Fig. 135.
The hulls of these boats are formed with a perfectly flat bottom and perpendicular sides, rounded at the angles, as represented in [fig. 135.] At the bow, or cutwater, they are made very sharp, and the deck projects to a great distance over the sides. The weight of the machinery is distributed over an extensive surface of the bottom of this feeble structure, by means of a frame-work of substantial carpentry to which it is attached.
At the height of from four to six feet above the water-line is placed the deck, which is a platform, having the shape of a very elongated ellipse. The extremities of its longer axis are supported by the sternpost and the cutwater, and its sides expand in gentle curves on either hand to a considerable distance beyond the limits of the hull; those parts of the deck thus overhanging the water are called the wheel guards.
Beneath the first deck is the saloon, or dining-room, which also, as is usual in European steamers, forms the gentlemen's sleeping-room. It usually extends from end to end of the vessel. The middle of the first deck is occupied by the engine, boilers, furnaces, and chimneys, of which latter there are generally two. Between the chimneys and the stern, above the first deck, is constructed the ladies' cabin, which is covered by the second deck, called the promenade deck. The great length of these boats and the elevation of the cabins render it impossible for a steersman at the stern to see ahead, and they are, consequently, steered from the bow; the wheel placed there communicating with the helm at the stern, by chains or rods carried along the sides of the boat. Until a recent period, the wheel was connected with the stern by ropes, but some fatal accidents, produced by fire, [Pg496] in which these ropes were burnt, and the steersman lost all power to guide the vessel, caused metal rods or chains to be substituted.
(232.)
Fig. 136.
The spokes, which are bolted to cast-iron flanges, are of wood. These flanges, to which they are so bolted, are keyed upon the paddle shaft. The outer extremities of the spokes are attached to circular bands or hoops of iron, surrounding the wheel; and the paddle boards, which are formed of hard wood, are bolted to the spokes. The wheels thus constructed, sometimes consist of three, and not unfrequently four, independent circles of paddle boards, placed one beside the other, and so adjusted in their position, that the boards of no two divisions shall correspond.