The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12, 1859.

TRIAL TRIP OF THE GREAT EAS7ERN,

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)

HOLYHEAD, OCT. 11.

The few lines I was enabled to send off on Satur
day afternoon from Portland just informed your
readers that the Great Eastern was then getting
under weigh. It is more gratifying now to be able
to report that the cruise has been brought to a suc-
cessful termination under such favourable eircum.
stances as must give pleasure to all interested in the
welfare of the greatest maritime and commercial
undertaking which of its kind has ever yet been
attempted. The little cruise which terminated yes-
terday, though short, was
.quite sufficient in its re-
sults to be termed emphatically a great success ;
greater, perhaps, when all things are fairly con-
sidered, than could have been hoped, and certainly
than was expected. The short notice from Port-
land simply told that at 1 o'clock on Saturday
steam was up and all was ready for a start. Soon
after 2 the crew were sent forward to heave up the
anchor, the :steam-gear for assisting in getting
round the capstan having broken down entirely
during Thursday and the day previous. Contrary
to the opinion of most on board, which rather

leaned to the belief that Capt. Harrison would have
to borrow some hundred men or so from the Tra-
falgar before there was any chance of seeing her
anchor at the bows, the work of weighing went
on easily and well, and 80 men sufficed to drag the
Great Eastern up to and over her moorings. Bring-
ing the anchor out of the ground, however, was not
so easily managed; and it was not till all the musi-
cal resources known to sailors on such occasions
were nearly exhausted that the tenacious grip of
Trotman's patent was released, when a slow drift
with the tide showed that the great ship was
again set free. In another minute, without shout-
ing, confusion, or hurry of any kind, and with
less noise than is made by a 100-ton coaster, a
s light vibration through the ship, with a thin line
of foam astern, showed that the screw engines
were at work and the vessel once more under
we'gh. With such ease, with such perfect quiet-
ness and good order was everything accomplished
that the occasional cheering from the yachts and
steamers were almost the first token given to those
on board that the trial trip had commenced. At a
quarter to four the " way" on the vessel was rapid;
her head went round like turning a pleasure-boat,
and so little sign was given of the ship being under
steam that it seemed rather as if the breakwater

had got adrift and was slowly floating past than
that the monster vessel was really cleaving the blue
waves with a force which as yet we have seen no
wind or sea to resist or check. One or two of the
yachts and crowded steamers raised a hurrah as the
vessel left, but on the whole the enthusiasm was

