Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SHIP. 317 Scott Russell were jointly responsible for the design. The vessel was propelled by both paddle and single-screw engines, and the following table gives her leading particulars as constructed :— of construction then in operation. We give an outline cross-section showing the principal structural features of the Great Eastern, and, by way of comparison, a section of the Cunard liner Lusitania has been drawn alongside. In THE “GREAT eastern” (1858) IN THE THAMES. (Reproduced from the “Illustrated London News," 1859.) Length between perpendiculars........... 680 feet. Length at upper deck.................... 692 feet. Extreme breadth of hull.................. 83 feet. Breadth over paddle-boxes............... 120 feet. Depth from upper deck to keel............... 58 feet. Loaded draught of water.................. 30 feet. Gross tonnage.........................18,914 tons. Weight of iron used in construction...10,000 tons. Coal and cargo carried................18,000 tons. Nominal horse-power of paddle engines........ 1,000. Nominal horse-power of screw engines......... 1,600. Accommodation for first-class passengers.... 800 , , second-class passengers..2,000 „ third-class passengers...1,200 „ crew...................... 400 Total number of passengers and crew.... 4,400 The construction of such a vessel naturally involved many departures from the principles the former vessel Mr. Scott Russell’s system of longitudinal framing was adopted—that is, the frames or ribs extended from end to end of the ship, and not from the keel to the deck, or transversely, as in the method of construc- tion now almost universally followed. Numer- ous iron bulkheads or partitions, both trans- verse and longitudinal, were fitted, serving to strengthen the hull and to divide it into separate water-tight compartments. The uppermost deck, the bottom, and a large por- tion of the sides of the ship were constructed on the cellular principle, the inner bottom and inner sides constituting what was practically