The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-12-19
IN ocean Navigation.

| fsir T.. j. Reid In the Contemporary he'ie".I
IN this were not an age In which men
had almost ceased 10 wonder, and had al-
together ceased TO wonder much and to
wonder long. the swift development OF
our merchant steam marine OF Iron ana
steel might well be offered to the astonish-
ment OF mankind. A hundred years ago
Henry Co,t's great invention for rolling
iron bars aud plates had not been de-
yised, and nothing In the shape OF
iron plates OF which ships could be built
existed. Even fifty years ago, although
several canal-boats and some few coastIng
steamers had been constructed OF iron, TWO
or three OF which had made sea voyages
on the way TO their destination, the con-
struction Of iron ships for ocean naviga-
ton, II thought OF and spoken OF, had not
vet commenced. But now il is matter OF
daily practice for the American and the
Englishman to step on board steam pal
ace OF steel, and sweep across the vast
sea desert that separates their shores
at the rate OF about twenty miles an
hour. In eight days you pass from Pail
Mall to Broadway. The City Of Rome and
the Alaska has each steamed over the dis
lance between Sandy Hook and Queens
town in days and 90 hours. AS means
OF comparing this ocean speed with what
was happening before the daysof iron hubs
propelled by stcam-engines, il may be in
structive and amusing to refer to piece OF
evidence once given 10 committee OF the
House OF Commons. The captain OF q
sailing troop-transport stated that he
was on one occasion lying wind-bound
| in the Downs, with troops for the West
Indies, in company with another vessel
similarly employed, and having the same
destination. a slant OF wind came OF
which the witness was just able to avail
himself, and he got away down channel.
After an ordinary outward voyage he eX-
changed troops, and made an ordinary voy-
age home again, many and many long
week eapsing, nevertheless, before he
again east anchor between the Fore
lands. But when he did so he had
bis old companion for companion again,
for the slant OF wind that sufficed for the
one was insufficient for the other. and
there she had lain "above her beef-bOnes'
ever since. IL is to the introduction OF
iron and steel into ship-buiIdng that we
owe the vast Improvement in ocean speed.
Neither the strength TO resist the enor-
nous strains Of modern engines, equivalent
to 10000 horses, nor the length and fine
ness OF form required for the accept
ance, so TO speak. Of high speeds. could
have been obtained all the time wood was
the sole ship-buiding material. With iron
and steel as our material. we may be long
way at present from a limit to speed and
size. Ard yet the change in size has been
very striking. We may give an instance
which will illustrate this and at the same
time illustrate the growth OF professional
opinion on these questions. NJ. Dupuy de
LONE, afterward chief naval architect OF
the Franch navy under Napoleon Ill,
made professional visit to this country in
1912. lie went to Bristol, and there in
spected the Great Britain, then building.
In a report which he subsequently made
to his Government he referred to that ship
as "the most gigantic experiment ever
tried in the naval department" and stated
that "the proportions OF the bull depart
altogether from any experiment previously
made" The Great Britain was pa feet in
length; the City of Rome is $50 feet.