
movements of the latter dial being of course, regulated
by those of the rudder, the officer on duty has always
, the helm, as it were, under hia eye, and can detect if
I the men suffer the vessel to deviate • quarter of • point
from her course even for • second. The apparatus,
moreover, imsseses another advantage, and that is, that
simply moving over the index finger to hard apart
opens up two red lights on the port side, and by turning
it to the atarboord a double green one is similarly dis-
played. Thus mall vessels are afforded every facility
for getting out of the monster's way in her impetuous
rush over the deep. All the arrangements now making
on board the ship are with the view of starting her on
the 3rd proximo. On that date, at 6 a.na., she is
intended to leave her inoorninp for the first time.
Four powerful tugs will take charge of her--two towing
Aiwa I and two pulling astern. The latter are thus
placed to help the gigantic vessel to turn in those sharp
angles of the river which occur just below Greenwich
Hospital and just above Blackwell : the Great Eastern
herself will also be under steam in her paddle engines,
which, if occasion requires, can be turned round to
assist the tugs. Froni Gravesend to the Sore the aid of
I the tugs will be merely nominal, if used at all. At the
I Yore two or three days will probably be consumed in
adjusting compasses and filling in with coal. The latter
will bring her down to a fair seagoing trim,—that is to
my, a little over 10 feet deeper in the water than she
now appears. The slightest possible addition will be
made to her present draught of water till the Sure is
rearne I. From the Yore she proceeds under easy steam
to Portland, and receives her passengers for the first
trial trip, returning afterwards to Holyhead, from
which harbour she start on her real trial trip to Canada
on or about the 15th.

Tl n.noberof visitors who have inspected the vessel
during thin weekend last han heen very large, the atr.tnuit
realized by the company on the admission fern being up-
wards of £4,00n. Early on Wednesday morning the
Prince de Joinville made • minute innpection of the ves-
sel, and expresned him opinion that she was one of the
mod wonderful specimens of engineering and scientific
skill that human ingenuity had ever constructed. Speak-
ing of her general equipment the Prince expremed an
almost equally strong opinion in favour of Mr. Trotmsn's
anchors, and mid that he attributed the safety of seve-
ral French vesnels-of-war which were anchored off the
coast of Algeria in a tremendous gale entirely to the use
of smaller anchors of the mine patent. The only quen-
tiou that has now to be nolved in that of her speed. A
few days more will settle thin. and it the ship only rea.
lines what the least sanguine of her admirern expect, the
Great Eastern will prove a triumph as great in. a cone
mercial point of view as she is already in an eugumering
and scientific one.