The King Coal, which was contracted for in the latter end of the year 1870, cost complete for sea 15,000l. She carries 900 tons coal cargo, with bunker space for 100 tons more, and has extra water-ballast for making a passage when she has no cargo on board; against strong winds her speed is 8½ knots an hour when loaded, and from 9½ to 10 knots when light in fine weather; her power, 90 horse nominal. She has an excellent saloon cabin on deck for the captain, with four berths and accommodation for the chief mate and steward at the entrance; her crew consists of 17 persons all told. The master and crew find themselves in provisions; their respective duties and pay are as follows:—

Master£17 0 0 per month, with2s. 6d. per day subsistence money.
1st Mate7 10 0 ” ” 2 0 ” ”
2nd Mate6 10 0 ” ” 1 6 ” ”
Chief Engineer12 7 6 ” ” 2 6 ” ”
2nd Engineer8 15 0 ” ” 2 0 ” ”
Steward5 10 0 ” ” 1 6 ” ”
5 Able Seamen6 15 0 ”in full each man.
4 Stokers6 15 0 ” ”
1 Boy 3 0 0 ” ”
1 Carpenter 8 5 0 ” ”

The voyage from Newcastle to London and back usually occupies from six to eight days. Hoisting sails, lifting anchor, and other heavy work is done by steam winches. The crew are accommodated in a roomy and well ventilated forecastle level with the main deck, the seamen occupying one side of it, the stokers the other, with a bulkhead between them. The engineers have cabins on deck in the bridge-house, the wheel-house stands on the platform which spans the deck in midships, and is so arranged that, while the helmsman can see everything ahead, he is protected from the inclemency of the weather.

[445] See [ante, vol. ii. p. 536].

[446] These celebrated smacks were from 160 to 200 tons register. In the early part of this century (before the close of the great war) they sailed in company for protection. On one occasion they were attacked by a French privateer, heavily armed, to which they gave action, and, after a severe encounter, beat her off in gallant style; the senior captain, Nesbitt, acting as “Commodore” of the little fleet. Each of these smacks had accommodation for about twenty first-class passengers. The passage between Leith and London, a distance of 500 miles, usually occupied from three to five days, but has been made in fifty hours, although it was not, unfrequently, protracted from eight to twenty days. The first-class fare, including a table “groaning with food,” but exclusive of wine, spirits, or beer, was only two guineas each person; a rate which must have left little profit on long passages.

[447] After the cessation of the sailing packets, and before the opening of the Holyhead Railway, the Dublin Mail was for some years carried viâ Liverpool by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company.

[448] These celebrated ships are built of iron. The length between the perpendiculars is 334 feet; the beam is 35 feet, and depth 21 feet. There is a centre keel plate, 3 feet deep and ⅝ inch thick, with two bars, 9 inches deep by ⅝ inch thick, on each side at the bottom forming also the keelson; the plate, with the two garboard strakes, ⅞ inch thick each, are secured together with iron bolts riveted and countersunk. On the top of the centre keel plate, two angle-iron bars are riveted, 5 inches by 4 inches by ½ inch, and to these angle irons, and to the angle irons on the top of the floorings throughout the entire length of the vessel, as far as the fine ends will allow, is riveted a strong plate, 4 feet wide amidships, and 2 feet 6 inches wide at the ends. There are, also, two very strong box keelsons, secured on the floorings at each side of the keel, and another in each bilge. The engine bed-plates, paddle and spring beams, and all other beams for the main and lower decks, are of iron. Timber has been used only for the decks and cabin fittings. There are nine principal iron water-tight bulkheads, which not only provide for the safety of the ship in case of accident, but add greatly to her strength in a seaway. The bulwarks are of iron plates, in continuation of the sides of the vessel to the rail, and without any break for gangways, such not being required for landing either at Holyhead or at Kingstown. To give additional strength in the centre of the vessel, where the weight of the engines, wheels, and boilers has to be carried, the insides of the paddle-boxes are also formed of iron plates, continued from the sides and bulwarks of the vessel, with a strong bow girder, formed of an iron plate 15 inches broad and ¾ inch thick, so as to provide ample means of resistance to the severe shocks which these long vessels must encounter in rough seas, when driven at their high rate of speed. The gunwale is formed of angle-iron bars, 4 inches by 4 inches, riveted to the sheer strake and to a plate which is riveted on the top of the beams. At a distance of about 15 inches from this, an inner angle bar is riveted, against which the wooden waterway is fitted, so as to leave the outer part, between this and the gunwale, to form a drain to take the water off the deck, and to discharge it through the scuppers. This arrangement, which was introduced by the late Mr. John Laird, has been found very convenient in freeing the decks quickly from water. These iron gunwale plates are 5 feet wide by ¾ inch thick amidships, tapering gradually to about 2 feet 6 inches by ½ inch at the ends, with a system of diagonal tie plating from side to side, securely bolted or riveted to the deck beams. Between the paddle-boxes an upper deck, about 50 feet in length, has been placed.

[449] Each of these vessels cost somewhere about 80,000l., complete in all respects for sea.

[450] See [Appendix No. 26, p. 644].

[451] The dimensions of the Victoria are as follows: length 200 feet, breadth 24 feet, and depth 12½ feet; she is 566 tons gross or builders’ measurement; her engines are 220 horse-power nominal, and her draught of water 6½ feet.