The business of Lloyd’s is conducted by a committee of twelve influential members, while the working staff includes a secretary, clerks, and a staff of assistants technically known as “waiters,” which would make it seem as though the odour of the original Lloyd’s Coffee-house still clung to the body. The funds of Lloyd’s Association, as it might be termed, are large, and are used to great advantage: partly in charity bestowed upon deserving, though unfortunate seamen, and partly in rewards, in various forms, to special cases of merit. It costs an underwriter £50 entrance fee and £12 annual subscription to belong to it; the brokers are let off for about half the above rates; an ordinary subscriber pays £5 per annum for the privilege of entering the rooms of the Association. We have now traced the history of the greatest maritime company of the world, one that could only belong to a great nation. No other could devise, much less support it.
THE “GREAT EASTERN” IN A GALE OFF CAPE CLEAR.
MR. I. K. BRUNEL. MR. SCOTT RUSSELL. (From a Photograph by Mayall, 1858.)
CHAPTER VIII.
The History of Ships and Shipping Interests (continued).
The Largest Ship in the World—History of the Great Eastern—Why she was Built—Brunel and Scott Russell—Story of the Launch—Powerful Machinery Employed—Christened by Miss Hope—Failure to move her more than a few feet—A Sad Accident—Launching by inches—Afloat at last—Dimensions—Accommodations—The Grand Saloon—The Paddle-wheel and Screw Engines—First Sea Trip—Speed—In her first Gale—Serious Explosion on Board off Hastings—Proves a fine Sea-boat—Drowning of her Captain and others—First Transatlantic Voyage—Defects in Boilers and Machinery—Behaves splendidly in Mid-ocean—Grand Reception in New York—Subsequent Trips—Used as a Troop-ship to Canada—Carried out 2,600 Soldiers—An eventful Passenger Trip—Caught in a Cyclone Hurricane—Her Paddles almost wrenched away—Rudder Disabled—Boats Carried Away—Shifting of Heavy Cargo—The Leviathan a Gigantic Waif on the Ocean—Return to Cork.
Many competent authorities doubt whether the ships of the future will be so very much larger than the largest now in use, but it is one of those questions on which it is idle to theorise, and absurd to dogmatise. The greatest ship of this or any other age has not proved a success, except for some very special purposes for which no other vessel would have proved available. The history of the Great Eastern is one of interest to all, and especially to too sanguine and over-ambitious individuals and companies.