The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-19 00:00:00

- THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY r EVENING, MAY 'l9, 1860.-

TONING POWBII OF 571E.,131.ERS FOR
THE GANGES.

(From the Liver:pool Albion of Monday, ~11-ay 14, 1560.)
A trial has just been made on the Mersey of the
towing power of tl.e steam vessel Ganges, belong,-
ing to the Oriental Inland Steam Company, o
London, previous to the dispatch of the vessel to
India, where she is to be employed in towing
barges on the Ganges. A previous trial of the vessel
when only propelling herself, and without any
barges in tow, had shown that, under those circum-
stances, a speed was attainable of about fourteen
miles an hour ; but, as it was judged advisable to
determine what the performance would be with
barges in tow, an experiment was made to illustrate
this question. Accordingly eight of the Duke of
Bridgewater's barges, together with the tug which
draws them, were made fast to the Ganges, and this
load she towed without any very serious reduction
in her own speed. The engines of the Duke of
Bridgewater's tug being stopped at the time, the
Ganges had, in addition to the resistances of the
several hulls, to overcome the resistance occasioned
by the stationary paddle-floats in the water. It was
proposed to reverse the engines of the Duke of
Bridgewater's tug, so as to determine the speed at
which the Ganges would pull the whole flotilla with
the engines of the tug reversed. But, as the day
was very boisterous, and as it was apprehended
that the tow-rope would not withstand the extra
strain thus produced, this part of the experiment
was not carried out. From the great power of the
Ganges, however, and from her special adaptation
for towing heavy loads, there can be no doubt that
she would have towed bath the barges and the tug
against the whole power of its engines at a consi-
derable rate of speed.
The Ganges is propelled by two high-pressure
engines, with cylinders 26 inches in diameter and
6 feet stroke. The boilers are on the locomotive
principle, and the pressure of the steam is 120 lbs.
per square inch. The boilers have been proved by
hydrostatic pressure to above twice the pressure at
which they are intended to work. The effective
power of the engines is about 800 horses. The
paddlewheels are 16 feet in diameter, and the paddle-
boards are 12 feet long and about 22 inches wide. A
larger diameter of paddlewheel would be more suit-
able for high rates of speed, but a moderate diameter
of paddlewheel is lest for pulling heavy loads—just
as in railway locomotion, where the goods engines
are invariably made with small driving wheels. The
engines of the Ganges, which have been made by
Messrs. Fawcett, Preston, and Co., are of the very
first quality, and not even a hot bearing has been
experienced in any of the trials which have been
made. The vessel, though very light and only draw-
ing two feet of water, with the full complement of
coals on board, is exceedingly strong, and the ma-
chinery is exceedingly steady and rigid, great pains
having been taken to ensure in every department
the maximum of strength with the minimum of
weight. The Ganges is now about to be despatched
under steam to Calcutta, and in about four months
it is expected she will be plying on the Ganges.
The barges which she has to tow have preceded her
in a sailing ship belonging to the company, which
has already arrived in India, and those barges will
have been put together against the time that the
Ganges arrives out.
The Ganges is the most powerful vessel yet sent
to India for the navigation of the rivers of that
country, and, with the Jumna, a sister vessel,
which has now just arrived in the Mersey from
the Clyde to receive her engines, she will main-
tain upon the Ganges that species of commu-
nication so much needed in India, and by which
much larger quantities of goods may be carried than
has heretofore been possible with the steamers now
existing in India, and which, in nearly all
cases, have been found to draw too much water
and to have too little power. If, with the in-
ferior vessels heretofore plying on the Ganges,
profits of 40 and 50 per cent. have been realised,
and even more than that, as is well known.to be
the case, there can be no doubt that when
this company has fairly got to work upon that river
still larger profits must be obtained by it, seeing
that these new vessels are of a more powerful and
efficient description. We are, of course, aware that
in all new enterprises in steam navigation there are
difficulties to be surmounted, partly in the vessels
themselves, and partly in getting suitable men into
every department ; and all steam companies which
have ever come to anything have had this career of
probation to go through. But it appears that the
directors of the Oriental Inland Steam Company
foresaw from the first the ordeal through which
they must pass, and provided against it by com-
mencing their operations on a moderate scale. In-
stead, therefore, of building all their vessels at once,
as other companies have too frequently done, and
spending all their money at the outset, they began
with two vessels, which were sent to India before
the Ganges and the Jumna were ordered, and the
experience acquired by those first vessels has been
made available in maturing arrangements to make
the Ganges and the Jumna more perfect than either
their own or any other previous vessels. Even after
these four vessels have been built, however, and
after twenty barges have been built for them to
tow, not half of the capital of the company has been
called up, so that the inevitable imperfections at-
taching to all new undertakings have been encoun-
tered upon the narrowest possible basis in this case,
and will have been surmounted at the least possible
expense. The whole of the companies now work-
ing in India with such eminent success bad diffi-
culties to encounter at their first establishment, by
which the weaker spirits were discouraged, and such
persons sold out at a loss, while those of more cou-
rage or greater perspicacity increased their invest-
ments, and made large profits. Nor is this pheno•
menon peculiar to India, but it seems to hold uni-
versally in enterprises in steam navigation. The
General Steam Navigation Company, the Peninsular
Steam Company, the Cunard Company, the Royal
Mail Company, and all others which have ever pros-
pered, had a period of depression to go through first.
But by steady perseverance they surmounted all
impediments, and have gradually risen to eminent
prosperity. No person should embark money in
any considerable enterprise in steam navigation on
any other expectation than that such difficulties are
to be encountered ; and the Oriental Inland Steam
Company has certainly shown a more than usually
just appreciation of the universality of this law,
and more than usual circumspection by the gradual
and progressive steps they have taken in carrying
out their enterprise. Sanguine tyros would have
rushed at once to the expenditure of all their capi-
tal, which would have left them without any margin
to meet the difficulties of one kind or other which
invariably arise in new undertakings. But the
directors of this company have husbanded their re-
sources and felt their way, so that before putting
forth their whole strength they are able to know,
from experience, that it is exercised in the best and
most remunerative direction.