limited and tame. Weymouth does not appear to
be a very demonstrative place, and its dull influence
seemed to extend to her Majesty's ship Trafalgar,
which gave no cheer and made no sign, though such
a compliment was due if only to induce those on
board the big ship to forget their carelessness in
firing shotted guns. As the Great Eastern worked
easily up to the head of the breakwater, and before
any considerable momentum had been gained by
the screw engines, the steam was shut off. Yet,
slight as was the impetus then acquired compared
to her full steaming power, the vessel held her way
over the water for upwards of a mile against a
strong tide and gentle wind. Gentle as was the
latter, however, it gave a pressure of more than 100
tons on her stupendous bulk, yet no more affecting
her onward course than the little ripple on the sea
which shone and glanced in the clear sunshine.
Just before leaving the harbour the last and latest
visitors came on board, including, among others,
Mr. C. Talbot, Mr. Appold, Captain Mangles, Mr.
Biddlescombe, R.N., Mr. Ogilvie and one or two
others of less note. At this time (4 80) the vessel
was well clear of the breakwater, though the long
business of getting the anchor to the bows was still
going on, involving some tight and slack rope feats
on the part of the sailors to which M. Blondin's
efforts must have been a joke. Lowering men over'
in hitches and bights of hawsers to walk about and
exercise unusual agility on the stock of a muddy
anchor is an effort which " must be seen to be
appreciated."
When at length the obstinate mass of iron was
well Blear of the waves, the cause of its detention
was clearly visible in the huge lump of clay its
flukes still adhered to, and which of itself was
almost enough to moor any vessel of moderate pro-
portions. Directly the anchor was fished Captain
Harrison passed the word to steam a-head with both
engines easily, and the wheels began their revolu-
tions slowly at first,, but nevertheless making a
track of foam upon the water such as they never
made on the first start from Deptford to the Nore.
The accession of speed from working the paddles
was at first but slight—not from any want of power,
however, brit simply from the fact that both the
engines were ordered to work slowly, and though
propelling the great ship at something like 11 knots
were really scarcely driving at indicated half-speed.
Quitting Portland, it was necessary to make
rather a round turn on leaving the breakwater as
right ahead on the starboard bow was a small light-
ship, looking like the skeleton of a vessel, and mark-
ing the presence of a dangerous shoal known by
the most appropriate and significant name of " The
Shambles.' Inside this lay a long and turbid ridge
of angry water, where the Race of Portland ran,
and where a deep rolling swell like the Bay of Bis-
cay on a reduced scale kept tumbling and breaking
into spray like drifts of snow against the high
gaunt cliffs. It, however, required no actual watch-
ing of the low green mounds of water which seemed
butting against the coast to convince all on board
that the Great Eastern was at sea. To the infinite
relief and comfort of all the passengers the vessel
began to yield to reason, and to behave as much
like another ship as she could, consistently with her
size. It would be too much to say she rolled at
this time, for when the Great Eastern rolls, if ever
she does roll, your readers may depend upon her
accomplishing something in that peculiar style of
ocean navigation quite in proportion to her bulk ;
but one thing is certain, that she went from
side to side sufficiently to show that she was
susceptible of the motion of the water, and that
if ever she steams, across a beam sea she is
likely to move to it with a will, though slowly and
easily. Her test on Saturday, however, was on the
whole unfair, inasmuch as only a heavy load of coals
was on board, and the centre of gravity being below
the centre of motion the Great Eastern was more
easily affected than ever it is likely to be with a full
cargo placed high. At no time here, however, was
she moving to an extent that is usual even with
large vessels in fair weather in a moderate swell.
In proportion with the increase in the size of ships
seems the diminution in their labouring in a sea-
way, and on this principle the Great Eastern is
likely to move only as much in a very heavy gale
as a smaller vessel will do in a very moderate one.
Portland Bill was passed at 5.30, and the cruise
continued under easy steam across Tor Bay for the
Start Light. It is very difficult to write anything
like a good literary chart of the Channel, or convey
steam diagrams to the public in a clear and interest-
ing form. Perhaps, therefore, your readers will ex-
cuse my not resorting to the mere technicalities of
expansion grades and throttle valves, and only
simply giving the results of the cruise in a plain and
generally intelligible form. It will thus suffice to
say. that the vessel continued under easy steam in
both screw and paddle engines, the former going 31
to 32 revolutioas,:and the latter nine. In all the
boilers the steam pressure was about 211 b, the pres-
sure on the cylinders being only just over 171bs.
This, in fact, was a little more than half speed, yet
the Great Eastern averaged more than 13 knots an
hour. The best guide to the rapidity of the ship's
progress was the way in which she passed fast-
sailing schooners, and overhauled the steamers. At
this time nearly all the swell had ceased, and the
monster ship was rushing over what to her were
the mimic waves, and leaving less wake upon the
waters than is caused in the Thames by a Graves-
end boat. The only peculiarity about her progress
was the three distinct lines of frothy water which
her screw and paddles made, and which stretching
out in the clear moonlight like a broad highway
seemed as if the Great Eastern had fulfilled her
purpose and really bridged the sea.
Beyond such small ware in the way of singu-
larities, there was really nothing to remark about
the progress, or, indeed, anything unusual whatever
to show that the vessel had quitted her moorings
in Portland harbour, and was about to solve the
greatest nautical and engineering problem of the age.
At about 9 o'clock the look-out reported the Start
Light on the, starboard bow. It was visible to
nautical eyes, but as far as clearly detecting any-
thing was concerned the landsmen on board might
as well have been off the Cape of Good Hope for all
they saw. At 9.30, however, it was tolerably
bright, and well abreast the ship. This was an
unmistakeable landmark, and showed the ship to
anda
an hour,
easy
the
steam, about 13 sles)
have gone, with aklnlothser(ldselmayi

