Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-07-05
The Great Eastern.

The following interesting description
of this monster vessel is from the cor
respOndence of Rev. d. A. Randall, now
travelling in Europe:
Come now with me, and take a look
at our enormous ship. The Great East
ern In former years has been described
in our papers, but now that she has
been refitted for this especial service,
and is so prominently before the pub
lie review and collection of sOme of
these facts viii be of interest. Few
people who have read of her or seen her
afiOat in the water, have any idea %
her enormous capacity and gigantic
strength. She is truly one of the won
ders Of the world, triumph Of human
genius and art. She lacks but eight of
being seven hundred feet long; breadth
from outside to outside of paddle
wheels, one hundred and siXty-seven
feet width Of deck eighty-three feet ;
from the upper deck to the bottom, six
ty-three feet. But how long is seven
hundred feet Let the farmer stand
on his square ten acre lot, which is for
ty rods across one side, place tie Great
Eastern on 10 and she will reach more
that thirty feet beyond the lines of his
lot. The upper deck contains more
than one acre of surface. Four times
round her deck makes a walk Of one
mile. She has five decks, so that in
all her rooms and stories there are
more than five acres of surface, while
she has capacity TO carry more than thir-
teen thousand tons of freight. Her two
enormous paddle-wheels, fOrty-tWO feet
in diameter, are worked by two
pOndeTOus engines of twelve hundred
horse power, which can be worked up
to two thousand. Her screw wheel in
the stern is driven by four engines,
each four hundred horse power; COM
bined they can be worked up to three
thousand. Thus this boat has a power
to breast the wind and waves equal to
more than five thousand horses all
working togetheri To work these en-
gines there are in all some thirty boil
ers, with near hundred fires, each of
which seemed hot enough for Vulcan,
when beneath Vesuvius he forged Ju-
piter's thunder. The fires consume
ordinarily two hundl ed and fifty tons
Of coal a day; when crowded two hum
on this voyage a sailing crew Of seven
ty-twO; officers thirteen engineers,
twenty-five; flremen and other attend
ants, one hundred and eighty; stew
ards department, one hundred and
four, making total of four hundred
and forty one men. With a full COM
plement of passengers she would need
five hundred. The wages Of the men,
in all these different departments,
amount to fifteen Thousand dollars per
month. She has FIVE masts, three Of
them iron, two of them each one hum
/ dred and seventy feet high. Almost
/ everything on board is done by steam
cooking washing, pumping, steering,
/ raising the anchor, DC. OF these en-
/ gines she has thirty-si1l; ten of these
are provided with hose for throwing
water in case Of FIRE She has six an
chors ready for use, two of them weigh
/ ing ten tons each, four of them nine
tons each besides these she has five
spare ones OF nine tons each lying
about the decks with an enormous
chain cable, each link Of which weighs
nearly seventy pounds. She has five
hundred and ninety six state rooms,
two thousand three hundred and nine
two berths. Thus she has the capacity
for accommodating near three thousand
passengers, while she has dining seats
for more than one thousand at table az
one time. She is built Of irOny double,
one hull within another, about three
feet apart sGOutly ribbed between. In
addition to this she is built IN three
compartments, each water tight. AS q
test of Uhis, in one of her visits to Amer
lea she was run on shore by the pilot,
and on her return to Liverpool it was
found on examination, she had q rent
in her cutter hull seventeen feet long,
by which her bOuyancY and speed had
not been apparently affected AS q test
of her wonderful strength she was at
one time run on bar, where she lay
on her middle with both ends suspen-
ded, and yet after this, after having
| laid the great Atlantic Cable, and been
| pelfed and tossed by many storm,
/ once a long time in the rough sea with
out a rudder, when, to fit her tor the
! present voyage, she was put on the
| gridirOn at Liverpool, it was found she
/ bad not sprung an inch and a half
/ from the water line on which she was
/ built. Her cost, including alterations
and repairs since put upon her,
amounts to the almost incredible sum
! of foe millions Of dollars