Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-12-17 00:00:00

IRON SHIPS.

On the very day appointed to launch the first
iron steamer ever built in this city, and while the
wreck of the iron steamer Royal Charter is still
the topic of public interest, we receive the sad
details of the total destruction of the iron steamer
Indian. Thus, at the dawn of this great revival
'of our manufacturing and commercial interests,
we are startled by two warnings which we cannot
mistake: If we do not heed them, the third may
strike at the root of our new hopes. Not only
have foreign nations established the building of
iron ships, bringing it once for all through early
perils and adversities, and saving us a costly
course of eXperimerits by placing their standard
designs, tools, and processes within our reach,
but they have exhibited to us, at their own cost,
the frightful consequences of bad workmanship
and bad materials. Our national ingenuity, indeed,
might have taught us in time to make iron ships,
but our propensity to neglect engineering com-
pleteness for_the sake of_ hurrying on commercial
reSiilts his retarded our progress and seriously
injured our reputation abroad. But now, without
the risk of failure, we may enter upon a successful
career of iron steam navigation, at once incited
to the utmost energy by the economy of foreign
vessels, and most solemnly warned by examples
of death and destruction against the devices of
counting-room engineers, and especially against
using bad iron and bad work because they are
cheap. It.is scarcely necessary to say..that,these
ships have not been iost because they were made
of iron, or that 'the fact of their loss proves
nothing against the leading principles of their
construction. Even if the • proportions and
arrangement of iron steamers could not be
altered—even if it were physically impossible to
improve their design, these • accidents would not
by any means prove that there is neeessary'and
inherent danger in the fact that the hulls of these
ships consist of iron plates instead- of wooden
planks. The short history of iron steamers
teaches a very different lesson. It proves con-
clusively that well-built iron ships are almost
indestructible,' even when hammered and ground
iipen the rugged crags' of lee 'shores for years
together.' . The entire hull- of the City of Phila-
delphia has; lain for three or,four years upon the
rocks at ' cape Race ; the Tyne was exposed
nearly 'as lone on- the "Dorset coast without
apparent,change ; ;the enormous hull of, the Great
Britain, havingi thumped and chafed a whole
-Wiiiter upon fhe ragged bottom of Thind.rinia
'Was got off and has been in service ever since; the
Persia stove in-and filled her forward compartment
.by striking an iceberg at full speed, and finished her
trip to IVewYork in very good winter time ; the
Edinburgh and North American ha ve' both. Struck
:full speetl,upon rocks .in the St. Lawreuce,,the
latter without material injury. And these are
Only aYeriage - iron 'ships, not in any way remark-
abbe. for. excellent' construction.- What, •no*, •is
thy, history of iron. vesscls known to, have linen
badly constructed? Only last season the 'Cuba,
a net steamer, .6iiened her. seams and fbunclered
°whet- first trip..-not in' an ocean hUrricane, or on
the .rocks of a cape, but in the English Channel.
'The fact is, that the experience With iron ships,
land with'-'iron &rt.*. is nova so large and
well defined, that it'is riot stall necessary togoback
to the construction of any given mackwe to find out
the of its materials and workmanship; its
reStilts' aiVitiore 'authentic 'and than its
history , "No engineer *mkt 'be so insane as to
investigatYA.p character ,9C the materials and, the
months, simply ,to satiaty
not a well-constructed
.successivestage,s in the manufacture of a railway
bar which had, splintered kria. worn -to pieces
f himself :that it was
' ' •
material: 'Neither ere t-e s-ghtest necessity,
°L.fi°ur'itttgariligvintoroblit -oharaeter and nianti:
ACAllre of t.hq cof7thcse ill-fated vessels; the
rail, Of .unexceptionable
',very fact that they broke' up at all is thP most
taositiVo proof that they were
wattehodly built. This belief must also be
stnenAhened ,by well-knowq collateral facts.—
•lietplrA, Times.
•
,de, in., Calcutta t9proTide Eurepevi,mirses for the
•E.usotuirc -Nuitsrs. 1011."Iseum.-----Anleffo' it is being
ropeari
Adniiiatli organised 'as these
ficidienacnydOc7rendrisanac7
teilliiinetice'tsur44ti:nd'asiet7Pdelarltal:a;refte:ltietcoitld'inuCh to'the attendance
imatiiee/4..-whd)timigh tharimderstrind,,and perform
tlieir,p Ont
rescidutx,,,O,riot n,wlerstund the language
' 'dale patients, and can render them no service beyond tbe
lottersttheir fuitetionw -Theis tie) meld read to then,
no
,one to , talk ta•theiri,, no one, who understands them tp
'be present at the list hour. That feeling of ingir
depregsietil ivhich al•Wlt'ysl in( tiara
lesila
attendanceC4whuitetab
4. aggravated- thg, want, of sympathy, .tie. sense of
utter desolation inherent sick life in a foreign hos-
:Oar' The • rkident surgeons do what they. can
to
anelit female Committee o f
reedycl mret,!liabutevilt'isfillp4ereaa
..tt3iequired. 'Such att6dinee his-beeri secured at 'Alm-
*bad, and the staff.of nurses, organised there is work-
'admirahly. J In Calcutta it is still wanted, and the
surgeons attached to the' different institu
tions }give
readily: signpd tAeuappeaL:pnt forward by the ladies
committee.—Friend of ritdict,.

COMMERCIAL CIRCULARS, CATALOGUES, &c,

CI RIFF IN & M'GRIE,
(s.ceekwors to CHARLES WILLMER,)
• ; GENERAL. PRINTERST,

Are'in a.position to execute, on the shortest notice,- and with
.correctness, COMMERCIAL CIRCULARS, CATALOGUES,
Sm.* :
PRINTING OFFICES, 16, SOUTH JOHN-STREET.