distance from the Bill of Portland to the Start
beino. 49 nautical, or 56 statute miles. The bear-
ings of this light were carefully taken at 9.30,
to note the exact time in which the run between
it and the Eddystone, an exact distance of
26 knots, could be accomplished. The test, as it
proved, however, was not a fair one, as soon after
10 o'clock the escape valve in the bottom of one of
the paddle-cylinders was jammed open, allow-
ing a small amount of steam to escape with
a hideous uproar, and filling the engine-room
with a warm vapoiir, in which it was both uncom-
fortable to breathe and difficult to see. This was
not only a considerable annoyance to the engineers
below, but necessitated an immediate and important
reduction of speed to enable the valve to be se-

cured. The fires were accordingly slacked down,
and the paddle engines reduced their revolutions
from 10 to little over five. This diminution of

speed continued for more than half-an-hour; never-
theless, in spite of the drawback, the Eddystone
Light, bright and clear like a star upon the water,
was sighted before 11. Precisely at 20 minutes
past 11 the Great Eastern was well in the stream
of mellow light which it cast upon the waters, a
little oasis in the midst of that wildest and most
dread of all deserts—a rough and angry sea. Thus,
then, notwithstanding the partial stoppage of the
paddles and slackening of the rate, a distance of
25 knots, or nearly 30 statute miles, had been run
at half speed within an hour and three quarters
time. From this period nothing of note oc-
curred, the paddles working easily at from 9 to 10,
and the screw at from 23 to 34 revolutions per
minute. To many of your readers these numbers
of revolutions may be mere arbitrary terms "sig-
nifying nothing." It may, therefore, give them a
bettor idea of the tremendouiliature of the size and
speed of the engines which worked so easily when
it is said that at 10 revolutions the paddle-wheels
dashed through the water at something like 1,600
feet per minute, and the screw revolved at 2,500.
When accomplishing this the consumption of fuel
was at the rate of 250 tons a day for both engines,
the indicated power being nearly 5,000 horses—
about 2,000 horses for the paddles and a little over
3,000 for the screw.

