The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Civil Engineer Part 29

[Ill.u.s.tration: [Fig. 14.]]

And now for the screw of which I am constantly thinking, and in the success of which for the 'Great Britain,' remember, I am even more deeply interested than you.

If all goes well we shall all gain credit, but '_quod scriptum est manet_,' if the result disappoint anybody, my written report will be remembered by everybody, and I shall have to bear the storm--and all that spite and revenge can do at the Admiralty will be done!

The words 'better sailing qualities than could be given to the "Polyphemus,"' which I used in my first report to the Admiralty, I believe have never been forgotten.

Well, the result of all my anxious thoughts--for I a.s.sure you I feel more anxious about this than about most things I have had to do with--is first that we must adopt as _a principle not to be departed from_, that all mechanical difficulties of construction must give way, must in fact be lost sight of in determining the most perfect form--if we find that the screw determined upon _cannot_ be made (but what cannot be done?), then it is quite time enough to try another form; though even then _my_ rule would be to try _again_ at making it....

The 'Great Britain' was built wider than the locks through which she would have to pa.s.s, as it was supposed that the Dock Company would allow them to be temporarily widened.[132]

After a good deal of discussion, negotiations were satisfactorily concluded, and the requisite alterations were made: the ship pa.s.sed through into c.u.mberland Basin, and the upper lock was restored to its original state in a few days.

On December 10, everything was ready for her pa.s.sing into the Avon through the lower lock. A steam-tug commenced towing her at high water, but, before she had moved half her length in the lock, it became evident to Captain Claxton, who was on board the tug, that there was not an inch to spare; she was touching the lock walls on either side--in fact, she had stuck between the copings. Upon this he gave orders to haul her back again as quickly as possible. This was hardly effected before the tide began to fall; a few minutes later, and the ship would have remained jammed in the entrance.

As the tides had pa.s.sed their highest, it was necessary immediately to widen the lock, in order not to lose the spring tide; and this was accomplished under Mr. Brunel's superintendence, just in time to get the vessel through that night.

Mr. Brunel described this occurrence in the following letter, written to excuse himself from keeping an important engagement in Wales:--

December 11, 1844.

We have had an unexpected difficulty with the 'Great Britain' this morning. She stuck in the lock; we _did_ get her back. I have been hard at work all day altering the masonry of the lock. To night, our last tide, we have succeeded in getting her through; but, being dark, we have been obliged to ground her outside, and I confess I cannot leave her till I see her afloat again, and all clear of her difficulties. I have, as you will admit, much at stake here, and I am too anxious about it to leave her.

The 'Great Britain,' after making several experimental trips, sailed for London on January 23, 1845, and, although she experienced very severe weather, made an average speed of 12? knots an hour.

The excitement caused by her arrival at Blackwall was very great.

Thousands of persons flocked to see her, and she was honoured by a visit from Her Majesty and His Royal Highness Prince Albert.

She left Liverpool on her first voyage on August 26, and arrived at New York on September 10, having made the pa.s.sage out in fourteen days and twenty-one hours. She made her return pa.s.sage in fifteen days and a half.

She started again in October, taking sixteen days and a half across. On her homeward pa.s.sage, she broke her screw, and got home under canvas after eighteen days of rough weather which fully tested her sailing qualities.

The experience of these voyages showed that the supply of steam from the boilers was defective; the necessary alterations were carried out during the winter months, and the ship was fitted with a new screw.

In the beginning of 1846, everything seemed to promise well for the success of the 'Great Britain.' She started on May 9, with her full complement of pa.s.sengers and cargo, but again an accident happened, which prevented this pa.s.sage from affording a trial of her steaming power. On May 13, the guard of the after air-pump broke; but up to that time her speed had averaged eleven and three-quarters knots.

She returned from New York in thirteen days and six hours, against adverse winds for ten days, with a speed varying from eight and a half to twelve knots. On one day of her voyage, June 13, she ran 330 knots in the twenty-four hours, or nearly sixteen statute miles an hour. This was said to have been the quickest pa.s.sage which had, up to that time, been made under similar circ.u.mstances of wind and weather.

