The Great Western Steamship Company having, so far back as 1838, resolved to build a second ship much larger than their first, aimed at realizing in her the greatest improvements the art of naval construction could then command. Nor were they disappointed in their expectations, the Great Britain when launched being not merely much the largest, but also the finest vessel up to that period built for ocean steam navigation.[184]
Building of the Great Britain iron-ship, 1843.
In proportion to all other vessels hitherto constructed of iron, the dimensions of the Great Britain were altogether colossal and, at the time, she excited quite as much public interest as that vast leviathan, the Great Eastern, did at a later period. She was built at Bristol, and her lines were furnished by Mr. Patterson of that place, who had planned and constructed the Great Western. Nor was the public interest in her at all lessened when it became known that, though originally intended for a paddle-wheel steamer, her builder had boldly resolved to adopt the screw, then comparatively little known as a means of propulsion.
Advantages of iron ships.
As there were still many unbelievers in the suitability of iron, for the construction of sea-going vessels, and still more who had no faith whatever in the value of the screw, this second step in advance on the part of the directors of the Great Western Steamship Company led to much discussion among scientific men, and created many evil forebodings as to the ultimate fate of the Great Britain, all of which she, however, falsified. On her passage from Bristol to the Thames, though she encountered very severe weather, she braved the storm in a manner (see [following illustration],) which ought to have silenced for ever the opponents of iron as a suitable material for the construction of vessels of every description, as well as those men of science who still, and for many years afterwards, maintained that the screw, under all circumstances, was an inferior motive power to that of the paddle-wheel.
STEAMER “GREAT BRITAIN” OFF LUNDY ISLAND.
So great, indeed, was the interest felt in this vessel that, on her arrival in the Thames, Her Majesty and Prince Albert with great numbers of the nobility, and thousands of other persons, paid her a visit. Nor was her fame confined to England, forming as she did the subject of discussion among the learned and scientific societies of Europe, which was taken up with unusual fervour in the United States of America when it became known that she was to be employed as one of the Transatlantic steamers destined to eclipse the still celebrated American sailing clippers.[185]
American auxiliary screw-steamer Massachusetts, 1845.
Though the Americans continued with undaunted courage their lines of sailing packets, every year, increasing their dimension, and improving by every possible means their speed and seagoing qualities, they saw the most valuable portions of their trade (first-class passengers and fine goods) passing into the hands of British steamers. Resolving if possible to maintain their position, they, with that genius, and ready adaptation of means to an end peculiarly their own, fitted a steam-engine into one of their sailing-vessels, and were therefore the first to apply the auxiliary screw to ocean navigation, as they had been the first to cross the Atlantic with steam. They knew that when the wind was strong and favourable, their celebrated ships could, with their sails alone, surpass in speed any ocean steamers then afloat, and they thought that if they could introduce, at a moderate cost and with comparatively small current expenses, a steam-engine to propel their sailing-packets when the wind failed, or when entering port or passing through narrow channels, they would be enabled to hold their ground against their now formidable rivals. Consequently, they sent forth, in the autumn of 1845, their auxiliary steam-packet ship Massachusetts,[186] of which the following is an illustration.