This number of revolutions, though really very
little more than three-quarter speed, should have
given the Great Eastern a clear inn of more than 16
knots an hour under favourable circumstances. The
wind, however, was abeam, the weakest point of the
great ship ; her immersion was not sufficient by
nearly six feet ; and for rapid going she ought to
have been down by the stern at least 18 inches
more than she really- was. Her forward draught
of water was 21 feet 4 inches, and aft 24 feet 10.
The stern should have been down five feet more
than the bows. As it was, not less than a foot of
the screw blades were out of the water, and the
slip, or loss of power was of course great, more
especially when the long heavy waves kept passing
astern leaving the screw half bare at least once a
minute. Yet, in spite of all these drawbacks, the
average running of the big ship was more than 13
knots. Throughout the night very little change
was made in the rate of going. The Lizard was
sighted and passed at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning.
The deep rolling swell which sets in on the coast
of Cornwall, however, made itself clearly manifest
long before this point ; indeed, at 2.30 the Great
Eastern evinced an amount of liveliness that would
soon have acted in a widely dissimilar manner on
many of the passengers. All nice calculations as
to what she did move or what she could effect
under certain peculiar circumstances were set at
rest at once ; and the ship began to roll so much
like another vessel that but for the perfect ease
and steadiness of the motion the whole affair would
have been disagreeable in the extreme. The
actual roll was as near 12 degrees as possible—
quite sufficient to make a most considerable com-
motion on the lower decks, where, trusting in the
perfect immobility of the craft, such small arti-
cles as empty casks and piles of lumber had been
stowed away. This motion, such it was, lasted
about an hour, just while the ship was abeam of
the long swell. On the whole its effect was rather
cheering than otherwise, as it showed that the
Great Eastern was in her own way like any other
ship after all. There was something unnatural and
portentous in the rigidity with which she had
stalked over the waters in her run from the Thames.
Her motion, however, was but trilling when com-
pared with the usual. feats of screw vessels in this
particular. Captain Harrison and Mr. Bold, one
of the managing directors, remained upon the
bridge throughout the night. At nearly four
o'clock, when the haze was getting very thick in-
deed, a small brig was seen right under the star-
board bow. As usual with these small coasters, she
was showing no light and keeping no look out, and
but for the anxious vigilance exercised on board
the big ship, the brig would have been under the
waves in two minutes more. Her escape was nar-
row enough, and nothing short of the instant stop-
page of the engines
and actually reversing the
screw saved her from swift destruction. She drifted
from under the starboard paddle within 20 yards,
quite close enough to enable Captain Harrison to
speak to her master, and to express a very strong
opinion on his style of navigation and conduct
generally.
The Scilly Islands were sighted soon after six
o'clock, and the usual amount of topographical en-
thusiasm was evinced in behalf of the dirty-looking
reef of stones known as the "Bishops,"
ou which
another of those deep sea lampposts stood—a tall
and rather ugly lighthouse. Let any one look care-
fully over a pod chart of the Channel, and the
number and variety of its lights will rather sur-
prise him. In its way it is as well lighted as Pic-
cadilly.. Sunday morning was one of the finest days
for a trial trip that could possibly have chanced.
There was a fair sailing breeze from the northeast,
which promised to come up with the sun, till it
blew fresh; yet the day was mild and warm, and,
for the Great Eastern at least, the water was as
calm as a millpond. There were very few vessels
to be seen (in fact, it seemed like Sunday even in
the Channel), and those which were visible now
and then were evidently having a much rougher
time of it than seemed possible, judging by the
rigidity of the
.great ship.
Up to this time both the screw and paddle had
been working easily—the former, as we have said,
from ,30 to 34, and the latter in proportion, that is
about 91-3,-. Everything had now got well into work-
ing order, so much so that, though the directors
were determined . to put nothing to actual risk of
accident, it was felt that the vessel might be fairly
urged a little faster. It was intended that the ship
should be tried under both engines, and then under
the screw and paddle separately, in order to know
the working value of eash from actual test. Mr.
Blake and Mr. Lan gdon, of Watt and Co., expressed
their concurrence in the proposition. Mr. Scott Rus-
sell, however, declined to drive his paddles alone, on
the ground shat he could not disconnect his wheels
from the paddle machinery, and that therefore if
the screw worked by itself it would have to move
the ship as well as his engines. This refusal, or
rather his declining to be a party to the trial, dis-
appointed many, who not only were anxious to see
what each engine could effect, but especially to
ascertain, from the best of all tests, whether or not
the paddles had been too much reefed, and were
fairly doing what all wished them to do. As a pre-
liminary step it Was decided to drive the ship at a
nearer approach to her full power than had yet
been attempted. A greater amount of pressure of
steam was, therefore, ordered to be got upon the
boilers, and pending this, the passengers went be-
low to Divine service in the chief dining saloon
aft. The Rev. Mr. Nicholson, a large shareholder
in both the old and new companies, read the ser-
vice, Mr. Lay, the chief paymaster, giving the re-
sponses. At the conclusion of the service the rev.
gentleman preached a short sermon on the text,
" Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think
not the Son of Man cometh," in which the late ca-
tastrophe on board the vessel was alluded to in ap-
propriate and feeling terms. Service over, and as
a matter of coursuthere was a general move amon. g
the small congregation to the deck, and, to the satis-
faction of all, the great ship was found to be under
canvass for the first time, and tearing through the
eater under all fore and aft sails. The wind was
blowing then very fesh indeed from the N.E., and
the
the
masts, staysails and topsails had been set on all
of her
masts, and were drawing freely. The look
vast spread of canvas and the extraordinary
effect it produced as one stood at the wheel-
house and gazed beneath the long vista
f
brown sails stretched to the
very utmost, and
sending off the wind with
indescribable. No
the sustained roar of a
volcano, was something a
fair idea of the
almost
mere description could convey
curious effect of the long unbroken avenue of masts,
sails, and funnels, like a whole street of steam-
ships, if such a term is fairly applicable. The total
spread was only 25,000 square feet—tot more than
half of what the vessel carries, and certainly less
than half of what she will require to drive her at
anything like great speed. None of the square
sails could be set, and though all the fore and aft
sails drew well the breeze was not even as much as
the traditional capful], when exerted on the enor-
mous hulk of the Gnat Eastern. Nevertheless,

