The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1860-06-06
From the London Observer
The Great Eastern.

There appears TO be no doubt Whatever that
the great ship will be ready TO try its powers on
the Atlantic BY the latter end Of May. The con.
tracts for the works necessary to ft the ship for
sea have been taken, and they are being proee-
cuted with the utmost visor. Mr.. Scott Russell
has now nothing whatever to do with the ship,
his contracts have come to an end, aad even the
interminable arbitration upon the differences be.
tween the company and himself have il is under
stood, been brought to close BY sheer weari-
ness of all the parties; and something like com.
promise of all matters in dispute has been, or will
probably shortly be, agreed upon on both sides.
The works necessary to be completed before the
start for America are mainly those which are re-
quired to be performed BY the Board Of Trade
before the grant Of the necessary certificate un-
der the Passengers Act. But, in order that
nothing should be wanting to make the Great
Eastern as perfect and as complete as possible in
every department, q most careful examination Of
the machinery has been made by Aessrs. Penn
& Field, and the hull and fittings have been most
carefully looked into by eminent ship surveyors.
The result OF all this examination has been to
show how greatly exaggerated were all those de-
scriptions of her imperfect state which many per-
sons, from various motives, had circulated with
respect to this magnificent ship. Every sugges-
tion made uy "voiup-tent parties has been
adopted by the new Board Of Directors, and the
whole expense of the works, including those that
are actually necessary and others which may be
considered as improvements, viii not exceed
$50, The works which have been taken in
hand include the building Of new store-rooms on
board, some additional stanchions to support the
cargo deck, some alterations in the davits for
| hanging the boats, and some additional supports
| to the sides of the coal bunkers. One rather
heavy affair is the construction Of o tunnel for
the passage OF the crew, engineers, and Others,
through the coal-buukers. This has ivolved q
considerable amount of labor, and $500 tuns Of
coal have had to be removed in order 10 get at
the work. These tunnels Sill be fitted with wa
ter.tight doors st each Of the compartments, and
will be useful for giving increased ventilation,
and afford facilities for testing the temperature Of
the coal in the "bunkers IAN important con-
sideration, when il is considered that some TO-
900 tuns of coal are slowed away in these parts
of the ship. Some alterations are also TO be
made in the packing of the iron inasts, the In
dia-rnbber hitherto used being about TO be re-.
placed by hornbeam, or some less elastic sub
stance. In addition to the squadron Of 20 small
boats, with which the ship at present provided,
there viii be two Others Of unusually large size,
equal in fact 70 moderate sized scbooners, their
dimensions being 30 feet in length BY in width.
The saloons and cabins, which we're unfinished
~nen the snip let the Anainess arc a1o W oe
completed before the Atlantic trip. The plank
ing Of the deck will remain unchanged, though
admitted on all hands to bel piece Of Dotoriously
bad workmanship upon very bad timber. In sd-
di.on TO the improvements mentioned, there are
q number OF small details required TO be attend
ed to in the engines and machinery.
The Board have appointed Mr.. Thomas Bold,
one of the late Directors, TO the post Of general
manager. No appointment Of captain Of the ship
has yet been made, but the general opinion ap
pears to be that Captain Vinehal, superinten.
dent Of the Mediterranean Steam Navigation
Company, will be appointed.