LAUNCH OF A SCREW STEAM YACHT.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 174, 29 December 1874, Page 3

LAUNCH OF A SCREW STEAM YACHT.

{From the Melbourne Age , December 7.) The first iron vessel ever built in |Melbourne was launched from the yards of Messrs Foreman and Co of the Yarra Boiler Works on Saturday afternoon. A large number of spectators assembled to witness the ceremony, and shortly after two o’clock the vessel was christened the Eclipse in the usual manner, by Mrs Dove, and was then launched. Some little difficulty was experienced before the vessel was fairly in the water, in consequence of too many people crowding on the bows, but after some delay she was safely floated, amidst the cheers and good wishes of all present. The vessel is a screw steam yacht, estimated at about fifty tons burden, and her length is 72 feet, with 10 feet beam; draught of water about 5 feet. The engines are capable of working up to about sixty horse-power. The yacht is fitted up with direct acting high pressure multitubular marine boilers, tested up to 2001 b. ihe screw is two bladed, 4 feet .3 inches diameter, 8 feet pitch. The yacht is composed entirely of iron, and including the engines and boiler has been constructed on the premises of Messrs Foreman and Co. The keel of the vessel was laid on the 22nd September, and her builders must be complimented for having launched the vessel complete, with the exception of fitting up the cabin and one or two other necessary arrangements, in the short space of a little over two months. The Eclipse has been built by the firm on speculation, and will cost, when completed, between £ISOO and £2OOO. She was designed for the Bay traffic, and is admirably adapted for the purpose. Messrs Foreman and Co are very sanguine as to the speed of the vessel, and expect her to be the fastest in the Australian colonies.