She left Liverpool again at the beginning of July, and arrived at New York in thirteen days and eight hours, or, deducting stoppages, in twelve days and eleven hours--the shortest pa.s.sage then and for some time afterwards recorded. Her homeward pa.s.sage was accomplished in thirteen days, including a stoppage of eighteen hours to repair the driving chains which had been damaged.

She started again from Liverpool on her outward voyage on the morning of September 22, 1846, having on board 180 pa.s.sengers (a larger number than had ever before started to cross the Atlantic in a steamer), and a considerable quant.i.ty of freight. A few hours after her departure, and at a time when it was supposed that she was rounding the Isle of Man, the ship ran ash.o.r.e, and all immediate efforts to get her off were unavailing. When daylight came, the captain found, to his surprise, that she was in Dundrum Bay, on the north-east coast of Ireland. The pa.s.sengers were landed safely when the tide ebbed.

Captain Claxton, the managing Director of the Company, went at once to the ship. He found her lying at the bottom of a deep and extensive bay; the ground on which she rested had an upper surface of sand, but underneath this were numerous detached rocks. The ship had settled down upon two of them, and had knocked holes in her bottom. Her head lay NW., leaving her stern and port quarter exposed to a heavy sea, which, at Dundrum, always accompanies southerly gales.

When Captain Claxton got to the ship, he made arrangements for trying to get her off at the next spring tides, which were on the following Monday (September 28); but on the Sunday, a gale of wind from the southward sprung up, and at the night flood-tide the water broke over her; nothing remained to be done but to drive the ship higher up the beach into a position of greater safety. Sails were therefore set, and she was driven forward a considerable distance.

Mr. Patterson was sent by the Directors to Dundrum with Mr. Alexander Bremner (who had had considerable experience in floating stranded ships), and they endeavoured to protect the vessel by breakwaters.

These, however, were soon carried away; and, after this misfortune, the Directors seem for a time to have lost all hope of saving their ship.

On December 8, when the immediate pressure of Parliamentary work was over, Mr. Brunel went to Dundrum, having some time before been requested by the Directors and underwriters to examine and report on the ship. He was delighted, he said, in spite of all the discouraging accounts he had received, to find the 'Great Britain' 'almost as sound as the day she was launched, and ten times stronger and sounder in character,' though at the same time he was grieved to see her 'lying unprotected, deserted, and abandoned.'

Whatever may have been the misgivings of others, he felt no doubt as to the possibility of saving the ship, by at once protecting her by a breakwater made of f.a.gots; and before he left Dundrum he set Captain Hosken at work at the new arrangements, and he guaranteed the immediate expense in the event of the Directors not sanctioning the measure.

Immediately on his return to town, he wrote the following somewhat vigorous letter to Captain Claxton:--

December 10, 1846.

I have returned from Dundrum with very mixed feelings of satisfaction and pain, almost amounting to anger, with whom I don't know. I was delighted to find our fine ship, in spite of all the discouraging accounts received, even from you, almost as sound as the day she was launched, and ten times stronger and sounder in character. I was grieved to see this fine ship lying unprotected, deserted and abandoned by all those who ought to know her value, and ought to have protected her, instead of being humbugged by schemers and underwriters. Don't let me be understood as wishing to read a lecture to our Directors; but the result, whoever is to blame, is, at least in my opinion, that the finest ship in the world, in excellent condition, such that 4,000_l._ or 5,000_l._ would repair all the damage done, has been left, and is lying, like a useless saucepan kicking about on the most exposed sh.o.r.e that you can imagine, with no more effort or skill applied to protect the property than the said saucepan would have received on the beach at Brighton. Does the ship belong to the Company? For protection, if not for removal, is the Company free to act without the underwriters? If we are in this position, and if we have ordinary luck from storms for the next three weeks, I have little or no anxiety about the ship; but if the Company is not free to act as they like in protecting her, and in preventing our property being thrown away by trusting to schemers, then please write off immediately to Hosken to stop his proceeding with my plans, because I took the pecuniary responsibility of the cost of what I ordered until he could hear from you, and of course I do not want to incur useless expense, but still more I do not wish any proceeding taken as from me to be afterwards stopped. I will now describe as nearly as I can what I have seen, and what I think.

