The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Civil Engineer Part 45

The engineers and scientific men on board the 'Great Eastern' drew up a memorandum as to the results of this expedition, and, among other things, stated--'That the steam-ship "Great Eastern," from her size and constant steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint use of paddles and screw, renders it safe to lay an Atlantic cable in any weather.'[176]

Sufficient additional cable was made to lay a second one and to finish the old cable when it should be recovered. The ship started again on July 13, 1866, and laid the cable across the Atlantic without the slightest mishap. She then returned, and after three weeks of hard work, the end of the cable which had been lost the year before was picked up, and completed to Newfoundland.

On her return to England there did not seem to be any immediate employment for her in cable laying, and the tanks were taken out. In the following year a company was formed in France to charter the ship, and to work her between New York and Brest during the French Exhibition. She made one voyage from Liverpool to New York and back to Brest and Liverpool; but the undertaking was a commercial failure.

She remained at Liverpool till October 1868, when it was proposed to lay a cable from France to America; and she came round to her former berth at Sheerness. Tanks were made in the fore and aft cargo s.p.a.ces, and a very large tank, 75 feet in diameter, was placed amidships. The bulkheads were cut partially away to make room for it, the ship being strengthened above and below. She started on this expedition from Brest under the command of Captain Robert Halpin, and encountered very heavy weather. The cable was laid successfully.

The ship then returned to England, and was fitted out for the greatest adventure she has yet undertaken. She was to proceed with a full cargo of cable round the Cape of Good Hope to Bombay, to lay it thence to Aden, and from Aden a portion of the way up the Red Sea. With her cable and coals, on leaving England, she drew 34 feet 6 inches, with the enormous displacement of 32,724 tons. She laid the cable with perfect success, and returned to England.

Throughout all these cable-laying expeditions, and especially in the work of picking up the Atlantic cable of 1865, the good qualities of the ship have been fully exhibited.

The later voyages of the 'Great Eastern' were undertaken for the accomplishment of a work in which Mr. Brunel had felt a great interest.

In 1856, Mr. Cyrus Field came over to this country in order to consult English engineers and scientific men upon his project of an Atlantic cable. It is stated in a work written by Dr. Field,[177] that--

From the beginning Mr. Brunel showed the warmest interest in the undertaking, and made many suggestions in regard to the form of the cable and the manner in which it should be laid. He was then building the 'Great Eastern,' and one day he took Mr. Field down to Blackwall to see it, and said, 'There is the ship to lay the Atlantic cable.'

It appears, however, from drawings in Mr. Brunel's sketch-books that at this time, and again in 1858, he thought that it would be better to have a vessel specially built for the work.

He was throughout sanguine as to the ultimate success of the undertaking, as is shown by the following extract from a letter written in December 1856:--

I would suggest a more moderate expression of doubts of the successful results of the American cable. The impossibility of running steamers profitably over the surface of the same sea was, though it is now denied, a.s.serted and proved from established facts just as clearly as the impossibility a.s.serted now to exist in respect of the electric telegraph. It is a pity in these days to lay down any such dogma. Every day's experience proves that nine-tenths of them are refuted; that the circ.u.mstances do not prove to be such as are a.s.sumed, or the difficulties are overcome; and however correct the arguments may have been, the result is not as predicted.

The 'Great Eastern' has not yet been engaged on the work for which she was originally designed by Mr. Brunel; but her employment in the promotion of great scientific enterprises has been an occupation worthy of her connection with his name.

NOTE (p. 395).

_Dimensions of the 'Great Eastern' Steam-ship._

Extreme length, 693 feet

Length between perpendiculars, 680 "

Breadth, 83 "

Depth, 58 "

Greatest draught of water, 30 "

Registered tonnage, 13,343 tons

Gross tonnage, 18,915 "

Displacement at 30 feet draught, 27,419 "

DIMENSIONS OF PADDLE-ENGINES.

(1,000 nominal horse-power.)

Number of cylinders, 4

Diameter of cylinders, 6 feet 2 inches

Length of stroke, 14 feet

Number of boilers, 4

DIMENSIONS OF SCREW-ENGINES.

(1,600 nominal horse-power.)

Number of cylinders, 4

Diameter of cylinders, 7 feet

Length of stroke, 4 "

Number of boilers, 6

CHAPTER XIV.

_DOCK AND PIER WORKS._

A.D. 1831--1859. aeTATIS 26--54.

MONKWEARMOUTH DOCKS, 1831--BRISTOL DOCKS, FLOATING HARBOUR, 1832--PROPOSED WORKS AT PORTISHEAD--NEW LOCK AT BRISTOL, 1845--PLYMOUTH GREAT WESTERN DOCKS, 1847--BRITON FERRY DOCKS, 1851--BRENTFORD DOCK, 1856--PIER AT MILFORD HAVEN, 1857.

Mr. Brunel's dock and pier works are interesting, not only in their general features, but also in the details of their construction; and the plans he made for large docks at Monkwearmouth in 1831, which he carried out on a smaller scale shortly afterwards, were among the earliest of his independent designs.

With the exception of the gates of this dock, which are of timber, all the dock gates Mr. Brunel constructed are of wrought iron. This material had been employed in ship-building before Mr. Brunel adopted it for the gates of the new lock at Bristol, and it was also beginning to be extensively used for bridge girders.

At the same time that he introduced the use of wrought iron into dock gates, he constructed them with a large amount of buoyancy, in order that they might be moved easily, while being opened and shut.

The dock and pier works which he constructed are at Monkwearmouth, Bristol, Plymouth, Briton Ferry, Brentford, and at Neyland, Milford Haven. They will be described in this order, which is nearly that of the dates of their construction.

_Monkwearmouth Docks._