LONGITUDINAL SECTION
DIMENSIONS
| LENGTH | 450 | feet |
| BEAM | 57 | ” |
| DEPTH of HOLD | 14 | ” |
| DRAUGHT | 12 | ” |
| FREEBOARD | 8½ | ” |
| SECTION OF BOAT & HOIST | TRANSVERSE SECTION |
| Showing Carriages being run on board | |
CHANNEL PACKET PROPOSED BY MR. FOWLER, C.E.
But in order that my readers may more clearly understand Mr. Fowler’s proposal, I furnish ([page 559]) longitudinal and transverse sections of the boat he contemplates, with an illustration of the mode by which the carriages are to be transferred from the lines of railway on board the vessel, and, in a footnote,[453] his explanatory remarks. Further explanations will be found in detail by reference to the evidence given before a Committee of the House of Lords, but the more important points of that evidence with the number of the question is supplied herewith.[454]
The other boats, which have been already built, do not contemplate the transport of the railway carriages, but are simply meant to afford an easier mode of transit for passengers than at present exists.
The first, planned by Captain Dicey, formerly Master Attendant at the port of Calcutta, proposed, according to the prospectus issued by the company, “To provide ample accommodation for all classes of passengers under shelter as well as on deck; to reduce the motion of rolling and pitching of the vessel to a minimum; and to keep the draught of water of the vessel to 6 feet, so that she may enter the ports on either side of the channel at all hours of the tide.”
The Castalia.
To accomplish these objects, the company has built, at the Thames Iron Works, a ship named the Castalia, which may be roughly described as the two halves of a longitudinally divided hull, 290 feet long, placed 26 feet apart, and strongly bound together by a system of girders upon which is erected, as may be seen by the [following woodcut], a raised deck inclosing cabin space. Under this deck in the water-way between the halves of the hull, work a pair of paddle-wheels side by side upon two separate shafts so that each wheel can be worked independently; these wheels are driven by two pairs of engines, one pair in each half of the vessel. The division and separation of the hull provides a deck of no less than 60 feet in width, with a stability much greater than any ordinary vessel possesses. Before and behind the engine, there are various state saloons inclosed by the hurricane deck, running the whole width of the vessel. These spacious rooms are handsomely decorated, and provide various comforts seldom attainable at sea, while the top platform affords a magnificent promenade 14 feet above the level of the water-line. There are, also, decks below running fore and aft to within a few feet of the double bow or stem in the separate hulls. The Castalia has accommodation for somewhere about 1000 passengers. Her estimated cost was only 60,000l., but the actual outlay must have been considerably in excess of that sum. Captain Dicey states that, in designing this vessel, he was in some measure guided by the performances of the “outriggers” that ply in the harbour of Galle—“long cranky boats hollowed out of tree-trunks, and steadied in the water by a log of timber fixed to the end of two wooden outriggers which project some way from the vessel’s side.”[455]