Note 384 — Chapter XII

This vessel was built by Messrs. M. Pearce and Company, of Stockton-on-Tees, and her principal dimensions are as follows: length over all, 377 feet; beam, 46; breadth over paddle-boxes, 74; depth of hold, 5 feet; working draught of water, 2 feet; displacement at 2-feet draught, 739 tons. The engines (built by Messrs. James Watt and Co., of London and Birmingham) are 220 nominal horse-power, having horizontal cylinders of 55 inches diameter, and 6-feet stroke, and the diameter of the paddle-wheels is 26 feet. The hull of the vessel is constructed of puddled steel, and is strengthened longitudinally by four arched girders, two of which carry the paddle-wheels, while the other two run fore and aft, extending nearly the whole length of the ship. Similar means are employed for strengthening the vessel athwartships. She is steered at each end by means of “blades,” which, instead of being worked from side to side in the ordinary manner of rudders, are made to rise out of, or lower into, the water at the proper angle. Both sets of these “steering-blades” are worked simultaneously, but provision is made to work one set only, should an accident occur to the other.