Chapter V

, had been so successful that her owners felt justified not only in ordering another vessel but in determining that their new steamer should be the largest afloat and illustrate the latest theories of construction. There were already rumours of competition in the North Atlantic trade, and the Great Western directors did not intend to be forestalled. They decided to build an iron ship and it was accordingly announced that the _Great Western_ was to be followed by the _Great Britain_, of iron. This project was roundly condemned by the public. The fact that iron steamers were already in existence on Irish waters did not count for much. These might be good enough for Irish lakes and rivers but would be unfit for the Atlantic Ocean. The _Garry Owen_ was already forgotten.

The Great Western Company, however, persisted. The _Great Britain_ was designed by the younger Brunel and launched in 1843. Her length of keel was 289 feet, and length from figure-head to taffrail 320 feet. Her beam was 51 feet. The total depth from the under side of the upper deck to the keel was 31 feet 4 inches. Her tonnage was 3500 tons and her displacement at 16 feet was 2000 tons. Her cargo capacity was 1200 tons measurement, and her coal bunkers held 1000 tons. Since no shipbuilder had the necessary data for the construction of such a vessel, and shipbuilders as a whole were by no means favourably disposed towards iron ships, possibly because they had not the plant necessary for their construction, and as there was also a very widespread belief that a vessel of the size and dimensions of the _Great Britain_ could not be built of iron, the directors were unable to find a contractor who would undertake her construction. They were therefore obliged to instal the plant for building the ship and the engines also. She was built under the supervision of Paterson of Bristol, who was responsible for the _Great Western_. It was at first intended that the _Great Britain_ should be a paddle-steamer and her lines followed in several respects those of the best paddle-steamers of the day; though the _Great Britain_ herself contained so many novel features and was of so experimental a character that it could hardly be said that she followed anything.

Little had been done to demonstrate the power of the screw propeller, which for some unfathomable reason was considered to be suitable only for small vessels. However, after the construction of the _Great Britain_ had been commenced, the steamer _Archimedes_, fitted with Smith’s screw propeller, arrived at Bristol during her tour of the ports and demonstrated once and for all that the screw propeller could be used in seagoing vessels, and that, provided engines of sufficient power were installed, the screw propeller was more suitable for large hulls built to make ocean voyages than the best paddle-wheels then designed. But many years were to elapse before the shipping industry generally accepted this view.

The advantages of the screw, as proved by the _Archimedes_, were not, however, lost upon the enterprising directors of the Great Western Steamship Company, and they did not hesitate to order the designs of the _Great Britain_ to be altered so that she could be fitted with a screw instead of paddles. She was not built on a slip whence she might have been launched into the river, but in an excavated dock, and when she was afloat in the dock it was found that she was too big to be got out of it. That is to say, that having been fitted with her engines while still in dock, their weight immersed her to such an extent that she could not float out. This was owing to the dock officials’ delay in finishing alterations to the dock entrance, and not to any mistake or negligence on the part of the steamer officials. She was water-borne on July 19, 1843, and was christened by Prince Albert. The floating was attended by vexatious mishaps. The _Great Britain_ was attached by a hawser to the tug _Avon_, which was outside the dock, but at the critical moment the hawser broke. The bottle of wine thrown at the ship by the Prince fell several feet short. He threw another bottle of champagne, which struck the bows, and the wine and broken glass fell upon the men below, who were pushing against her sides to keep her off the dock walls.

[Illustration: MODEL OF THE “GREAT BRITAIN.”]

Her figure-head consisted of the royal arms, flanked with a beehive, two cog-wheels, a dove, square, and the caduceus of Mercury in bronze on a white ground, with a scroll above and below. Her anchor was on Porter’s newly invented patent, which had been satisfactorily tested in the Navy for three years.

Her designer and builder took no chances. She was put together as strongly as possible, and it was well that this was so, for in her eventful career she was altered so frequently and so much that had she not been excellently put together she would very soon have succumbed to ship surgery. Her keel was formed of iron plates varying from three-quarters of an inch thick in the middle to one inch at the ends.

The plates of the hull under water were from three-eighths to half an inch at the top, except the upper plate, which was five-eighths of an inch. She was clincker-built and double riveted throughout. Towards the bow and stern and in the upper strakes the thicknesses were reduced gradually to seven-sixteenths. The ribs were of angle iron six inches by three and a half, by half an inch thick at the bottom of the vessel and seven-sixteenths thick at the top. The boiler platform was of plate iron supported upon ten iron keelsons. The hull was divided into five compartments by water-tight iron bulkheads. The decks were of wood and consisted of the cargo deck, two cabin decks, and the upper deck.

The beams for the support of the decks were bars of angle iron about three inches across with an additional bar measuring five inches by half an inch riveted on the side. The beams were from 2 feet 4 inches to 3 feet apart. There were also between the angle-iron bars and deck planks a series of diagonal flat tension bars, forming a continuous horizontal truss from end to end in each principal deck; these bars were riveted to the angle irons at the crossings and at the ends in order to prevent horizontal straining. The engine-room was strengthened by adding nine additional double ribs and sixteen additional reverse ribs riveted to the original framing. Her three boilers were each 33 feet in length, 10 feet wide, and 24 feet high; she had 24 fires, 12 fore and 12 aft, with a total surface of fire-box of 288 superficial feet. Her chimney was 8 feet in diameter and about 45 feet high; her four cylinders were 7 feet 4 inches diameter with a piston-stroke of 6 feet. Her two condensers of wrought iron three-quarters of an inch thick were 12 feet in length. The main wrought-iron shaft measured 15 feet 9 inches.

