The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-12 00:00:00

THE WASHINGTON.

The Washington is a magnificent three decker, and is
the largest merchant ship afloat. She was built at New
York, by Messrs. Williams and Co., the constructors of
the Princetown, Wisconsin, and other favourite vessels.
Her dimensions are as follows :
Length over all ......
" of keel
Beam (extreme)...
Dewth of hold . ...
Tonnage (register) 1655 43-94ths tons
~ (carpenter's) ..
This monster ship is ten feet longer than the Carolina
74-gun ship, and is some six feet longer than the Constel-
lation, and registers about 89 tons more. In general ap-
pearance she is not unlike that noble vessel, for while of
the "man-of-war cut," with painted ports, &c., she sits
so lightly and gracefully on the water, that " we guess "
it would take a clipper to keep a place in her wake. In
fact, she was built for the New York trade, and in these
days of steam-sailing vessels, to attain passengers or
traffic, must be constructed to "go a-head." It might
be supposed that a vessel of such ponderous dimensions,
and floating so high out of the water, would present an
unseemly appearance, but such is not the case. Her great

length, and proportionate sparring and rigging, give her
more the look of a monster privateer. She has a very
handsome steam-ship-looking bow at the water line, but
of course rather fuller aloft, and her stem—which forms
Hogarth's " line of beauty and grace "—is topped with a
billet head, ornamented with neat and light, but not ela-
borate, carvings of twining foliage, and trail boards, bear-
ing the name of Washington. The midship deck is car-
ried well aft, but below she is fine, and her run is clean.
THE FRAME-WORK, &c.—The Washington is most
beautifully built, and reffects no ordinary credit on her
constructors as well as commander, in whose personal
superintendence every bolt has been driven ; for while
maintaining a due regard to the strength required for a
ship of such giant-like proportions, there is not a knee,
a timber, or a plank that is not most beautifully finished
and fitted. Words cannot adequately convey an idea of
the magnitude, or strength, or beauty of this floating castle;
but some idea may be formed from the gigantic dimen-
sions of her timbers, &c. Her keel and kelsons, which
are bolted through perpendicularly and diagonally, form-
ing a complete back bone, are 8 feet in thickness by 161
inches. She has also sister kelsons, 21 by 12 inches. Her
stem and stern posts and aprons are huge blocks of live
oak. The flooring timbers form one mass of immense
thickness. She has twelve breast hooks forward and
eleven aft. The lower deck stauncheons of locust are a
foot square, and each is kneed off fore and aft with white
oak. The upper deck stauncheons are turned as pillars,
and are well secured through the decks. The deck beams
of yellow pine, from 17 to 20 inches, and the hanging and
lodging knees are of white oak, the former from 22 to 24
inches in the throat, and the latter equally proportionate in
strength. Between each of the knees there is a diagonal
trussing, which must add greatly to the general strength
of the ship. Her outer planking, except the white
steaks which are yellow pine, is of white oak, varying
from 8 inches at the guard-board streak, to 61 inches at
the bends. The water ways are 18 inches through up
and down. The ceiling, commencing at the kelson at 41
inches, increases to the thick steaks, which are 22 inches
running fore and aft. The lower deck ceiling is 8 inches
thick, and she is not only well but scientifically fastened.
The thickness of her sides measures

THE CABIN.—The cabin, which is on deck, is princely
in design and execution. The ceiling is formed into
pannels by the deck beams, which are enrich with gold,
eight pillasters of rosewood, with veined marble plynths
and white capitals, support a rich cornice that runs
round the cabin, and the intervening spaces are divided
into empannelled compartments of polished satin wood
and zebra wood, thus forming a partition that separates
the state rooms from the cabin. The furniture is of
corresponding elegance. The state-rooms are excellently
fitted.

Midships on the upper decks is a large house, which is
divided into several roomy apartments, forming a labora-
tory, a sick bay or hospital, a deck cabin, the captain's
cuisine, passengers galieys, an ice-house, rooms for the
officers of the ship, and, indeed, all that can be possibly
required in crossing the Atlantic. A. roomy top-gallant
forecastle is devoted to the crew.

THE 'TwEEN DECKS•—The internal errancetnents are
most efficacious. By the excellence of accommodation it
is evident that the predominating object hes been the
health and comfort of passengers.

The main deck, which is 7f. 10in, in height, and is
lighted from the sides, as well as deck, and as she has in
all eight hatchways, every facility is given to preserve the
sanitary purity of atmosphere. The after portion is cut
off to form (by a lattice work bulk-head) an intermediate
cabin, in which state-rooms, to accommodate about ICO
passengers, are erected. Each room is separately lighted,
and neatly grained in imitation oak. and excels in accom-
modation the captain's cabin in a majority of ships.
They are spacious, clean, and comfortable. The lower
deck, which is entirely devoted to steerage passengers, is
the same height between as the main and spar deck, and
being open from stem to stern presents a magnificent
apartment of 230 feet long, by 40 feet wide ; but there is
an additional nobility, if not a beauty, arising from the
' ponderous hangers and knees which each so fer
beneath the main deck as to give the roof in appearance
a circular form. Large %hid cools are fixed fore and aft,
so that a continual current of pure air is thus carried
through the ship.
As the Washington, though sharp, is built with a !air
width of flooring, her hearing is great, and abe carries no
ordinary press of eanra4. Her mainmast is 92 feet in
length and 35 inches in diameter; her fore.ny.t 89 fret
long, by 36 inches, amid the mizon-trast 86 t, ct lone, and
28 inches thick. The fore and maim yards ere 78 feet
l'eoent, and long.
the royal The
t ''i saa; i ‘I.o less than 45
,o 62feet,tifieeett!p-gall•int yarl 46
t
The Washington is one of the packets, Fa;ling a', the
Black star line, under the agency of Mr. John Jay ton
Crook. She is owned jointly by Messrs. Frost and
Hicks, and her commander, Capt. Page, whose experience
is known to all in the trade. _

,
V% cannot close this notice wit houi coaxplituen:;n4 the
American builders generally, on the number of excellent
vessels they have lately turned off the stocks, which for
,strength and sailing qualities, establish the fact that, they
are remarkaaly " well found, well constructed, and welt
commanded."

As the Victory, steamer, was sailing down the Bristql
Channel, during the gale on Wednesday, a heavy sea
swept over her and dashed a horse-box against Serjeant
Hodgkins, who was killed, Two other Poldtera had bona
broken.