Note 163 — Chapter III

In 1833, Mr. Randall designed and built the Wisconsin, 218 feet in length and 38 feet in width, at Detroit, Michigan, and ran her successfully, under his own command, through three of the lakes between Buffalo and Chicago, carrying freight and passengers, in spite of strong head winds, on round trips of 2000 miles, averaging a speed quite as great as the maximum contemplated many years afterwards by the projectors of the Great Eastern. In 1845 he designed and navigated in the same trade the Empire of 251 feet in length, with a beam of 38 feet, at an average speed of 16 statute miles per hour. Soon afterwards the City of Buffalo and the Western Metropolis, constructed according to his design, were sent afloat. They were sister ships, each 340 feet in length with a beam of 42 feet, and far in advance of any ship England had then afloat, while their draught of water, when laden, was only 9½ feet. By a report which appeared in the Cleveland Herald (U.S.) [and there is no reason to doubt its accuracy], the trip between Buffalo and Cleveland was made at an average speed of 21 miles an hour by the Metropolis, while the City of Buffalo made a similar voyage, averaging still greater speed in the ordinary course of trade. Nor were Mr. Randall’s practical experiments in vessels of similar model and design confined to the lakes, for he commanded the Yankee Blade, a vessel of still larger dimensions, with a draft of 11 feet of water, on her voyage from New York to California round Cape Horn, encountering, successfully, a gale in which many vessels foundered; afterwards, he continued to ply with her for some years on the station between San Francisco and Panama.