The engines were after Sir Mark Brunel’s patent in the position of the cylinders, except that they were disposed at an angle of about 60 degrees. The pitch of the screw was 13 feet 2 inches and its diameter 15 feet. It was six-bladed, and the screw shaft was revolved by four endless chains.

The crew numbered one hundred and thirty all told and she could accommodate three hundred and sixty passengers. Her principal promenade saloon was 110 feet in length by 48 feet at the widest part and 7 feet high, and had two staircases at each end. Her first-class dining-room was 100 feet in length by 50 feet wide and 8 feet high, with staircases communicating with those of the promenade saloon. Seeing how far she excelled all other steam-ships, she well merited being called by the newspapers a “stupendous steam-ship” of “unparalleled vastness.”

[Illustration: MODEL OF ENGINES OF THE “GREAT BRITAIN.”]

Her rig was as unique as her hull. She had six masts, of which only the second carried square sails, all the others being fore and aft rigged, and her one funnel was placed between the second and third masts. Five of her masts were stepped on turntables on deck so that they could be lowered and offer less resistance when going against a head wind. The lines of the ship were very fine, especially about the entrance from the forefoot. There was little of the “cod’s head and mackerel tail” style of build about her. She was admitted to be rather full amidships, for the accommodation of the engine, but was thought to approach as near the figure of least resistance as possible. The hull had a slight sheer and the vessel realised the expectation that she would be what sailors call “a dry ship.”

After getting out of the dock at last she left for London, where she arrived in January 1845 after a stormy voyage which tested her thoroughly. She remained five months at Blackwall, being visited by the Queen and Prince Albert, and left in June of that year with about eighty passengers for Liverpool, calling at a number of ports _en route_. She left the Mersey for New York on July 26 with from forty-five to sixty passengers (accounts differ) and about 600 tons of cargo. The voyage lasted 14 days 21 hours, and her average speed was nine and a half knots, but the engines were only worked at about 600 horse-power. New York was disappointed with her, as her six low masts contrasted unfavourably with the tall graceful masts of the American ships. She made the return journey in a day less.

On a subsequent voyage she broke one of the blades of her propeller, but as she made between ten and eleven knots, using both propeller and sail, it was decided when she was docked for repairs that her new propeller should have four blades only. In September 1846 she ran on the rocks in Dundrum Bay on the coast of Ireland, and was not refloated until August 1847. Thanks to her strong construction she was able to withstand a winter’s storms and a stranding of eleven months.

After being brought to Liverpool, she lay for some time at the North Docks and, as the Great Western Steamship Company thought the repairs would be too costly, she was purchased by Messrs. Gibbs, Bright and Co., formerly agents for the company, and they decided to refit her. The rolling plates attached to the sides of the hull were removed. An oak keel was bolted through upon the iron plates which had done duty for a keel when she was first built, to prevent rolling. Her bottom for about 150 feet had to be entirely renewed. The bows and stern were strengthened by double angle-iron framing secured by three tiers of iron stringers 2 feet 3 inches wide and five-eighths of an inch thick. Ten new keelsons were placed in the ship running her entire length, half as deep again as those formerly used. The various alterations resulted in the cargo capacity being increased by about 1000 tons,

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construction of a deck-house 300 feet long and 7 feet 6 inches high. New bulwarks were erected higher than the previous ones. The number of masts was now reduced to four.[86] Two of the lower masts were iron cylinders and the two centre masts were ship-rigged, carrying royals. The fore and jigger were fore and aft rigged, but whereas the topsail of the foremast was shaped like a lugsail that of the jigger was carried on a gaff, according to a contemporary picture. The old engines were of 1000 nominal horse-power, but it is a question if they ever worked over 600 horse-power; the new engines were nominally 500 horse-power. Her new pair of oscillating engines were by John Penn and Son, engineers, Greenwich, and had cylinders 82¹⁄₂ inches diameter and 6 feet stroke. By the use of cog-wheels the screw shaft made three revolutions to one of the engine.

[86] According to a description and picture in the _Illustrated London News_ she had five masts, the first, fourth, and fifth masts being fore and aft rigged, but the fifth mast is probably an incorrect addition to the picture. If she had five masts the number must soon have been reduced.

The screw was three-bladed, 15 feet 6 inches diameter, and 19 feet pitch. There were six boilers, and her bunkers held 700 tons, and other accommodation enabled her to stow 510 tons more. To lessen the vibration experienced from the screw and machinery, eight new wrought-iron beams were placed transversely through the vessel, locking her sides together. The bases on which the machinery rested were made stronger, and she was further strengthened by massive iron entablature beams to the engines, buttressed by a framing of teak wood, each piece being 20 inches wide and 3 feet deep, running on either side of the engines transversely and diagonally to the sides of the ship. This solid timber extended 17 feet 6 inches on each side of the engine. The whole of this framing was bolted together and to the sides of the ship by wrought-iron bolts. The new arrangement of the boilers gave her a lessened coal consumption.

Little more need be said about this steamer. She made one voyage afterwards to New York and back, and being then acquired by Messrs. Antony Gibbs and Sons was placed in the Australian trade at the time of the gold fever, and continued a regular voyage between England and Australia for many years. She was afterwards patched up afresh and had her engines removed, but was then such a failure that though she got as far as the Falkland Islands, leaking badly, she was abandoned to the underwriters, and is now ingloriously ending her days as a coal hulk.

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