“There is scarcely a cabin in the ship to which the water has not found its way. Many require a change of clothes, and the hatchways of the baggage stores are opened. The scene that presents itself defies all description. The water has got in, and in sufficient force to float even many of the larger articles. The rocking of the ship has set the whole mass in motion.”
[435] “From a paper of great interest it would seem that, approximately, the cube of the height of the waves is proportional to the square of the velocity of the wind. Most of the conclusions drawn in this paper are from observations made during the voyages of the Bonite and Astrolabe.” (“Naval Science,” October 1874, Part II., p. 159.)
[436] See paper on “The Difficulties of Speed Calculations,” by Mr. Denny, read at the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 23rd March, 1875, pp. 2, 3, and 4.
[437] See [Appendices Nos. 10] and [17], pp. 606 and 617.
[438] 1000l. per month was paid for the use of the ship alone. When the agreement expired in 1867, she was chartered by a French Company to carry passengers between New York and Brest for the Paris exhibition. Her cabins were then altered and redecorated, and new boilers fitted to the screw engines. But the French Company was unsuccessful, and the Great Eastern only made one voyage in its service.
[439] Towards the close of the year 1857, when the prospects of the Great Eastern were exciting much public attention, the author ventured to offer to his constituents at Tynemouth, nearly all of whom were interested in ships, the following remarks (reported in the newspapers of the period) with regard to her:
“Very shortly there will be launched a ship of vast and hitherto unparalleled dimensions: I allude to the Great Eastern. If that ship answers, I do not know where we shall be with our small vessels. As this is a subject, upon which opinions have been greatly at variance, perhaps you would like to hear mine. It must be a matter of deep interest to all present, because you are all directly or indirectly interested in the shipping trade, to know whether such a ship as the Great Eastern is, or is not, likely to answer in a commercial point of view, and I venture on this topic because I have heard strong opinions expressed to the effect that, commercially, she will be a great triumph. For my part, I believe her to be a great triumph of mechanical skill, I believe that no finer or stronger vessel has ever been put together: so far as regards her formation, I think she is a very splendid model: but, with reference to the speed she is expected to attain, I doubt very much whether she will ever realise the anticipation of her builder, though I think that we, as a nation, ought to be proud of having men who can produce so marvellous a piece of mechanism. But we must look, also, to the commercial element, because in this, I, and most of you are deeply interested. If such a ship as the Great Eastern be found to answer commercially, most of our property will go to the wall, for, in a short time, our small vessels will be of very little use to us. The course of commerce is this: If a Manchester merchant has 1000 bales of a particular description of goods to send to Calcutta, he does not send the whole of them in one bottom, because he might thus overstock the market. On the contrary, he sends them in from four to six different vessels, and he does this for two reasons: first, that by so doing he feeds the market; and, secondly, that he gets, thereby, quicker returns. The principle of commerce is to send out supplies in relays. Then again, we find that passengers do not go out in masses, but, at such intervals, as suit them best. And, in times of war, statesmen find it the wisest plan to send out not 1000, much less 10,000 men in one bottom, but from 400 to 600, at the utmost, in one ship. And this must appear to be sound policy, when we picture to ourselves what might be the result of sending out a whole army in the Great Eastern. I do not take into consideration the contingency of the ship going to the bottom. I shall not ask you to imagine so fearful a calamity, but, supposing anything happened to her machinery and occasioned a serious stoppage, when expedition was necessary to the attainment of a certain object, the effect would be that the whole army would be detained. No Government would dare to send so large a force in one vessel. Therefore, looking at the question, politically as well as from a commercial point of view, I am of opinion that we have nothing to fear from the competition of leviathans such as the Great Eastern.”
[440] If any further proof was required that the Great Eastern proved a failure in the two points, speed and comfort at sea, on which her protectors mainly built their hopes, it will be found in a small and amusing book by M. Jules Verne, translated from the French, and published by Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. (1875), entitled “The Floating City.” M. Verne, who made a voyage in this ship in 1867 from Liverpool to New York, records, from the official returns, her speed as not exceeding 250 nautical miles each day on the average, and he describes her movements during strong winds as “rolling frightfully, her bare masts describing immense circles in the air.”
[441] It has been stated that the loss upon the Great Eastern up to this period amounted to close upon 1,000,000l. sterling!