The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-19 00:00:00

7HE GBEA7 EASY ERN STEAMSHIP.

The following letter appears in the New York
papers :—" New York, Dec. 3.—ln conformity,
with your request, I yesterday visited the steam-
ship Great Eastern, anchored off White Stone, for
the purpose of examining the nature and extent of
the injuries received by her in her late collision
with a submerged rock, and the character of the
repaize rcultieti necessary sort in progress In con-
sequence of that collision ; and having discharged
this duty, I submit the following report :—Upon
my arrival I examined the hull externally above
water and within board to ascertain if it gave evi-
dence of any unresisted stress since my survey of
her upon a previous voyage. Having satisfied my-
self on this point, I descended from without the
hull to within the coffer enclosing the rupture in
her bottom, and also from within the hull between
the outer and inner plating, again down to the
place of rupture, being by this proceeding enabled
to examine the full extent of the injuries to the bot-
tom of the hull covered by the coffer and the cha
ratter of the repairs being made thereto; and, upon
a full consideration of the elements presented I am
of the opinion—First, that the effect of the colli-
sion is restricted to a partial crushing of two of the
webs and rupture of some of the outer plates of
her bottom upon the port side, and that the hull
of this vessel, beyond the points of rupture, above
water and within board, is in no wise injured by
the collision; secondly, that the repairs to her
bottom, so far as made, have been executed
in a manner to restore it to its original secu-
rity as to leaks and resistance to stress, and
that the design both of the:method of effect-
ing these repairs and the manner of executing
them reflect high credit to all concerned. In con-
nexion with this it is proper to refer to the COO-
itruction of the bottom of the vessel, in order that
it may appear how peculiarly adapted it is to meet
an injury like that which has occurred to it.
Thus, the bottom is cOlposed of an outer and inner
plating of equal thickness, iZjth an intervening
space of 35 inches, the connexion between the ,
platings consisting of 32 webs, or kelsons,
running fore and aft, and 13 athwart-ships,
whereby the bottom is divided into a series of apart-
ments, or cells, the communication between them
being at command, and from within board by the
use of manhole plates. In the event, therefore, of
the outer plating alone being ruptured, as in the
present case, the inner plating will resist the admis-
sion of water within the hull, and the cellular struc-
ture of the whole will resist the admission of water
between the platings beyond the limits of the cells
enclosing the rupture. In communicating the re-
sult of my survey to the underwriters here and to
Lloyd's, London, I shall report her seaworthiness
provided the repairs now in advanced progress are
completed, to be of the same character as before the
collision which has involved them.—l am, very re-
spectfully, your obedient servant, C. H. Haswell,
Engineer and Surveyor of Steamers.—To Messrs.
Howland and Aspinwall, New York." Messrs.
Howland and Aspinwall, agents for the Great Eas-
tern, publish a card in which they explain the na-
ture of the accident to this monster steamship and
its relative consequences. They say that the result
of the accident was a fracture 85 feet long, and in
some places 4 feet broad, and in order to demonstrate
that no other vessel affords the same protection
against accidents they remind the public that she
delivered nearly 1,000 passengers and 2,000 tons of
merchandise (some of which remained on board for
a week) without accident or the damage of any por
tion of her cargo. The vessel, being built with two
"skins," is, in fact, one vessel inside of another, and
it is alone owing to this construction that she could
survive such an accident an hour, the water being
unable to penetrate the inner skin. The ship was
hove to off Montauk, waiting for her pilot, when
she struck a rock which is not marked down on the
chart. The injury done was entirely to the ship's
bottom, her screw not having been touched. Work-
men have been engaged for nearly two weeks past
in drilling rivet holes and putting in the iron plates
over the fracturehh
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for iron plates, which can be put on faster than they
can be made, owing to the enormous quantity of
iron required for the United States Government.
The Great Eastern's inner skin (which is of the
same thickness as the outer one) being unimpaired,
it is the opinion of scientific engineers that, even
without any repairs, the ship would have been per-
fectly seaworthy,
and would have crossed the ocean
without risk.