THE GREAT EASTERN STEAM-SHIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 401, 6 August 1859, Page 6

THE GREAT EASTERN STEAM-SHIP.

The Great Ship Company have been definitely formed for the purpose of purchasing the Great Eastern and completing her equipment, and all the necessary arrangements connected with the transfer of the ship having been made complete, active steps are now being taken in order to have the vessel ready for sea by the latter end of July or the beginning of August. Several hundred workmen are busily engaged in every part of the ship, and they proceed with their labours undisturbed by the presence of any visitors on board. The new company, as many of our readers are aware, was formed, after every attempt had been made on the part of the Great Eastern Steam Navigation Company to obtain the necessary funds for the completion of the ship. The original company was most unfortunate in every step which they took, from the first commencement of the great work to its ever memorable attempts at launching. A short time since we gave the details of the expenditure, showing that the total amounts v which had been spent upon the hull as it lay in the river had been nearly twice as much as would hare sufficed to complete aud equip the ship for sea under more favourable circumstances. A sum of about £ 120,000 was required to complete the fittings and engines of the ship, and a further sum of nearly £100,000 was then needed to pay off liabilities due to contractors and others. The old company had no power to raise, and many of the shareholders were unwilling to subscribe more capital, and the only mode of extricating the company from its difficulties was the formation of a new company which should take the ship at a price to be agreed upon, and get it ready for sea, as quickly as possible. This has been done, and there is no doubt that the great ship will start to sea about the middle of August. It has been finally decided that Portland, in the State of Maine, shall be the port to which the Great Eastern will make ita first voyage. The great shaft, weighing upwards of 30 tons, was some time since put on board. Since that time the fitting of the machinery has progressed rapidly, and one of the masts will be set up in the course of a few days. The mast is now lying alongside the ship, and the shears are prepared for hoisting it into its place. There will be six masts to the ship, three of iron and three of wood. Those in the neighbourhood of the funnels will be of iron, the foremasts of wood. The necessity of having iron masts will be readily understood when it is remembered that the furnaces, burning some 250 tons of coal per day, will send enormous heat through the monster funnels. It would of course be impossible to have wooden masts of the size required of one block of timber ; and, as is the case with all large masts, they would have to be made in separate pieces to contract, and the joints opening would render them pervious to rain, and in a few months the masts would become thoroughly rotten at the core. Iro'h masts are, therefore, not only a necessity, but they possess, iv point of lightness as well as of strength, advantages over those made of wood. The masts are formed of wrought-iron boiler plates, riveted in the some manner as the hull of the ship. The tallest of the six masts is 170 feet, and the shortest 130 feet ; each of them is three feet four inches in diameter at the base, and their total weight will range from 30 for the smallest to 40 tons for the largest, and this exclusive of the- yards or rigging. The foot of each mast will rest in a square column

of boiler plate iron, built up from the keel through all the series of decks to the upper one. It happens at times that it is necessary to cut away the masts, and when they are of timber there is an obvious mode of accomplishing this object. Masts of iron do not, however, afford the same facilities, but this difficulty is to be overcome by a screw of enormous power, which, placed on the deck and attached to the masts, will, when set in motion, crush in the iron sides, and let the towering iron columns fall overboard. A very ingenious arrangement for fastening the rigging to the masts is to be adopted, which, in the event of its being necessary to send the masts overboard, will afford facilities for immediately letting go all the ropes. The shrouds and stays will be secured to iron rings so constructed as readily to open when required, but on other occasions holding with a firmness which defies any amount of strain which might be brought to bear upon them. The main and top-mast yards of the square-rigged masta will be of iron, and the length of the main yard 120 feet, or very nearly forty feet longer, and several times as strong as the main yard of the largest line-of-battle ship afloat. We believe it is intended before the ship finally puts to sea to afford the public an opportunity of inspecting the interior. We may also add that all the necessary works will be finished for a sum considerably within the amount which was very generally supposed to be necessary for that purpose.