Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-04-11

City of Paris at the time of the accident
with which all the readers of this paper are
familiar and who wrote of the events as
they occurred, will be read with interest by
his many friends in Vermont:
STEAMSHIP CITY OF PARIS,
AT SEA, MARCH, 81, 1890.
To the Ed tor of the Free Press:
After an expenditure of over 81, 900, 900,
coupled with all the boosted skill and in
genuity of mechanical engineering of this
10Th century the magnificent ocean liner,
the City of Paris, lies to day helpless in the
cradle of the deep, mere plaything for the
winds and waves. When this ocean grey
hound made her trial trip it was announced,
and doubtless by many believed, that the
limit of science in transatlantic navigation
had been reached, and that with the type of
ocean steamships of which the City of Paris
was to be the model, nothing except col
lison with an iceberg or another steamer
remained as danger in an ocean voyage
Not only this but speed and comfort had
been combined with safety that with a
loss of time of less than week the business
man or pleasure seeker could go from New
York to London and live as comfortably as
in his own home Now for the realization
| of this belief.
The City of Paris of the Inman
line left New York Wednesday afternoon
of last week with a first cabin list of about
| 100, second cabin list of about so, a steer
age list of about 800 and a crew of about
| 300. a snow storm, which may have pass
ed for the equinoctial storm, had prevailed
all day and was in progress at the time Of
sailing Clear weather was reached, how
ever at Sandy Hook and has favored us
ever since, tue days being warm and sunny
and the nights clear and calm. The steam
er took a southerly course to avoid ice
bergs and made daily runs of about $50
miles. The sea was at no time rough, com
paratively speaking, and yet tine steamer
lurched continually from the time she pass
ed Sandy Hook and in this respect was a
great disappointment TO old ocean travellers,
who declared that she was greatly inferior
to many a smaller steamer. In addition to
this she listed heavily to the starboard dur
ing the entire trip, due probably to
unequal loading of cargo. But be
You'd an unusual number of cases
nothing extraordinary occurred until the
afternoon of Tuesday when within about
2JO miles of Queenstown. As the passen-
gers were preparing for dinner about ). ii
p. m, and thinking they would be nearing
Liverpool at that hour the next day, a loud
humping was heard and the immense
steamship, $50 feet or more than one-teutt
of mile i'll length, trembled from bow tc
stern. The passengers rushed on deck al
once but to their credit be it said there wa,
no sembance Of a pane. Steam was pour
ing out of the roofs OF the engine rooms anC
one or two rooms that were located betweor
the engines and the roof We're afterward,
found to be completely demoraiized. Sev-
eral narrow escapes of persons who hap
pened to be passing through an intervening
corridor at the time are also reported.
Less than half an hour before the disaster
the writer, by the courtesy Of Capt Wat
llins and the chief engineer, had beer
shown the workings Of the engines
making the descent to them by mean.
of an elevator and several fight,
of stairs. The engines stand side by side
with longitudinal bulkhead between them.
They are in every respect duplicates and ii
was expected that in case of any accident
TO one engine or screw the steamship could
be propelled by the other engine and screw
which could not possibly be injured by any
thing that might happen to those on tn,
other side. We shall see how this theory
worked in practice. The crank of each en-
CINE has throw of } feet the engines max,
80 strokes per minute, the piston travein.
10 feet each stroke or 800 feet per minute
tho piston head piston rod, cross nead anC
the connection with the crank weigh II
y tons, which weight is started and stoppet
! $50 times per minute, equivalent to stoppin,
and starting one half of 81 ton locomotive
The cylinder is / 10 inches in diameter Their,
are also two other cylinders and pistons o
u smaller size, "a anu Is inches in diameter
respectively, working simultaneously. Tn,
boiler pressure is 100 pounds The screw
Z are % feet in diameter and the speed of tn
steamer varies from Is to - knots per hour
/ The engines have shown % OS0 horse power
conformity.
1t is believed although it may never be
- known to a certainty, that the crank shat
of the starboard engine broke aud caused
4 all the resulting damage. That en-
/ CINE is complete wreck, the larg
e cylinder head being blown off and the piston
a havin. entirely disappeared. 1t is 10y som
t believed that this i'll falling made hole il
; the bottom of the boat. Certain it is tina
I I a hole was made in some way, for the com
: partment occupied 10y this engine was speed
e lily filled with water, which, in spite of til,
: longitudinal partition between the engines
e rushed into the port engine compartment
:. and at once rendered that engine useless
70 Either the explosion shattered This partito
. so rs to render il useless or else the waite
= found its way through 10y means of tw
u doors which should have been kept closed
+, but may have been open at the time. Frol
}, 10 to 20 feet of water soon covered each Ell
l. CINE The large pumps were stored ava
l. under the flooded compartments, instead 4
II being in a convenient place for use an
:; could not he gotten at, With the sma
- pump at hand it was impossible to keep tn
o water out after an attempt had been mad