The ship left her moorings on September 7, and with the assistance of several tugs steamed down the river. She stopped for a night at Purfleet, and again at the Nore, and then left for Weymouth.
On the voyage a serious accident happened, which was made the subject of much misrepresentation.
Round each of the funnels of the paddle engines was what was termed a water-casing, or jacket, consisting of an outer cylinder, about 6 inches from the inner cylinder which formed the funnel. The top of the annular space between the cylinders was at about the level of the deck. From it a stand-pipe was carried up, which, after rising to a certain height, was turned over, and the end brought down into the stokehole. The object of this arrangement was to heat the feed-water before it entered the boiler, and at the same time to keep the saloons cool, through which the funnels passed. The arrangement of the stand-pipe gave this advantage, that when the head of water in the heater and stand-pipe together became equivalent to the pressure in the boiler, the water could be run into the boiler by gravitation. The stand-pipe at the same time, being open to the air at the top, formed a safety-valve to the water-heater.
For the purpose of testing the joints of the jacket with water pressure, while the ship was being finished, a stop-cock had been placed on the stand-pipe, which unfortunately had not been afterwards removed. While the ship was proceeding down Channel, the donkey feed-pumps were not working well, and to ease them it was thought better to cut off the water-heater, and to force the water direct into the boiler. The communication of the water-heater with the boiler was therefore cut off; and, as was afterwards ascertained, the stop-cock at the top of the water-heater had been also closed. The water confined in the heater soon produced steam, and when the ship was off Hastings the casing exploded. The funnel was thrown up on to the deck, and a body of boiling water and steam was driven down into the boiler room, severely injuring several of the firemen, who afterwards died.
That the effects of this accident were confined to one compartment of the ship, was due to the complete protection afforded by the transverse bulkheads.
After she arrived at Weymouth the funnel was repaired; but as an outcry was raised against the water-heaters, it was thought desirable, from deference to public opinion, to discontinue their use; although this accident had not in any way proved them to be objectionable, and they are now generally adopted.
While the ‘Great Eastern’ was at Weymouth Mr. Brunel died.
Many visitors went in the ship when she left Weymouth on a trial trip to Holyhead. At Holyhead she lay in a somewhat exposed situation; and the sudden storm came on in which the ‘Royal Charter’ was lost. The great advantage of having both paddle and screw was now, for the first time, felt. A portion of the temporary staging erected by the contractor at the breakwater was carried away, and drifted down upon the ship. During the gale her engines were kept going, in order to relieve the strain on the cables. The timbers of the staging got foul of both paddlewheels and screw; but, as it was always possible to keep one of the engines at work, the ship was saved from drifting.
The season being now too far advanced for a profitable voyage to America, the ship left Holyhead and went to Southampton Water for the winter, where several alterations and additions were made.
In Mr. Brunel’s report of February 5, 1855, printed above, at p. 315, he describes the leading features of the ‘Great Eastern’ as she was then being constructed, but a more detailed account of them will fitly precede the history of her career as a passenger-ship.