Chapter XIX.
The Eastern Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., and the Great Eastern, steamship.
In the year 1851 a steamship company was promoted in London, under the title of the Eastern Steam Navigation Company, Limited, for the purpose of establishing a direct line of leviathan steamers between England and India, via the Cape of Good Hope.
The services of the most distinguished engineers of the period were secured, Mr. I. K. Brunel being appointed the consulting engineer of the company. An order was placed with Messrs. Scott Russell & Co. for the pioneer steamer, which it was at first the intention of the company to call the Leviathan, but that name was subsequently abandoned in favour of Great Eastern. She was to be propelled by paddle wheels and a propeller. Mr. Scott Russell designed the lines, and constructed the hull of the vessel, as well as the engines of 1,000 h. p. nom. to drive the paddle wheels. Messrs. James Watt & Co., of Soho, designed and constructed the engines, of 1,500 h. p. nom., to drive the screw propeller. As a matter of course, some considerable time was occupied in preparing the plans for so gigantic a ship—one which was not only the largest ever built up to that date, but which remained the largest steamer built to the end of the 19th century. The necessary plans, specifications and yard preparations were completed during the spring of 1854, and on the 1st of May of that year, the construction of the Great Eastern was commenced by Mr. Scott Russell in his shipbuilding yard at Millwall, on the north side of the Thames. She was built with a double hull from the keel to the water line, the inner and the outer skin being of equal thickness of iron, with a space between of 34 inches. If required for ballasting purposes, this space could be filled with 2,500 tons of water. The length of the Great Eastern was 675 feet, her breadth 83 feet, and her depth 60 feet. She was divided into 60 watertight compartments, each 60 feet long. She carried six masts—the mizzen mast of wood, and the remaining five of hollow wrought iron. Three of these masts carried square sails, the other three were fore and aft rigged. She had five funnels, two of which were placed forward of the paddle boxes and three aft. Her hull was constructed of 30,000 plates of iron, weighing 10,000 tons, and joined together by 3,000,000 rivets. “Her cylinders, the four largest in the world ... (each) 18 feet long, 6 feet in diameter, and 28 tons weight, were successfully cast at the Engineering Works of Messrs. Scott Russell & Co., Millwall.”[22]
Great Eastern s.s.
Copied by permission of Messrs C. W. Kellock & Co.
In her equipment were included twenty large lifeboats, and it was intended that she should carry in addition two small steamers, each 100 feet long, to be used for landing and embarking passengers or luggage.
She was designed to carry 10,000 troops or 4,000 passengers, viz., 800 first-class, 2,000 second-class, and 800 third-class, in addition to a crew of about 400, and she was capable of stowing 12,000 tons of coal.
Although, nominally, the engines which drove the paddle wheels were of 1,000 h. p., they were capable of working up to 5,000 h. p., while the screw engines worked up to 6,000 h. p., or with combined paddle and screw her engines could develop 11,000 h. p., which it was estimated would enable her to maintain at sea a speed of 20 knots per hour, and to accomplish the voyage between England and Australia in 30 days.