Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1855-01-18

obstacle to the profitable employment of steam
ships on long sea-voyages. Coal will be put
on board this leviathan at about los. per ton,
while the cost of this necessary article at the
Cape of Good Hope and Australia, varies from
L.2, los. to LIS per ton, to say nothing of
the impracticability at times of procuring a
sufficient supply at any price, and the loss oc-
casioned by the delay in coaling, and the risk
to the vessel. 1t is this which has hitherto
prevented the ordinary class of steamships
from competing successfully with sailing-ves
sells in the Australian trade and at the pres
ent moment there are only two steamships
trading between England and Australia
CliPper-built ships can run the whole way
from England to Port Phillip without stop
ping, unless short of water, or compelled to
touch at some port from some other emergen-
cy. Another important object which the COM
pany expect TO achieve by the construction of
this large ship, is, that they will obtain a
speed far superior to that of any vessel now
afoat. At the recent meeting of the British
Association in Liverpool, Mr.. Scott Russell
demonstrated that length was one of there
tials of speed; and he believes that it will be
as easy to propel this vessel at eighteen or
twenty miles an hour, as one of the ordinary
size and dimensions twelve miles an hour.
Up to a recent period, our naval and mercan-
tile ships were built with round bluff ducks
breast bows and when any attempt was made
to propel them at great speed, they heaped up
mound of water before them, which no pow
er of sails or steam could drive the vessel
through at rapid rate; in fact, the greater
the attempted speed, and the more powerful
the machinery, the greater was the resistance.
AT length the idea suggested itself, of max
ing the water lines of the ship correspond
with the waves of the sea, by means of which
she should gently and gradually divide the
parties instead Of convex, therefore, fine hol-
low lines were substituted /; and the broadest
part of the ship was gradully removed from
near the bows to within third of the stern
This form, which completely reverses the old
AhoOOis hoo buO inob tWCuty yCdlo uCCh
universally recognized and adopted in Europe
and America but it is by no means new
The old London wherries were built on this
principle; the Indian boats, which are the
finest of their class in the world, and the
Turkish caiques, were alb constructed with
fine lines and Mr.. Scott Russell has reduced
the form and speed to mathematical princi-
Piles and calculation. Entering-lines, "a feet
will give speed, under ordinary Circumstance
es, of miles an hour to obtain l6 miles an
hour, the entrance lines must be 100 feet long:
and to accomplish aspeed of "a miles an hour y.
the ship must be upwards of 400 feet in length
This is the secret of the speed of the Himalaya
steamship. which has the greatest speed, with
the smallest expenditure of steam-power, of
secret of the success of our leviathan steam
ship.
apparently one of the most unwieldy looking,
misslJonas 'nasses 10 which the term ship
could VIM ,led. On the water, she will pre-
sent the appearance and form of the finest and
fastest clipper, and will cut through the water
with comparatively little resistance. If any
of our readers will take the trouble to mark
off upon sheet of paper length of seven
inches and three-quarters, and at a distance of
about three inches from one end intersect 1t by
a line of nearly an inch in length, and then
form triangle from this intersecting line to
the furthest end, they will have very good
idea of the length and ineness of the entering
lines of the levIathan. Her actual measure
ments are 672 feet long, IS feet wide at her
greatest breadth of beam, and go feet deep in
the hold. She will touch at no port between
this and Australia-is expected 10 make the
voyage in thirty days-and return by Cape
Horn in thirty days more; thus making the
circuit of the globe in two months ! Al
though she will carry masts and sails, it is
not anticipated that the latter will be found of
much service, as at her ordinary speed of
eighteen or twenty miles an hour, she will be
in the unpleasant predicament Of always hav-
ing the wind in her teeth. Another of her
qualifications, which probably was not dreamed
of at the time she was ordered to be construct
ed, is, that in consequence of her great speed,
extreme sharpness, and the solid substantial
manner in which she has been built, she will
prove, without carrying an ounce of gunpow-
der, or single warlke weapon on board, one
of the most formidable engines of destruction
ever devised. The most powerful three-deck-
er that ever foated would be cut in two, and
broken up like an egg-shell, if the leviathan,
with her tremendous weight of metal, of
some twenty-five or thirty thousand tons, her
sharp wedge-like bows, and speed of twen-
ty miles an hour, were to run full tilt at her
while lying like helpless log on the water !;
and so firmly will she be bound and knitted
together, that there is every reason to believe
she would herself escape uninjured. Without
entering further upon these sanguinary spec
ulations, we may hope that the year 1855 will
witness the completion of one of the most
magnificent specimens of naval architecture
the world has ever yet beheld.
Homography.