The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-05 00:00:00

THE IRON STEAM FRIGATE " GUADALUPE.'

The fact is not perhaps generally known, that iron has been
employed in constructing the hulls of vessels in this coun-
try—partially in the.first instance—for nearly half a century ;
and though the progress of iron ship-building has, until of
late years, been comparatively slow, the recent improvements
in the art, and the peculiar adaptation of iron vessels (parti-
cularly as steamers) for certain services, render it probable
that the material for our general marine will, in the scarcity
of suitable oak for our requirements be, ere long, derived in
greater amount from the mine than from the forest. The
general opinion is still, we believe, in favour of wood ; but
the great success of our fine iron steamers—the strength,
speed, and durability of which is daily becoming more appa-
rent—is hastening a change in the public mind ; and even
many experienced nautical men, who naturally cherished a
strong partiality for oak, and long regarded the introduction of
metal as a theoretical and foolish innovation which practice
would soon show to be futile and chimerical, now, staggered
in their belief, evince a disposition to await the result of a
fair and impartial trial of iron on a scale sufficiently compre-
hensive to set all remaining doubts at rest. As regards steam
navigation, it is due to the East India Company to state, that
they were the first who came forward. with that spirit of
liberality and enterprise by which they have long been dis-

tiuguished in other departments, to test the practicability of
prosecuting long voyages by steam ; and that under their
auspices, the 'Enterprize, to Calcutta, and the Atalanta,
Berenice, Semiramis, and Zenobia, to Bombay, accom-
plished their voyages successfully from England to In-
dia. That Company have had iron vessels at work for ten
or twelve years ; and, with a view to carry out the principle,
finally determined to adopt that material in ships of war.
This they did by building the Nemesis, Phlegethon, and
several other vessels of a similar class ; and we doubt
not, that the good reports received of them from time
to time have had considerable weight in inducing the
owners of the vessel now under review to construct her of
iron. From the experience of the past, and the great
i nrovements daily developed in the working of iron, we
venture to predict that the result of this new specula-
tion will be favourable to the more general adoption of that
material, as well calculated to promote ournational and com-
mercial interests. We do not, of course, assume to be our-
selves competent to pronounce a decisive opinion on the
respective merits of the two materials. In common, indeed,
with the mass of our patriotic countrymen, our reminiscences
of the naval glories of our native land rather incline our
" voices " to be " still for wood ;" but we cannot repudiate
the evidence of facts ; and, if the allegation be well founded,
that we have not an adequate supply of " heart of oak," we
have at least the satisfaction to reflect, in resorting to the
harder material--should it finally be found to be equally ap-
plicable—that we have that material in abundance within our
own immediate territory. Of one thing we are also satisfied,
and that is, that the quality of our navy will never be suf-
fered, under any adminisitation, to fall into deterioration,
whatever be the cost of the substances of which it is con-
structed. And we have no apprehension but the substitution
of the " iron and wooden walls," for simply the "wooden walls
Old England" will convey as salutary a lesson of discretion
to a presumptuous and threatening foe, as the mere mention
of the latter has never failed hitherto to impress.
We are led to these remarks by a gratifying visit to the
iron steam-frigate " GUADALUPE ;" and as we have from
time to time taken considerable pride in furnishing descrip-
tions of the larger new ships built at, or sailing from, our
port, on their first floating on the Mersey, we shall not, we
trust, become amenable to a charge of partiality in endea-
vouring to do equal justice to that truly splendid vessel, pre-
mising that we were received with the most courteous atten-
tion .by the officers on board, who furnished us with the
statistical information of which we have availed ourselves.

" The Guadalupe" was built by our townsman Mr. John
Laird, who, we understand, launched his first iron vessel in
1829, and has, since that time, completed between forty and
fifty, many of them of very large size. " The Guadalupe" is
the largest vessel yet built of iron, and the first that has been
regularly equipped as a steam-frigate. She is, in every point,
one of the most compact and handsome craft—even consider-
ed as belonging to the high class of " men-of-war"—we have
ever seen, which is saying much; and, as she is provided
with powerful engines, is calculated also to carry an extra-
ordinary breadth of canvass for a steamer—and is, moreover,
armed with two very large guns, a discharge from one of
which will, probably, be more astonishing and destructive to
an enemy than a whole broadside from a vessel of equal ton-
nage with a greater aggregate weight of metal in guns of
smaller calibre,—she may be pronounced, both as regards
appearance and effect, to be full of mischief"—a truly
beautiful vessel in the eyes of her countrymen—" an ugly
customer" in those of their enemies.
We furnished her general dimensions at the time she was
launched from North Birkenhead—(in April last)—and for
the information of our nautical readers, who may be desirous
to preserve the record for reference in marking her future
career, we now give the whole more accurately and fully :

Length of keel for tonnage
" From figure-head to taffrail.

183 feet.
201 "
Beam
Depth from upper deck l7 "
Draft of water, with ten days coal and
water, and provisions for 120 men 9 "
Tonnage per measurement.. 7BB tons.