The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1859-09-09
From the London Times.
The Great Eastern Completed.

a banquet on board the ship, which was
honored by the presence of many of the
members of the Houses and some of the
most distinguished engineers and scientific
men OF the kingdom. During the short
interval which has elapsed since our last
notice of this vessel, the work of her COM
petion has progressed with giant strides,
and 1t is only doing bare justice to Mr..
Scott Russell's exertions to say that no
other man in the kingdom could have fit
ted the vessel in the same time, and there
were not few who believed that the task
would prove too much even for his energy.
Three weeks or SO ago, and only one or
TWO OF the SIX masts were fixed, the bull
warks had not been quite completed, the
nun wanted painting, the decks were piled
with lndescribable lumber of all kinds.
whlie the Labyrinth of saloons and cabins
below seemed on y so many dirty store
houses for unfinished ioinery Yesterday
the scene on board was the reverse of all
this, and such progress has been made that
the ship now looks as she will look when
proceeding to sea, and as she ought to
look to keep pace with her reputation as
the largest and finest specimen of naval
architecture that ever floated. The deck
has been planed and scrubbed to man of
War wMteness, and not even a stray rope's
end breaks the wonderful effect produced
by Its immense expanse. Her fleet of small
boats that is to say, about the size of sail
ing cutters,) hang on the davits, ten on
each side. The whole vessel has been
painted, the saloons are finished, the cab
ms decorated and even furnished. The
masts are liked and rugged, with the ex-
ceptlon of the yards, which will he set up
In day or two. The tree centre square
rugged masts are ofiron. They were made
by Mr.. Finch Of Chepstow, and are the
finest specimens of masts of the kind that
were exer manufactured. Each is made
of hollow wrought iron in eieht-feet
lengths, strengthened inside by diaphragms
OF the same material. Between the Joints
as they were bolted together was placed a
pad OF vulcanlzed Indian rubber, which
gives spring and buoyancy to the whole
spar greater than wood, while at the same
time retaining all the strength of the iron.
The breaking strain of the six shrouds to
each of these masts is over 800 tons. which
gives ample security for the masts being
properly supported as the weight of each
is only % tons. On deck are four small
steam winches or engines, each of which
works pair of cranes on both sides of the
vessel. Anything more simple or more
perfect than the double mechanism bv
winch these are made to work at both sides
can hardly be conceived, and the value of
tue invention may be estimated when we
say that with these four double cranes alone
1900 tons of coal can be hoisted into the
vessel IN "A hours. Thus the grave OBJ
Jectlons OF those who speculated on the loss
of time required to coal the great ship are
entirel y done away with. The chief sa-
loons-all save one-have only been fitted
to certain extent in a temporary manner
The fittings are exceedingly handsome and
substantial, but the decorations of the
huge iron walls and oirders have been re-.
served till after her first trip. and now are
only painted of plain white. The alb.
sence OF elaborate decoration in them, how.
ever, IS amply compensated in the chiet
saloon, which has been finished to show
the superb style in which the whole will be
decorated when the Great Eastern bepins
running to the East On this saloon Mr.
Grace has lavished his utmost efforts and
the result Is a combination of taste and
richness to an extent which is really as.
tonlshlng. Whether the fine traceries 81
gold and color are examined in detail or
whelher one choose to Judge by the tone
ana erect OF the whole apartment, the de-
clslon Is equally favorable, and this saloon
IS not only the finest and richest of apv
that has yet been attempted, but is likely
TO remain for many years the standard bv
which all other cabins of the Kind will he
Judged. 1t is said that the mirrors. oild.
lng carpeting, and silk curtains for this
apartment, alone cost .e3,UO0. In the
berth OFFS o0",-~, attempt is made at
costly decoration of thi, hind, thoupb tbe
fittings are good and sufficiently luxurious.
The berths are arranged in three classes
those for parties of six or eight, and these
are large rooms-those for parties Of four,
and the rest in the usual style of double
cabins. All are very roomv as cabins 90
very lofty, we'll lit, and those on the out
er side exceedingly we'll ventilated. On
the lower deck the berths are even larger
lofter and more commodious than those
IN the upper. Both the berths and saloons
here are, III fact, almost unnecessary high,
having verp nearly fifteen feet in the clear
The kitchens, pantries, and sculleries are
all on the same extensive scale, and fitted
with all the large culinary requisites Of
first-class hotels. The ice house holds up
wards of 100 tons of ice, and the lofty
wine vaults-for such, in fact, they are
already contain wine enough to form good
freight for an Oporto trader.
But it was not to see the vessel only that
some 800 or 400 visitors were on board
yesterday. The great feature of the day
was the trial of both screw and paddle en-
gines for the first time. 1t is quite impos-
sibe by mere verbal description to convey
and adequate idea Of the colossal proper
tons of both these sets of engines-the for
mer by Boulton & Watt the latter by Mr.
Scott Russell. The paddle engines consist
of four oscillating cylinders, of "A inchs d.
ameter and II feet stroke; each pair of cy-
finders, with its crank, condenser, and air
pump, forms in itself a complete and sep
crate engine, capable Of easy disconnection
from the other three, SO that the whole is
a combination of four engines. A friction
clutch connecting the two cranks is the