The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-07 00:00:00

THE GREAT EASTERN.

The third generation of shareholders, if we may
so term those who have taken the preference shares
in this undertaking, aro about to use their best en-
deavours to at last render the Great Eastern really
fit for sea. During the " winter of their discontent"
the most extravagant stories were in circulation as
to the total unfitness of the vessel for ocean naviera-
tion of any kind. According to these, the whole
ship, from keel to truck, had something wrong
with it; decks, hull, engines, and cabins either re-
quired repair, or were in such a miserable state of
dilapidation as to be beyond it. When to these fears
were added the well-known deficiencies of some of
the fittings under the late contracts, and the notori-
ous disunion of the late board of directors, it will
need little else to explain the hopeless state of de-
spondency with which the Great Eastern was re-
garded. A failure was predicted which would in-
volve as total a loss to all concerned as that which
has overtaken the shareholders in the unfortunate
Atlantic Telegraph. For these extreme opinions,
however, we are glad to say no real foundation
exists. The new board of directors have begun an
energetic rule, the first great object of hich is to
render the vessel as complete in her internal fittings
as care or money can make her. The Board of Trade
has sent down its officers, and the requirements
which they demand before the vessel can receive
her passenger certificate are now known, and turn
out to be far less than could have been at first an-
ticipated. All these, of course, will be implicitly
complied with, though, as they involve work both
in the fitting, shipwright's, and engineer's depart-
mente, they will only be taken in hand in turn,
as each of these respective contracts progress.
The report of the surveyor appointed to inspect
what is wanting in shipwright's work has also
been adopted, and a contract based on its sug-
gestions has already been 'taken up by Mr. Lung-
ley, and the work begun forthwith. Messrs. Penn
and Field have made several most minute surveys
of all the engines—screw, paddle, and auxiliary,
—and their suggestions as to alterations and
improvements will form the basis of another con-
tract, which will be issued in a few days to some
engineering firm, to which the final and proper com-
pletion of all the machinery will then he entrusted.
Both these contracts will require about two months
for their entire completion, and the whole sum for
these, we are informed, is far short of what was
originally anticipated, and is not expected to exceed
£20,000. The shipwright's contract includes, among
many other minor items, the building of new store-
rooms, iron stanchions to support the cargo deck,
refixing the boat davits, a screw tunnel, additional
support to the sides of coal bunkers, and taking out
the indiarubber packing between the flanges of the
iron masts. The latter is one of the positive require-
ments of the Board of Trade, as the indiarubber
was found, during the short trips which the Great
Eastern has already made, to allow an amount 4
"play" to the mast that would certainly be dange- '
rous in a heavy sea. The indiarubber will therefore I
be withdrawn, and the space between the flanges
filled up with wedges of hornbeam, so as to render '
the mast as rigid as if one entire piece. These por-
tions
of the iron fittings are. no doubt beautifully I
made, but it is almost to be regretted; considering
the comparatively slight depth into the vessel into
which the two masts are stepped, that all of them
were not made of wood throughout. Another of the
Board of Trade demands is the fitting of at least two
additional boats of the largest kind. These, though
not falling within the province of Mr. Lungley's
contract, are alreadybegun. They will be the largest
boats ever carried by any vessel, as they are in-
tended, we believe, to be no less than 50 feet long
by 13 wide, and nearly 7 deep—the dimensions of a
60 or 10-ton cutter. With the engines and machinery
generally a good many alterations and adjustments
will be made, though, thanks to the care which has
been exercised during the past winter by the com-
pany's chief engineer, Mr. M'Lennan, an immense
amount of improvement in the way of working de-
tails has, it is anticipated, been already effected.
Among the most important of the improve-
ments is that of fitting the main engines, both screw
and paddle, with feed pumps. By this change those
most objectionable pieces of machinery, the donkey
engines, are at once dispensed with as regards sup-
plying the boilers. They will, however, still be
kept in the ship as a kind of stand-by, to be used
in washing decks, pumping out the bilge, and for
fire hose, though henceforth with the main engines
they will have no more to do. As regards the
f
gain
of it is anticipated that by means of
an improved adjustment of the slide valves a
°f at least a knot an hour may be obtained upon
the next trial of speed. Our readers will better
understand the nature of their faults when we say
that there is ample steam for the engines at full
work, but the cylinders inhale, so to speak, more
than they can easily expel afterwards. It thus re-
mains in the way of the down stroke of the piston,
and a loss of power is produced by the engines
having to overcome the resistance offered by their
own steam. But, as we have said, by a better ad-
justment of the slide valves this most important
defect nay be at once removed, and the chaige
will result in a nominal gain of 500 horse-power.
The piston. and air-pump rods, which during all
the little coasting trips the Great Eastern has al-
ready taken were such a constant source of uneasi-
ness and anxiety, are to be strengthened. The
stability of the piston-rods will be increased by
lengthening two feet the stuffing-boxes into which
they work, and the air-pump rods will be kept
from vibrating by spanning them with a sliding
socket. The two large discs on the main shaft
which were working very loose can be keyed up to
the requisite tightness without much trouble, and,
with these and other minor improvements, no
doubt is entertained but that, on the next voyage,
very different results, both as to speed and the
easy working of the paddle engines, will be ob-
tained. The most important change necessary
in the screw engines is slightly raising the screw
shaft, in order to allow the aftermost bearing
to be removed. From this bearing all the pa-
tent white metal on which the shaft revolves
has worn out. For this an ordinary gun-metal
bearing, faced with lignum yaw, will be substituted;
and the shaft, it is found, can be raised sufficiently
from the inside to admit of this alteration without
much trouble or expense. Tunnels fitted with water
tight doors are to be cut through all the coal-
bunkers, which are also to be better ventilated, and
fitted with thermometer tubes to test the tempera-
ture of the fuel at all times. This latter is an im-
portant improvement, and removes one cause for
anxiety among those who feared the imminent dan-
ger which might arise froin an absence of
proper
means to ascertain at all timesthat the heat in the
hunkers was never excessive. The aflermost auxi-
liaryana engines will both be fitted with
fire
two powerful hand pumps, for the prevention of all
The united
risk from fire,willalso be fixed on deck.
out
power of all the pumps on board will then be ca.
of the vessel between
pable of pumping in or
increasing the diameter of the
means at present of
40 and 50 tons of water per minute. There is no
funnels, to aid the
drau ght through the furnaces,
but from the generally improved ventilation below,
by the new tunnels,and the introduction of a steam
blast pipe into all
ithe chimneys, the deficiency in
wsit s hod, be arely re-
'mthoisvepdo.inAll ills
t
tlw-saloons and. alp
-nslmost Whichenti were not
finished when the vessel left •the Thames are now
to 'be completed, and the internal arrangements,
which last year showed 81.16'a: want of organisation