As to the state of the ship, she is as straight and as sound as she ever was, as a whole. She is resting and working upon rocks, which have broken in at several places, and forced up perhaps 12 to 18 inches many parts of the bottom, from the fore stoke-hole to about the centre of the engines, lifting the boilers about 15 inches and the condenser of the fore engine about 6 or 8 inches; the after-condenser, perhaps, half an inch. The lifting of the fore-condenser has broken that air-pump, the connecting rod having been unwisely left in, and the crank being at the bottom of the stroke. Of course the air-pump could not help being broken; except this, the whole vessel, machinery, &c., are perfect. I told you that Hosken's drawing was a proof, to my eye, that the ship was not broken: the first glimpse of her satisfied me that all the part above her 5 or 6 feet water line is as true as ever. It is beautiful to look at, and really how she can be talked of in the way she has been, even by you, I cannot understand. It is positively cruel; it would be like talking away the character of a young woman without any grounds whatever.

The ship is perfect, except that at one part the bottom is much bruised, and knocked in holes in several places. But even within three feet of the damaged part there is no strain or injury whatever. I think it very likely that she may have started leaks where she has been pounding away upon the rocks, but nothing more; and as I said before, all above her 5 or 6 feet water line is uninjured, except her overhanging stern; there is some slight damage to this, not otherwise important than as pointing out the necessity of some precautions if she is to be saved. I say 'if,'

for really when I saw a vessel still in perfect condition left to the tender mercies of an awfully exposed sh.o.r.e for weeks, while a parcel of quacks are amusing you with schemes for getting her off, she in the meantime being left to go to pieces, I could hardly help feeling as if her own parents and guardians meant her to die there.

Why, no man in his senses can dream of calculating upon less than three months for the execution of any rational scheme of getting her off; and no man in his senses, I should think, would dream of taking her across the channel in the winter months, even if he had got the camels or floats fast. Of this I don't feel so competent to form an opinion, though I think I can judge, and I should consider it a wanton throwing away of my shares if the Directors allowed her to be taken out, even if afloat; but at all events I am competent to judge of the probable time occupied in getting means to float her, and I maintain that it would be absurd to calculate upon less than two or three months. It is not therefore the mode of getting her off that we ought to have been all this time thinking of, but how to keep her where she is. I feel so strongly on this point that I feel quite angry. What are we doing? What are we wasting precious time about? The steed is being quietly stolen while we are discussing the relative merits of a Bramah or a Chubb's lock to be put on at some future time! It is really shocking.

Having expended a little of my feeling, I will tell you what I have done, and what I should recommend.

First, instantly to disconnect the engines and air-pumps, and remove all the working gear, so at least to leave the mischief to the lower part. By the bye, the cylinders are not disturbed or hurt in any way at present, but with the engines exactly at the bottom of the stroke, and the connecting rods on, it is a wonder they are not. If the air-pump had been disconnected it would not have been broken. I have taken upon myself to order this.

Secondly, I suggested to Hosken, in which he quite agreed with me, to take off all strain from her extreme stern. At present she has cables out from this prodigious ma.s.s overhanging nearly 30 feet from any part capable of bearing the strain.

I recommend his taking the chain cables through the ship's side, and making them fast with a spar or timber outside the starboard side, about as far forward as the capstan. At present she is canted seaward.

I thought she was better so than presenting the hollow lines of her quarter to the sea, and both Hosken and Bremner came round to my opinion.