slight as was the wind, and small as was the amount
of canvas spread to meet it, in proportion to the
size of the ship, the result quite realised the opinions
I have already expressed as to her main? qualities.
The vesse: was going 131 knots when sail was
made at 10 o'clock. In the course of half-an-hour
more the Great Eastern was running nearly 15
knots or 174 statute miles an hour. At this time the
screw
revolutions enginespptolomflroonfiro3mB
104 to 40to
o wer e
minute, working
ana
theu
11. At this rate of steaming the screw and paddle
engines were working at 251 b. in the boilers, the
screw consuming at the rate of 160 to 170 tons of
fuel a-day, and the paddles from 100 to 110. The
maximum horse power indicated by the paddles
was 2,900, which gave about 111 b. of per nomi-
nal horse-power, and 41b. for the horse-power ac-
tually gained. The screw was indicating an actual
horse-power of 4,700, which was at about the rate of
1021 b. the nominal horse-power and 31 actual. This
in round numbers gave nearly 11 horse-power per
sectional square foot of ship from the paddles and 24
ditto from the screw. The highest rate of speed of
engines was a little over 11 to the paddle and 42 to
the screw. Both worked with the most perfect ease
and smoothness. There were no hot bearings, no
perceptible vibration, no noise or movement of any
kind or sort whatever. The accuracy of every part
seemed marvellous. There was only one drawback
to the general perfection, and that, as usual, was in
the conduct of the never-to-be-sufficiently-anathe-
matised donkey engines. Those to the paddle en-
gines were, it is said, more or less troublesome
throughout, and one connected with the screw broke
down entirely. Beyond this trifling matter there
were was no improvement which the most critical
engineer could suggest, except, perhaps, that the
paddle floats should be a trifle deeper in the water.
The working of the screw engines when their rate
of speed was taken into account was something
wonderful. The bearings were passing one another
at the rate of 280 feet a second without even melt-
ing the tallow off the friction surfaces.
At this time (about 1 o'clock) an unfortunate ac-
cident occurred to one of the engine-fitters to the
paddles, named 111'Grogan. He was in the act of
oiling the steam trunnion of one of the cylinders,
when, as it is presumed, from some momentary in-
advertence on his own part, his arm was caught
between the cylinder and the quadrant and crushed
to pieces at the wrist. The intense agony at the
moment extorted a loud cry from the unfortunate
man, which brought eager assistance to his side,
but the instant the fractured limb was released
M'Grogan recovered his composure and walked
coolly to the surgery, and, notwithstanding that
the medical officers of the ship at first thought there
was no hope of saving his hand, he declined to sub-
mit to amputation, though the wrist was only held
on by a comparatively small portion of the muscles.
Fortunately, he is still doing well, and there is now
a fair chance of saving the hand, though it can
never be of the slightest use to the poor fellow.
The coolness and courage with which he bore the
injury and subsequent pain were really astonishing.
At 1 20 the patent log was sent astern well clear
of the ship, and not raised till 7 40 the same even-
ing. This, though the steam was slackened down
on nearing the Irish coast, indicated a distance run
of 72 knots, giving a mean of 141- or 17 statute
miles per hour. Allowing for the want of trim on
the part of the vessel, and consequent absence of
immersion in both screw and paddles, it was cal-
culated from this data by all the nautical authori-
ties on board that in proper condition the vessel
might be depended on for 18 miles an hour through-
out a long voyage, and under steam alone. That
in a strong and favourable breeze she will at times
accomplish 18 knots, or more than 21 miles an hour,
there is now not th s shadow of a doubt.
It is useless to make a long story longer by
dwelling on various minute particulars which, as
yet, have not been ascertained with sufficient accu-
racy to warrant their being received as data. In
the course of another day or so more will be known,
and a better estimate cm then be made of the re-
sults of the trial trip than can possibly be now
known.

