The Express.
London, England, 1854-01-16 00:00:00

TILE HIMALAYA.

The public have been allowed to go on board the
gigantic Himalaya steamer, at Southampton, but those who
pay her a visit are expected to subscribe towards t►e funds
of the Southampton Infirmary, and a quartermaster stands
at the gangway to receive subscriptions. On Saturday last
she was visited by a large number of the notabilities of
Southampton. The more minutely she is inspected the
more is surprise excited at the perfection which naval archi-
tecture, steam machinery, and' the mechanical and orna-
mental arts, have attained. Everything connected with the
Himalaya appears in harmonious proportion with her
stupendous dimensions. The Himalaya has nine immense
boats hanging over her sides. In the engineers' department
there are about thirty persons, and in the purser's depart-
ment about 40. She will require 60 A.B.'s to man her. In the
other Alexandrian packets there are not many more than
20. Two officers and about 30 men will be required for the
night watch. The picked men of the company will be se-
lected for every department. The Himalaya is
forty feet longer than the leviathan screw
line of battle ship, the Duke of Wellington.
The engine department on board looks like an immense
manufactory, yet, from the nature of the engine, it is re-
markably compact ; bat the room allowed for the en-
gineering staff and firemen to do their work and move
about is moat capacious. The tunnel for the shaft of the
strew, which in ordinary large ships is so small as scarcely
to allow room for a man to crawl through to examine or
repair any damage to the shaft, is in the Himalaya almost
as large as • railway tunnel, through which men can walk
about with perfect ease. In walking along the lower deck,
and in passing the innumerable suites of apartments, it is
quite • journey to get from one end to the other.
, Below the lower deck there are suites of de-
, gent apartments for passengers. The mail rooms,
two:in number, are madras apartments, and are lined with
aloe. The fourteen miles an hour mentioned in the
Doily News of Saturday as the speed of the Himalaya from
London and Southampton, were nautical miles, and equalled
sixteen ordinary miles. The momentum of the Himalaya
arising from her enormous bulk and speed combined can
•

warmly be estimated. On Friday when she was coming Sato
the dock, and her speed was almost spent, and with only
the slightest =omit of way on her, she snapped • warp as
big as • man's arm, which held her, in two, as if it had been
a piece of packthread. Such a ship would cut
down • man•of-war to the water's edge. Moor&
ing to the mail centract she would be bound, la saes
of war, to carry gnus for her detente. Bat this would
be quits unnecessary. She would ran away from, or run
over any enemy's ship. The largest and moat heavily
mounted privateer would be too glad to get out of her way.
Coaling operations are now rapidly going on on board the
Himalaya, is order to enable her to take out the India and
China mails as the 20th inst., and in a few days she will
commence her Wel trip of 3,000 miles to Alexandria. Her
successful performance of this will mark an epoch in the
history of steam navigation which will have an important
112a611312011 on the interest of commerce and the world, for it
will show the practicability of again reducing the space be.
tweet' the most distant parts of the sixth, and of abolishing
almost all the discomforts of • lengthened ma voyage.