GREAT EASTERN. At the time of her con struction, the largest ship in the world. It was not until 1901, when the Celtic was completed, that her equal in size was produced. She was never a financial success, having been built when the trade and conditions suitable to a ship of her size did not exist. In 1852 an Eastern Steam Navigation Company was formed, to maintain an ocean steam route to the East round the Cape of Good Hope. In 1853 the directors came to a conclusion that, owing to the cost of maintaining coaling stations on the way, such a route would not pay unless the ship could carry coal enough for the voyage out and home, besides a large number of passengers and a great cargo. The scheme was for a ship that would accommodate 1000 passengers, 5000 tons of merchandise, and 15,000 tons of coal for fuel. The result was the construction of the Great Eastern. Her arrange ments (setting aside later alterations) were brief ly as follows: Length, 680 feet between perpen diculars, or 692 feet upper deck; breadth, 83 feet, or 118 over paddle-boxes; height of hull, 60 feet, or 70 to top of bulwarks. The propelling power comprised both paddle and screw. The paddle engines had 4 boilers, each with 400 brass flue tubes; there were 4 engines, with cylinders of 14-feet stroke and 74 inches diameter; the paddle wheels were 56 feet diameter by 13 deep, with 30 arms or radii. The screw engines had 6 boilers; the 4 engines had cylinders, each 4 feet stroke by 84 inches diameter, with piston-rods inches thick; the propeller-shaft was 160 feet long, and in some parts 24 inches in diame ter, with a screw propeller 24 feet in diameter. The vast wall-sided compartments of the ship had facilities for conversion into cabins for 800 saloon passengers, 2000 second class, 1200 third class, and 400 officers and crew; or 5000 might and the voyage abruptly came to an end at Wey mouth. The ship started again on June 17, 1860, from Southampton, and crossed the Atlantic in eleven days, reaching New York on the 28th. Continuing on this route during the remainder of 1860 and the greater part of 1861, she made many voyages to and fro, continually losing money for the owners and constantly requiring repairs. In December, when political relations with the United States looked ominous, the Great Eastern served as a troop-ship.
In 1864 negotiations were entered into with the Atlantic Telegraph Company and the Tele graph Construction and Maintenance Company for the employment of the Great Eastern as a cable-laying ship, and the arrangement and ser vices of the ship in 1865 and 1866 will be found briefly noticed under ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. In 1867 the vessel was reconverted from a cable laying to a passenger ship, in order to provide for the travel to the Paris Exposition, and extensive renewals of machinery were made. The ship started from Liverpool for New York in May; but the speculation proved an utter failure.
In 1868 a new arrangement was made by which the ship was to be permanently chartered by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Com pany. The name, which had been changed from Leviathan to Great Eastern, and then to Great Ship, was again changed to Great Eastern. Be tween 1869 and 1874 the Great Eastern success fully laid some of the most important telegraphic cables—across the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea, etc.; in 1884, became a coal hulk in the harbor of Gibraltar; in 1887 was sold, to be broken up, for $82,500.
The following table gives a comparative state ment as to the more recently built steamships, showing the proportionate developments: have been accommodated in all, if emigrants or troops.
Twenty years of the ship's history presented a singular series of vicissitudes. During 1854-57 its building proceeded at Millwall. By Novem ber of the latter year the ship had advanced to the launching condition. Either the ship was too heavy (12,000 tons) or the slope was too gradual, for it required various attempts, be tween November 3, 1857, and January 31, 1858, and an expenditure of £60,000, to effect the launching. During 1858 and 1859 the work con tinued as fast as the company could supply money. Uncertain how far the original intention of a trade to and from Australia could be re alized, the directors determined on a trial trip across the Atlantic. It was a disaster. The ship left the Thames September 8, 1859. An ex plosion of steam-pipes took place off Hastings; seven persons were killed and several wounded,