The Old Head of Kinsale was sighted at 4 30, and
soon the bold outlines of the Irish coast seemed to
grow from the sea in all its rugged grandeur, till
headlands, rocks, and bays appeared almost betteath
the vessel, as her course was altered and the Great
Eastern's head turned up the Channel. Cork
harbour was passedbefore 7 30. and the wind falling
light some time before, sail was shortened, and the
vessel was once more under bare poles, going rather
against the little breeze that still kept up and
threatened to grow fresher as the night wore on.
Up to 12 at midnight the weather was fine, though
the moon got damp and greasy looking, as if it had
caught cold, and light watery clouds rose up in the,
horizon, or portending heavy wind. Gradually
the breeze got up as the glass went down, long snow
drifts of spray began flying about wildly from the
crests of the waves, the sea became muddy as the
sky waxed dim, and it became pretty evident that
we were in for squalls. The long moaning noise
through the shrouds grew deeper and hoarser, till
the Greta Eastern at last was steaming head: to
wind- against some heavy gusts. So the night
passed. The Tuskar Light, on the Irish coast, was
abreast at 2 30 a.m. on Monday, and day broke in
what is generally termed dirty weather in the
Channel. The morning was cold and raw, with
squalls from the N.E. Very few vessels passed,
and those were under shortened sail, beating up
against the wind, with heavy lurches as they
struggled with thb waves, occasionally hiding their
bows in clouds of foam and taking in green seas
over all—yet to all this the Great Eastern never
moved or altered by a fraction. Going head to
wind is the forte of the big ship. As yet, from all
that has been seen, the stronger the wind: a-head
and the rougher the sea, the easier this vessel seems
to take it. It is more than probable that, till this
vessel meets with an Atlantic gale she will never
move as much as she did on this trial trip round to
Holyhead. Soon after 10 o'clock the Great Eastern
must have been abreast of Holyhead, though the
weather was so thick that it was impossible to make
the land, and on such a coast and with such a wind
it was not considered prudent to go too near, so
then the great ship wound her course up Channel,
meeting the waves, which were rising with fast in-
creasing might, literally with all the steadiness of
a rock. A short and heavy sea can generally be
met with in the Race of Holyhead, and on Monday
morning, though not a tithe of what it would have
been if the wind had blown from the opposite quar-
ter, there was still a wicked swell on, and quite
enough to fairly try an ordinary vessel. Sometimes
the bows of the Great Eastern were left almost
bare as the turgid waves ran under her, sometimes
it almost reachd the sponsons of the paddle wheels,
rising and falling more than 20 feet on her vast
hulk, but making no manner of difference upon her
way whatever. Just as on the -first trial trip off
Dover, she held her course without moving to the
right or left, and showing less unsteadiness in a
really heavy sea than she had done in a calm on leav-
ing Portland. Soon after 10 o'clock the helm was put
hard a-port, and the Great Eastern, for the first time
since she has been built, made a fair turn round in
the open sea. The helm was put over to 17 de-
grees,ceof a mile
ipnwuteenst,
aenomd pinleathldyisrtoaunnd at mote-
distance, was very little more than half of what it
raantdespaeqneuddairthnteler9.shmi This as regards both time and
would have taken any line-of-battle ship in her
Majesty's service to accomplish.
It was calculated on board that going round on
the port side, with the help of the wind, might
easily have been done in five minutes less time. A
little after 11 o'clock the dull bleak mountain of
Holyhead showed out on the horizon like a cloud
of unusual density and menace. Still the weatherall
was too thick and the wind too high tsoo venturelved at the
at once upon the harbour, so it was red
paddle be-
forelast to try the vessel under screw
therefore, was pretty well kept o
the
which loomed through the haze and marked
screw were land, and the revolutions of the
taking her up to her moorm
dark distance,
mass
to carry on
slack-
ened down to 12, leaving the paddlesmoorings. The
the ship alone. Under this trial, which it was
and interesting to all concerned
to have carefully solved, the paddle engines be-
haved splendidly. At first the screw was worked
equally important
at 20, when the revolutions of the paddles fell off
from 10 to less than nine, the ship going nine knots.
The screw was then stopped dead, and the paddles
had to tow it. Under this strain, though still
working as noiselessly and easily as before, the
paddles fell from nine revolutions to below seven,
gradually recovering themselves to seven and a
quarter, the ship going from seven and a half to
eight knots, against the wind ahead.
So far, then, this trial was considered, and most
justly, to be satisfactory in the highest degree, and
the general impression left was that even greater
results would have been obtained if the paddles had
not been so much reefed as to give them less power
in the water. If the screw had been disconnected
from the machinery, this also would have added to
the speed of the paddles, at the rate of at least a
knot an hour. It is, however, hard labour for an
hour or more to disconnect the screw, and this
waste of time was not thought, prudent when no