Thirdly, there is a stream of water which now washes away the sand from her bottom. I think it essential this should be diverted, and kept so.

Fourthly, my plan for protecting her is totally different from any that have been proposed, and if we have not such excessively bad weather as would prevent anything being done, I believe it may easily be done. And if done will, I am convinced, be perfectly good; while any solid timbering, even if made, would, I think, be most likely the cause itself of tremendous damage, if once beat by the sea. I will only premise by saying that both Hosken and Bremner came to the conclusion that it was the best thing that could be done.

I should stack a ma.s.s of large strong f.a.gots lashed together, skewered together with iron rods, weighted down with iron, sandbags, &c., wrapping the whole round with chains, just like a huge poultice under her quarters, round under her stern, and half way up her length on the sea side.

The detail of the mode, and the precautions of detail, I have not time now to describe. I am as certain as I can be of anything that, once made, such a ma.s.s of f.a.gots would stand any sea for the next six months, and the chances of making it (after one or two failures, no doubt) are so good, that if properly taken in hand, I look upon it as certain. I will write more fully to-morrow--in the meantime I have ordered the f.a.gots to be begun delivering. I went myself with Hosken to Lord Roden's agent about it, and I hope they are already beginning to deliver them. Write and stop them or not--if not, of course my responsibility ceases. I will write again to-morrow, but let me know by train how we stand with the underwriters.

This letter was a few days later supplemented by the following formal report to the Directors, which was printed and circulated amongst the proprietors.

December 14, 1846.

According to your request I have, as soon as my engagements would allow of my leaving London, paid a visit to the 'Great Britain,'

and I now beg to report to you the state in which I found the vessel, and my opinion of the best means to be taken for recovering the largest possible amount of the property invested in her. If I state these opinions concisely, and without any qualifications, you will not suppose that I have the presumption to think them infallible, but merely that I am compelled, by the shortness of the time left me to write to you, to avoid all circ.u.mlocution, and to give you as simply and briefly as possible the opinions I have formed--at the same time I am bound to say that I have not formed them hastily, and that my convictions upon the several points upon which I may express my feelings are very strong.

First, as regards the present state of the vessel, I was agreeably disappointed, after the reports that had reached me, to find her as a whole, and, independently of the mere local damages of which I will speak presently, perfectly sound, and as strong and as perfect in form as on the day she was launched.

In receiving this statement you must bear in mind the great difference between an iron vessel and a timber-built ship. In the former, parts may be considerably damaged or even destroyed, and the remainder may not only be untouched, but may be left unstrained and uninjured. In a timber ship this can hardly be the case; if any considerable portion of a ship's bottom is stove in, the timbers or ribs completely across the ship and the planking longitudinally, cannot fail to be strained to a very considerable distance in both directions. You must therefore remove from your minds all impressions derived from your experience of damages sustained by timber-built ships in order to understand my statement, which is strictly correct:--that, except the parts actually damaged, the extent of which is comparatively small, the ship is perfectly sound, and as good as at the hour when she struck. This soundness and freedom from any damage extends from about the 5 feet water line to the top (with the exception of the injury sustained by the knocking away of the rudder post and a blow under the stern); nearly the whole of the vessel is therefore sound: the princ.i.p.al injury is in her bottom under the boilers and engines. The vessel has evidently been thumping upon the rocks, and almost entirely upon this part of the bottom from the first few days after she grounded; and at present in all probability her whole weight is resting upon this part; yet notwithstanding this she is perfectly straight, and has not broken nor even sprung an inch in the whole length. The boilers have been forced up about 15 inches, and one of the condensers has been lifted about 8 inches, breaking the air-pump. At present this is nearly the extent of the damage done; all of which could easily be repaired if the vessel were in dock.

I will now state my opinion of the best means of recovering the largest possible amount of the property which has been invested in her. In this view I can only imagine two alternatives--the one to break her up on the spot and make the most of the materials; the other to get her afloat and into port, and restore her into good condition, or sell her to those who would so restore her.