The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-02-01 00:00:00

WEYMOUTH.

Tilt GKEAT EAPITY.RN.--The contract for the pin..
chase of the Great Eaatern by the Great Ship ('ow
pane has been concluded, anal the first instalment of
purchase• 1111 l ney paid to the liquidators. £300,11110,
inchialing the subscriptions of the old shareholders in
the Eastern Steam Company, have been sailiscrilical.
anal this, it is belieyea. will be amply sufficient not
only for the purchase anal completion of the ship.
but also to provide working email:a. No money will
be wasted in the mere frippery of alecorati . though,
at the same time, all the fittings will be of the most
substauttial kind. The design for the poop is com-
plete in all its details, all of it will he con.
structed of iron, awl some idea of its size may be
gathered from the fact that the chief alining saloon,
120 feet long by 47 feet wile anal 9 feet high under
the beams, will be in that part of the vessel. There
is to be a large number of hatli•roanus allotted to each
class of passengers, all of which will be kept sup-
plied with hot and colil fresh anal Ilea water. The
contractors are to commence their work on the 13th
of February, anal are bound under penalties to com-
plete all in live ths from that date. 'rite long.
expecteal first trial trip will therefore take place
about the middle of July, when it is intended to
rain out from Weymouth to the middle of the
Atlantic anal try the ship imaler all possible condi-
than. of sail anal steam. This short voyage will
probably occupy about six days, for the lowest
estimate yet made of her speed allows her
17 knots, par about 144 statute miles an hour, the
speed of a parliamentary train. W'liat may be cam•
sidereal as the commencement of the work of
fitting began on Saturthiy last, when the
large iron floating Derrick, launched last autumn,
will I.e used for the purpose of hoisting in the main
shaft of the pa.l.Ue-engities anal the rudder. The
former weighs no less than 40 tons, anal the latter 13,
anal each of these pondemus masses of iron work
have been finished off with as lunch care, anal even
neatness, as if they were intended for the works of a
clock. lk.th these will be deposited in the fore part
of the vessel in order to assist iii bringing her more
down by the head when the blaalas of the screw are
being rixeal. The latter have not been attached to
the screw bars, as in CAM of ice during the winter
enough might have formed round them to have held
such a mass of the loose pack as with the flow of the
Dale might have aeriowily endangered the ship. So
touch has been truly sail anal written as to the
importance of the Great Eastern in a mercantile
p Ant of view that all have tacitly overlooked how,
as a vessel of war, she would, to this country at least.
be almost invaluable. The difficulties of the present
means of oceanic connuuni..ati ~,, oblige the Govern-
ment to maintain larger forces at all points of the
CIII pi re than are actually requisite atone anal the same
time. With two or three such vessels as the Great
Eastern such a necessity grout.' be obviated for the
future, and the Government would have increased
strength even at a reduction of the present military
establishments. Continental nationa are well
aware that the secret of England's weakness
AY a military power is not so much due to the sin dl
ilea of bier army as in the necessity for its thsprrsion.
Once show that the means Already exist for obvia-
ting this necessity, anal England's INntitillll as a mili-
tary empire, able in ten days to transport an army
of 30,000 men to any part of Eunape, will be 80C.,11.1
to none on mirth. " Thu political results which
would accrue from the Government having at its
dispersal such a class of ships would lie almost equally
inqsartant. It would then be, with a closely con-
solidates-I empire, the power of Great Britain phis
her colonies anal dependencies M. Lesseps might
sink all the u 1111 l ey in France in his Suez canal, anal
Mr. Bucharest' assert American 1111 l rality and manifest
destiny at the expense of poor Nicaragua. England
need never strive als.ut a right I.f way when her
quickest anal safest path would then lie over her
traditional element. The revolution which a squad-
ron of such vessels would effect in war would be as
great as their results in commerce, anal then we
al Id for the tirst time really see steam doing for
the ocean what it has already done for the land."