131 ICE 4D. rAMPED. 51).

result beyond what was already known could be
obtained.

The Great Eastern was next tried under he

s3rew alone. At the first start the paddles were
turned at the rate of sixrevolut ions, to save the

screw from the labour of turning them and the
massive machinery to which ' they were attached.
The screw then worked at 36, the vessel going
knots. The'paddles were then in the course of a
short time brought to a dead stop, and this reduced
the revolutions of the screw to 33, and the speed of
the vessel. to nine ,knots. In both cases the result
was almost precisely what has been calculated and
anticipated, excepting always the allowance to be,
made for each engine having in turn to overcome
the resistance offered by driving the paddles or
towing the screw. What, perhaps, was not antici-
pated was the immense accession of momentum
gained by the union of both 'engines, and which has
now placed the immense speed and consequent
sufacess of the Great Eastern beyond all chance of
doubt.

These trials, with the turnings and slackenings
they involved, brought the vessel close under the
South Stack Light at Holyhead, which rose in the
now clear sunshine in all its rugged magni-
ficence of light and shadow, its splintered
masses apparently falling to decay, like the ruin of
some island of the olden time. The good folks in
the Stack Light seemed evidently not a little
puzzled to account for what appeared from land to
be a series of most meaningless, evolutions. Cer-
tainly to the non-initiated the wayward and eccen-
tric course of the Great Eastern must have looked
unusual, to say the least. The value of the experi-
ments, however, was undoubted, and the results
achieved were ou the whole of the most satisfactory
character.
At 3 o'clock the weather had cleared and set in
fine, and the Great Eastern, at last having solved
all the questions which were capable of being
solved under steam in such a narrow channel, stood
in for the harbour of Holyhead. It is not a very
easy place to take a vessel in of the length and
depth of the Great Eastern, but Captain Harrison
had the ship as much under command as a Thames
wager-boat, and moving her easily up to the spot
selected for her, the anchor was let go in about nine
fathoms and the vessel moored at a few minutes to
4 o'clock. Thus terminated, under the most favour-
able auspices, the second trial trip of this ship ; the
whole distance accomplished being 480 knots in
about 40 hours, exclusive of the time devoted to
the experiments. This gave an average on the
whole run of a little over 12 knots (15 miles) an
hour, and for more than three-fourths of the whole
voyage the ship was o'-ly going at half speed.
Fairly estimated, the .result exceeded even san-
guine expectations, and Captain Harrison now
feels confident that the vessel may be depended
on to average 151 knots or 18 statute niiles
an hour, and under ordinary favourable circum-
stances of summer wind and weather to make
stretches of from 171 to 18 knots an hour. During
the whole voyage the paddles made 23,870 revolu-
tions, and the screw 81,030. In neither engines
was there an approach either to heating or noise.
On Monday the escape valve on one of . the screw
cylinders of Messrs. Watt and Co: got jammed open
in a similar manner to the screw ou, Saturday. .The
mere accident, if such it may be called, is scarcely
worth mentioning, if it were not for the fact that
speed had to be reduced to remedy the defect. The
question now arises—how long the Great Eastern
will remain at Holyhead, and whether or no she
will start for America this winter? As far as can
be judged from the successful results of this trial
trip it would seem that the ship is capable of going
anywhere and doing anything. Nevertheless,much
remains to be done in the way of making ready
for an Atlantic cruise, and at present there seems
as, little probability of the. Great Eastern starting
across the Atlantic this month as of Holyhead
itself.

The visit of her Majesty is still expected next
week, though whether it will take place on Mon-
day or Tuesday is still uncertain.