FOOTNOTES:
[412] See Appendix to Report of Committee, 1851.
[413] See Report of 6th August, published in the Times, 8th August, 1853.
[414] Author of important works on “The Construction of the Steam-engine,” and “The Capability of Steam-ships.”
[415] As every important fact connected with the design and construction of this vast ship must prove of historical interest, I think it desirable to give an extract from the letter which Mr. Scott Russell himself wrote at the time on the subject, addressed to the editor of the Times, and which appeared in that journal on the 20th April, 1857:
“My share,” says Mr. Scott Russell, “of the merit and responsibility is that of builder of the ship for the Eastern Steam Navigation Company. I designed her lines and constructed the iron hull of the ship, and am responsible for her merits or defects as a piece of naval architecture. I am equally responsible for the paddle-wheel engines of 1000 horse-power, by which she is to be propelled.
“But Messrs. James Watt and Co., the eminent engineers of Soho, have the entire merit of the design and construction of the engines of 1500 horse-power, which are to propel the screw.
“It is to the company’s engineer, Mr. I. K. Brunel, that the original conception is due of building a steam-ship large enough to carry coals sufficient for full steaming on the longest voyage. He, at the outset, and long before it had assumed a mercantile form, communicated his views to me, and I have participated in the contrivance of the best means to carry them into practical effect. I think, further, that the idea of using two sets of engines and two propellers is original, and was his invention. It was his idea also to introduce a cellular construction like that at the top and bottom of the Britannia Bridge into the construction of the great ship. It will be seen that these are the main characteristics which distinguish this from other ships, and these are Mr. Brunel’s. Her lines and her structure in other respects are identical with those of my other ships, which are constructed like this on a principle of my own, which I have systematically carried out during the last twenty years, and which is commonly called the ‘wave’ principle. In other respects, also, her materials are put together in the manner usual in my other ships.”
[416] See article in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ 7th edition, on “Steam Navigation.”
[417] Whatever may be gained by not requiring to stop at any intermediate port, I consider it a mistake, in a commercial point of view, to suppose any advantage is to be derived from taking on board a steam-ship, especially when engaged on distant voyages, sufficient coal to carry her out and home. The space the coals occupy in a steamer ought to be of more value, for the reception of cargo, than the cost of sending coals in sailing-vessels to the ports abroad where required, and than any loss sustained by the expense and detention of shipping them there.