Of the cost above named, about 12l. per bed is that due to the ward-rooms themselves, with all their conveniences attached, and the rest arises from the cost of the store-rooms, kitchen, machinery, residences, and appurtenances.
The cargo space required for their conveyance is about a ton and a half to a ton and three-quarters measurement per bed.
As the buildings were completed the work of transport was commenced; and twenty-three steamers and sailing-vessels were despatched, containing altogether about 11,500 tons measurement of materials and stores. The first vessel arrived out on May 7, 1855, and the last on December 5, in the same year.
Meanwhile the important question of the site for the hospital buildings was being determined by Dr. Parkes, the Medical Superintendent, with the assistance of Mr. Brunton, who was in constant communication with Mr. Brunel on the subject.
After visiting various places, Dr. Parkes finally selected a spot near the village of Renkioi, on the Dardanelles. In a report which he addressed to the Secretary of State for War upon the formation and general management of the hospital, he thus describes ‘the nature of the site, and the means which were used in the formation of the hospital:’—
The piece of land on which the hospital was placed was a shelving bank of a light, porous, sandy soil, resting on marl; it contained about 270 acres, stretched tongue-like into the waters of the Dardanelles, and was bounded inland by a low range of sandstone hills, which were themselves backed by rather lofty ranges of oolitic limestone, intersected by deep ravines. The tongue of land formed two bays, north and south, in both of which was good anchorage for ships, and as the wind blew almost always up or down the Dardanelles, i.e. from the north-east or south-west, one or other of these bays was comparatively calm in all winds except those which came infrequently from the west.
The position of the spot was on the Asiatic coast, nine miles from the mouth of the Dardanelles, in lat. 40° 2′, long. 26° 21′. It was the site of the port of an old Greek city, the ancient Ophrynium.
The extreme point of this tongue of land was about 10 feet above the sea, but from this point it rose regularly and gradually to about 100 feet above the sea. An admirable fall was thus given for drainage, and so gradual was the rise that the wooden houses were placed on the ground without terracing or excavation, whereby very great expense was saved. The extreme length from the point to a spot too steep for the erection of houses was about half a mile, and we were enabled thus to place down the centre of the tongue of land no less than thirty-four houses, capable of holding 1,500 sick, in one long line on either side of the central corridor, an arrangement which facilitated very greatly the laying of both water-pipes and drain-tubes. In fact, we were able to carry out the plan which Mr. Brunel had suggested as the best.
There was enough space on the tongue of land, on either side of this long central line, for two shorter parallel lines of seventeen houses each. These two lines were placed one to the north, and the other to the south of the large central hospital. Each was capable of containing 750 men, and one of them to the north was nearly completed when the declaration of peace put a stop to the works.
On the sides of the hills in rear were numerous small springs of excellent water, which were collected together and conveyed in earthenware pipes to a large reservoir, placed by Mr. Brunton 70 feet above the highest house, which was itself about 60 feet above the sea. From this reservoir the water was carried in iron pipes down the centre of the long corridor, and at every ward (which was placed at intervals at either side of the corridor) a leaden service-pipe came off, and led an abundant and never-ceasing supply into the ward cisterns, which supplied the baths, lavatories, and closets. By this arrangement all necessity for pumping water was avoided, and the sewers were able to be flushed very perfectly.