The unexpected success of these steamers overcame the professional prejudices of the commanders of the sailing mail-packets, who had recently recorded as their opinion “that no vessel could perform the winter passage with safety but sailing-cutters.” The wish alone in this case must have been father to the thought, for, when the steamers Royal Sovereign and Meteor soon afterwards took up their station on the line, the cutters disappeared from it for ever. In fact, these steamers had so fully established the numerous advantages to be derived from the employment of vessels of this description, that, as early as 1823, a company was formed to carry on the communication regularly throughout the year by means of steam-vessels only. Subsequently, vessels superior to those of the class of the Meteor were constructed for this important service, and there were no faster or finer vessels of the period than the Banshee and the Llewellyn, which, in 1848, were placed on this station, having on their trial trips attained a speed of upwards of 18 statute miles per hour.[447]
Dimensions, power, capacity, and cost.
But the public soon required still faster and more commodious steamers; and a committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the subject recommended the construction of vessels of 2000 tons each, with power sufficient to attain a speed of upwards of 20 statute miles the hour. Consequently, four ships were built, the Connaught, Ulster, and Munster by Messrs. Laird and Sons of Birkenhead, and the Leinster by Mr. Samuda of London.[448] The engines of all these vessels are on the oscillating principle. In the two pairs constructed by Messrs. Ravenhill, Salkeld, and Co., for the Leinster and the Connaught, the cylinders are 98 inches diameter with a length of stroke of 6 feet 6 inches. The eight boilers are multitubular, four being at each end of the engine-room space, arranged in pairs, with one funnel to each pair. The paddle-wheels are on the feathering principle, and are each 31 feet extreme diameter. On the trial trips the engines worked at the rate of 25½ revolutions per minute, under a steam pressure of 25 lbs. per square inch. The mean of the runs of the Leinster at the measured mile in Stokes Bay was at the rate of 20½ statute miles an hour, a greater speed by one mile an hour, than had up to this time (1860) been obtained by any other vessel in this country:—but the Connaught, when subsequently tried at the measured mile, attained a still higher result, the mean of her runs showing the speed of 20¾ statute miles per hour.[449]
The engines of the Ulster and Munster (constructed by James Watt and Co.) as well as their lines, very much resemble the other two, the main difference being that the diameters of the cylinders are each 96 inches, with 7-feet length of stroke. The internal arrangements of all the vessels are planned, with the object of providing for the comfort and accommodation of the public, in the way best calculated to mitigate, and, as far as possible, to prevent, the sufferings often accompanying the passage of the Irish Channel. In this and in most other respects, great success has attended the objects their designers had in view. Their saloons and cabins are large, lofty, and well ventilated; the principal one being upwards of 60 feet in length by 17 feet in breadth, and 9 feet 6 inches in height. Nor have these magnificent vessels failed to meet the requirements of Government. The regularity of their voyages has been surprising;[450] and I am not aware of any loss of life or property which has occurred in connection with them since they started in 1860.
Dover and Calais Mail Packets.
The Victoria.
Her speed.
Among the numerous other steamers now employed in the short voyage mail service, may be mentioned the small swift vessels running between Calais and Dover, Folkestone and Boulogne, Dover and Ostend, as well as between Southampton and the coasts of France, the Channel Islands, Jersey and Guernsey. They are beautiful boats of their class, and, considering their size and the rough weather they are frequently obliged to encounter, they perform their respective passages with remarkable speed and regularity. It is a rare occurrence for these packet-boats to be detained by a storm; and the manner in which they dash out of Dover or Calais harbours, at almost full speed, against a strong gale and an angry cross sea, shows that, if the British sailor has, from want of practice, deteriorated in seamanship, he has lost none of his native pluck. I know no more spirited and daring men than the masters of most of these small mail steam-packets, unless it be the Deal boatmen. They are cool and unruffled, while the smart little craft under their charge forces its way through the waves at the rate of twelve or thirteen miles an hour in the face of a gale which a landsman would describe as a “violent storm.”
On the [next page] is an excellent illustration of one of these vessels on her passage from Folkestone to Boulogne.
This smart vessel, the Victoria (well known no doubt to many of my readers), was built by Samuda, and her engines by Penn. On her trial trip over the measured mile, she attained a speed of 16½ knots or upwards of 18 statute miles an hour, which has been well maintained on the service in which she is engaged.[451]