Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1857-06-19
The United STATES Steam Frlgate Mag

AC ObAteu states steam Ff1Sate NinSAfas
Hall mile so below Gravesend, just about
"here the river tourist gh; expect 10 recover from
haV'ng seen the Great Eastern at Millwall another
monster OF the deep stands full in view. She is vast
as an ark with peculiar defiant air. and an express
sion which tells you at once that she was made for
oener than the peaceful purposes Of commerce, tho
hothihg IN The way of armament, or evt in the trim
OF yards. denotes the man-of-war. This ship along
whose decks crowd of fashionable visitors daily
ana hourly stream, and all around which lie fleet
OF ooats masters of the situation" and making as
much OF 1t as if the President himself was on vew
is Inc tarfamed frigate Niagara. She is, we believe
tEe hrs, States frigate that has ever anchored off
Gravesend. Let our readers therefore, or at least
soch OF them as love to gaze upon noble s, ecimens
OF naVal architecture, avail themselves of the unu-
saal opportunity. Such a one will not soon again
present itself, for in size form, speed and intended
slselgAs 81 ct armament the Niagara is beyond doubt
the hrst man of war Of her class in the world.
AS the visitor approaches her lofty sides, he is
struck with the easy graceful manner in which she
sits " the water, with her bows we'll up, slow y
rising, and showing off her beautiful lines and clear
run 10 fine advantage. But beyond this feature the
general effect of her exterior is not very pleasing
The dark black hull, unrelieved by single streak
of white, gives heavy appearance quite foreign TO
her shape. She is also very hollow in the waist
which mparts that wall sided aspect so characteris
tic of the American liners, but which their fine
irigaes except in this instance, have managed to
void, or at least mitigate She is ship-rigged with
tall and somewhat heavy spars-a novel feature in
an American screw, as their builders have justly
prlded themselves on avoiding our practice of over
masing our steamers. Butt heavy as the Niagara
seems alott, she has not rope or spar too much
On the contrary, the marvel is that they do the
Work ascrbed to them, for under sail alone she can
run, it is said. from 16 TO II knots hour! This
is speed which river steamboats, would count
as excellent
From The spar deck the Niagara looks by no means
imT osing. The bulwarks are of such unusual lofti
ness and so curved in apparently to diminish her
real size. In fact, many of our frgates, less than
half her ze, and not TO be compared to her in any
warlke sea, going quality, seem larger on the deck
Not till the visitor has walked forward and perched
himself somewhere near the bowsprit, can he fully
appreciate her immense size and beautiful form, and
feel that he is looking down on such War-steamer
as the world has not yet seen the equal off, and by
the side of which the English navy can show moth
ing to compete.
The Niagara is one of 12 steam-frigates which
short time since the Congress ordered to be built, by
way of counerbalance 10 the enormous increase of
the English and French marine. The construction
OF the Niagara was instIusted by accamation 10 Mr.
Steers, the builder of the celebrated clipper yacht
America. In building her he had four conflicting
purposes to reconcile-to make her good gunbcat
good seaboat, good sailer, and good steamer. The
result is the Niagara, sin des gn kind of compro
mise and which leaves her the fastest saer in the
world, of the fastest steamers fine seaboat and
very good man of-war.
Her length over all is 375 feet, breadth (extreme}
Sc feet inches, depth of hold 80 feet inches and
her burden $500 tuns, or nearly 1000 tuns larger
than the Himalaya Now. she has on board only
four small guns,-hat is, small in comparison to the
Armament she is intended to carry; but wien the
peaceful task of laying the Atlantic submarine cable
is completed, the Niagara will be fu ly armed and
equipped for She will then carry IL Dahlgren
guns, II inches diameter in the bore, and throwing
solid shot OF the enormous weight of 27O lbs. dis
lance of 1000 yards, or four miles. The shells of
these guns will weigh 13O lbs, and the guns them.
selves IA tuns. These ordnance, which seems
if we were revertng 10 the baEbarism of gunnery,
and would at last to the unwieldy pec of the
DardaneIles, with bores of % inches diameter, hav,
already been cast at the West Point foundery near
New York. We earlesty wish that the Niagara
had had only one of these Tremendous artillery on
board would enable US better TO appreciate her
warlike capacities.
Inspecting man Of war witht ut her armament is
much like judging of the strength of lion by his
skin. At first twelve guns seem but small offensive
power for vessel of upwards Of 5000 tons, and il is
only by rejecting on the stupendous, caber of
her equipment that one begins 10 understand how
formidable she will be- and to feel curious doubts
to the result of contest between such frgate and
the largest thr ee- decker. We have said that while
alongside the spars seem heavy; yet from the deck,
compared with the vastbulk of the hull, they appear
almost LOO 1uell eAtIenc l0nSlu lTOW Step 10
tuck ls-mainmast, 243 feet foremast 219 and
mizen 1S9. The malnyard is 106 feet long, and the
foreyard "a. Between the buIwaIks whispering
pipes are laid, running from the quarter deck fore
CASTLE and all the officers orders are thus transmitted
with the most perfect certainty and speed. Without
some conrivance of this kind, vessel of such enor
nous length would be both difficult and dangerous
to manage for 10 mailer how large ships may be
built, there most narrow limits to what pair
of lungs can effect, and in breezy weather Stentor
himself would be inaudble at half the length of the
Niagara.
The engine room Of this magnificent vessel is as
deeply interesting 10 the visitor any other part of
her The whole motive power is placed amdshps,
and so carefully constructed to occupy less space
with regard to force employed than the engines of
any ordinary vessel. Fore and aft the machinery in
all it's departments is bounded by two transverse
ater-tighl compartments which completely shut il off
from the rest of the vessel The engine-room is
about % feet long by 26 wide, and nine starcases
are so arranged to make all parts OF it easily
cessibie The engines are by Murphy & Co, of New
York There three, all direct acting, three feet
stroke, with connecting rods between the cylinders
and cranks. The cylinders 72 inches in dame
ter (nearly the size those of the Great East
ern, and placed horizontally across the vessel, SO
that the motion of The piston is from side to side
The shaft upon which The whole force is brcu1ht TO
bear is 119 feet long, so inches in circumference and
weighs nearly so tuns The propeller is of brass,
with two fans nearly 19 feet IN diameter, and having
pitch of 80 feet.
On the prominent parts of the machinery are placed
admirably contrved indicators, which mark at the
same time The number of revolutions, pressure of
st, am, vacuum temperature of The hot well, and
pressure of the cylinder at all parts of stroke. The
cylinders are all on the starboard side of the vessel
The condensers on the port Each of the latter has
within itself the air pump and hot we'll. The al:
humps are double acting, and work direct from The
main nis,on rod as do also the force pumps. six
inch bilge injection is attached 10 each condenser
and can be used at moments notice 10 free the ship
from water In addition to these there two blge
nurnns cannected hu the crank shaft to the engine