This plan had, however, the effect of increasing the number of his correspondents, as several of them wrote a second time to express their regret that their letters had had no better effect than to be classed with the numerous communications which Mr. Brunel said he had received on the same subject, which had seemed unworthy of his notice; and they explained that though other people’s schemes were, no doubt, worthless, still that their own, if adopted, would launch the ship.
[171] The number of the presses being almost doubled, but the resistance of the ship not being much greater than before, the elastic compression of the abutments was less than it had been previously, so that when the ship moved there was much less work stored up to give it velocity; therefore the slides were shorter than they had been before.
[172] Among the many congratulations which Mr. Brunel received on the completion of the launch, there was perhaps none which pleased him more than the following letter from Mr. Robert Stephenson, who had been prevented by illness from being present at the concluding operations, the critical character of which he had fully appreciated:—
February 1, 1858.
My dear Brunel,—I slept last night like a top, after I received your message. I got desperately anxious all day, but my doctor would not permit me to venture so far away as Millwall.
I do, my good friend, most sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the conclusion of your anxiety.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Stephenson.
A letter from Mr. Brunel to his friend Mr. Froude, describing the floating, is given in note B to this chapter.
[173] The principal dimensions of the ship and engines are given in the note to this chapter, p. [416].
[174] During the last-mentioned voyage, returning from Quebec, a north-easterly wind blew with a velocity of from 30 to 40 miles an hour. For the first 24 hours the ship paid no attention to the sea; the next day, the wind remaining the same, but the sea having got more swell on, the ship began to roll slowly and sedately, the rolls gradually increasing up to about 9 degrees on either side of the perpendicular, and dying out again, and then recommencing.