The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-12 00:00:00

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looked upon with as much suspicion as before. It
would be better to remove this cause of uneasiness,
and possibly of future breakdown, at once, more
especially as the cost of substituting stronger rods
wou:d not amount to more than £2OO or so. One
of the discs of the paddle engines on the starboard
side has worked loose, and this must, of course, be
set to rights immediately. The looseness is sup-
posed to arise only from the "keys" not being pro-
perly fitted; if it should turn out that the disc-
itself is in fault the work of casting and fitting
a new one will be both difficult and costly. The
slide valves of the cylinders will also want some
re-adjustment, but this is a mere trifle, and one
which a few days will effectually set right. There
is, however, one defect in the plan, or rather
position of the paddle engines, which is of conse-
quence, inasmuch as it cannot now be remedied, and
that is that either the diameter of the paddlewheels
is too great or the shaft is placed too low in the
vessel. When the Great Eastern leaves this coun-
try on a regular voyage with full coals and cargo,
her draught of water will not be short of 30 or 31
feet.. At present she is light and draws only about
22 feet, yet the floats of her paddles are reefed in
3 feet. How much must they nut be reefed when
'she emes down some 8 or 9 feet deeper in the
water ?
:As. they are at present and with an addi-
tionai immersion of 9 feet the wheels would be
" drowned," as engineers term it, and it would be
impossible to turn them at more thau 6 or 7 revolu-
tions.' There is only one remedy left for this mis-
calculation—that is, by taking out the paddle en-
gines entirely, and bedding them up some 31 or 4
feet higher, an alteration which is not likely to be
attempted, as it would infallitily take five or six
months to complete it, and cost from £15,000 to
£20,000. With care, however, and perhaps an occa-
sional delay en route to loner the paddle floats as
the vessel rises in the water, the difficulty may be
reduced, but more or less a difficulty it must always
remain. . . _ .

The screw engines are, it is said, neither as well
made nor as carefully finished as those of the paddles,
and a great deal of adjustment will be wanted about
the connecting rods to make them work with less
clatter than they have hitherto done. A screw shaft
tunnel must also be made, and the bearings of the
screw shaft be. altered from white metal to lignum
vitae, and the shaft at these parts cased with brass
to prevent the wood acting upon the iron. The air-
ways to the screw furnace are said not to be so good
as those for the paddle, and this with the smallness
of the funnels 'of course operates seriously against
maintaining full steam. If, however, a blast pipe is
introduced into these funnels as well as into those for
the paddles the deficiency of draught will easily be
remedied. The pitch of the screw will also have to be
made much " coarser" than it. is at present. To work
alone it is not a bit too fine, but for steaming in con-
junction with the paddles there is at present too
much slip on the water. This alteration of the pitch
can, of course, be made without cost, and in a single
day.

With these and other minor improvements far
better results may be expected from the next run of
the great ship than have yet been attained. Her
average rate of ocean going speed, however, will
never exceed 15 knots an hour, and constant vigil-
ance and careful and incessant firing will be neces-
sary to secure this result. The average running in
all weathers of the fastest ocean-going steamers yet
afloat is scarcely more than. 11 or. 12 knots, the
quickest voyage-ever made from New York to Eng-
land, by the Persia, being only at the rate of 13
knots throughout. The most rapid run under steam
from thts country to Australia has only averaged
nine knots per hour. If, therefore, the Great
Eastern can maintain as much as even 14 knots on
a regular voyage, she will have accomplished more
than has vet-been thought feasible, and reduce the
distance between this country and Australia from a
voyage of 54 to one of 37 days. rugineers now one
and all strongly favour the opinion that the Great
Eastern never should have had paddles at all, but
have been fitted with two powerful screw engines
driving a screw forward and a screw aft. These
are, oeeourie, mere speculations, but they are the
speculations of the highest and most practical au-
thorities, who think that had the Groat Eastern
been built of 15,000 instead of 24,000 tons, and pro-
pelled 'with two screws in thepannor we have men-
tioned; she would easily have attuned a speed of
from 18 to 20 knots. _ _

Another improvement which is talked of as likely
to be made while the vessel is at SJuthanipton,
and which certainly cannot be much longer delayed,
is substituting a proper teak deck tbr the refuse
green planks which are now doing duty and which
let the water through in streams to the saloons
below whenever it rains, or whenever the deck is
washed. How it comes that this deck was ever
allowed to be laid down, the shareholders must find
out for themselves, as they must also discover
if they can how it was that the directors accepted
the ship as finished, when, after all that has been
done, it will require at least from £50,,000 to £60,000
to complete her this winter as she ought to have
been completed last autumn. The donkey engines
must once and for all be removed and feed pumps
fitted to the engines themselves. The present mode
of filling the boilers is most objectionable, and is a
constant source of anxiety and trouble. Fire pumps
must also be attached to the auxiliary screw engines
aft, and some means taken for ascertaining at all
times the temperature of the coal in the coal
bunkers, in order to guard against heating.
It is not improbable that when all the fittings of
the vessel are thus completed she will make a short
trip across the Bay of Biscay and into the Mediter-
ranean early next spring, before starting on her
great run across the Atlantic.