The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-01-01
From the London Quarterly Review for April.
The Ship Great EASTERN"

VII saw SHN'NA NNoS ~ OSO SA hHO 1NN
extremity Of the Isle of Dogs. At first a few enormous
poles alone cut the skyline, and arrested his atten-
ton then vast plates Of iron, that seemed big enough
to form shields for the gods, reared themselves edge
ways, at great distances apart and, as months
elapsed, a wall of metal slowly arose between him mad
the horizon. The sooty engineer, as he leans over the
bulwark of Bridegroom No. 2, when questioned re-
specting it, tells YOU it is the e" Big Ship'-he knows
no more. If, moved by curiosity, the voyager halls
a boat and rows ashore, the sturdy oarsman can only
tell you that it is the {" Big Ship If you question
Jack, whom you see coming along the road laden
with q green parrot and a bundle Of yams, as to what
they are doing here, he will eye the huge mass for n
moment, and reply with q vacant negative. Even
those who are informed Of its purpose doubt and argue
respecting it. Look'ee here" said an old salt to
us, pointing with his pipe to the stem and stern of
the ship, which lie parallel with the river, here's
her starn and here's her stem, and here's the water !;
and how they are going to launch her l can't figure
nOways.'
The Great Ship, or Great Eastern, as she is some
times called, projected by the eminent engineer Mr..
Brunei, the father of Transatlantic Steam Navigation,
although building in the midst of the largest collec-
ton of s~ea-faring people in the world, stands 4 wonder
and a puzzle to them all.
a close inspection of this Leviathan vessel shows
MS how completely the employment of a new material
has necessitated new ideas with respect to c~onstruc-
ton. She runs along, or rather will-for she is not
quite up in frame-somes seven hundred feet those
portions of her yet unfinished at stem and stern show
her partitions or bulk-heads running nearly sixty
feet in height and standing just sixty feet apart. If
we examine the outer walls of these huge partitions,
we see Mt once that the ship has no ribs springing
from q keel or backbone-nOne of the ordinary frame
work by which her bullying sides are maintained in
their places but on closer, inspection, it is found
that she has a system of ribs or webs, longitudinal
instead of transverse, running from stem to stern of
the ship, up to eight feet above her deep water line :;
and riveted on each side of these thirty-two webs or
ribs, which are subdivided at convenient lengths, are
plates of iron three-fourths of an inch in thickness,
forming a double skin to the ship, or a dermis and
onluermIS Tins her fronn work fnrDoC n CvCtaro of
cells, which, like the Menai tube, combines the min
imum OF weight with the maximum of strength.
If we Chamber up the ladders which lead to her
deck, some go feet above the ground, we perceive that
her interior presents fully as strange q contrast to
other vessels as the construction of her hull does.
Ten perfectly water-tight bulk-heads, placed 60 feet
apart, having no openings whatever lower than the
second deck, divide the ship transversely while two
longitudinal walls of iron, sc feet apart, traverse $50
feet of the length of the ship. Thus the interior is
divided, like the sides, into q system of cells or
boxes.
The separate compartments will be as distinct from
each other as so many different houses each will
have its splendid saloons, upper and lower, of 60 feet
III length It's bedrooms or cabins, its kitchen and its
bar and the passengers will no more be able to walk
from one to the other than the inhabitants of one
house in Westbourne Terrace could communicate
through the parti-walls with their next-door neigh
bors. The only process by which visiting can be car
rled on, viii be by means of the upper deck or main
thoroughfare of the ship. Nor are we using figures
OF speech when we compare the space which is con-
tanned in the new ship to the united accommodation
afforded by several of the largest hotels in London.
She Is destined to carry 800 first class, 1000 second
class, and 1900 third class passengers, independently
OF the ships complement, making a total of 1000
guests.
Let us return, however, for a few moments to the
deck, IN order to give the reader q clear idea Of the
magnitude of the structure under our feet. The exact
dimensions g over ALP are 692 feet. There are a
lew persons who will thoroughly comprehend the
capacity of these figures.
In short, she is the eighth of a mile in length, and
her passengers will never be able to complain of being
"coOped up" as four turns up and down her deck
Will afford them q miles walk. Her width is equally
astonishing. From side to side of her hull she
measures So feet but across the paddle boxes her
breadth is ia feet.
With the exception of the skylight and openings for
ventllatlng the lower saloons, her deck is flush fore
and ait. However splendid this promenade might
appear with respect to those of other ships, we ques-
ton II 1T is at all too large for the moving town to
whose use 1T is dedicated. Room must be found for
the holiday strolling of between three and four thou
sand persons, whilst she is careering through the
heated atmosphere of the tropics, and not merely for
a few score blue-nosed gentlemen, such as use the
deck OF the transatlantic steamers for q severe e-
ercislng ground. The manner in which this moving
city, rather than ship, will be propelled with the speed
OF a locomotive through the ocean is not the least
notlcaole of the arrangements connected with her.
MIR. Brunei has, we think wisely, determined not to
trust so precious a human freight and so vast On
amount of valuable cargo to any single propelling
power, but has supplied her with three-the screw,
the paddle, and the sail. Her paddle wheels, Sc feet
IN diameter, or considerable larger than the circus
at Astley's, will be propelled by four engines, the
cylinders of which are 6 feet 2 inches in diameter,
and the stroke II feet. The motive power of these
will be generated by 4 boilers. Enormous as are
these engines, having a normal power of 1000 horses,
and standing nearly 30 feet high, they will be far
inferior to those devoted to the screw. These, the
largest ever constructed for marine purposes, will be
supplied with steam from six boilers working to a
force OF 1000 horses-the real strength of the COM
bined engines being equal to 5000 horses.
As the screw and the paddle will both be working
at the same time, the ship will be pulled and pushed
IN its COURSE, like an invalid in a bath chair, and each
power will be called to do its best. The calculated
speed of the ship under steam is expected to average
from fifteen to sixteen knots, or nearly % miles an
hour.
Fewer hands will be required to navigate the
Great Eastern than her size would seem to demand.
Her whole crew viii not exceed 400 men-a third of
the number composing the crew of a three decker.
The difference is made up by what we term steam
sailors. There will be four auxiliary engines ap-
pointed to do the heavy work of the ship, such as
heaving the anchors, pumping, and hosting the
lively called for to deal with the vast masses of iron
and canvass required to move and to hold the ship.
These engines will, in all probability communicate
their power to Il shaft running through an aperture
IN the upper IRON deck, by which arrangement motive
power IN any required quantity will be laid on from
stem to stern of the ship.
The anchors of this mighty steamer would, with
their accessories, alone form the cargo of a good sized