THE NEW CHINA STEAMER GREAT REPUBLIC.

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 260, 12 September 1867, Page 2

THE NEW CHINA STEAMER GREAT REPUBLIC.

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company have just completed the largest ship ever built in any American shipyard for commercial purposes, and which is designed for the China,, Line, from San Francisco to Chma^aiP' Great Kepublic, the steamship refejj^^^ v . c worthy of more than a passingjj^red to, is merely became of her great^jFnotice, not bat because she is to be injfcnu&pd strength, iiiiiiiffltlißir" ln °P cn *

nj a trade with Asia, which marks a:i era i i American progress and enterprise. Feet ;ir.d indies convey but a poor idea of the extent of a ship so symetrically built as- the Great Repubiiu, but for the information of those endowed with experience in suvh matters, the following statement of her size is appended ; — Extreme length, 380 feet ; length between perpendiculars, 360 feet; width of beauil molded, 48 feet 6 inches ; extreme width of beam, 50 feet ; depth of hold, 31 feet U inches ; registsred tonnage, 4100 ; carpenter's tonnage, 5200. The Great Republic is 35 feet longer than the Adriatic, with the same breadth of beam. Her frame timbers are of ■white live oak, which are fastened with I copper and iron, and are braced with straps of iron five inches wide and seven-eighths of an inch thick, which cross each other diagonally every 4 feet. Over this is placed the inner planking, which is caulked and payed with pitch and then double strapped as before, and outside of this double strapping comes the exterior double planking of the very bes.t yellow pine. The whole is so firmly bolted and fastened together as to make her one of the strongest ships afloat, and enabled her to endure the test of a terrific storm on her trial trip without starting even a piece of putty. The Great Republic has three masts, and is full 'ship rigged. She has three full decks^ unusually stout and strongly fastened, with an orlop deck fore and aft, extending to the engine bulkheads. She has four stout, watertight bulkheads, dividing the hold into five separate compartments. Her saloons are admirably fitted up, with . everything necessary for the comfort of passengers. She has accommodations fcr 250 cabin and 1200 steerage passengers, and is capable of parryjng 2000 tons cargo and 1500 tons coal. She has twelve large metallic lifeboats, made, pi the most substantial manner, fitted up with masts and sails. Her armament consists of five 20-pound aid two 30? pound Parrot guns. She has one American vertical beam engine having a sjngle cylinder, in which the piston works, of 105 incjies in diameter, nearly nine feet, and J2 feet stroke. There is a surface condenser ''arranged as part of the engine, fitted with brass tubes f-inch in diameter, and 9 feet loug, with the points made with t Allen's compressed wood packing, the coni donsing water being thrown through the tubes by means of a rotary pump driven by a pair of inverted "direct-acting engines, geared two an' l half to one. Connecting with the suction of these pumps are valves communicating with the bilge of the ship, so that, in case of leakage, the whole capacity of the pump can in a few moments be use to free the ship, amounting to over 20,000 gallons per mim.te. Ti.e Allen .cut : off gear, as applied to the valvis of this engine, is the same as has worked so successfully on the other engines built for this line by the Novelty Works, and combines, with the greatest simplicity of parts, range of adjustment of the whole stroke, which, with the ease it gives the engineer the power of handling his engine, mokes it the most perfect arrangement of its Kind. Steam is supplied to the engine by four horizontal tabular boiters placed forward of the enpine in the hull of the ship, arranged with the tire-room fore and aft, and the uptakes conne jting with one smoke pipe of 10 feet diameter. The tubes are 3 inches in diameter by 7 feet in length. The steam chimney is 20 feet high, which gives great freedom from priming when in heavy weather. The boilers contain 24 surfaces with ci grate surface of 585 square feet and 16,700 square feet of fire surface, which gives with ease a working pressure of 20 pounds for the engine. In connection with the main engine aud boilers, the engine department is furnished with two donkey steam pumps of large capacity, and arranged to pump from the bilge, or to feed the boiler, or to throw water on the different decks in case of fire. They are supplied with steam from an independent boiler, so as to be worked when steam is not in the main boilers. There is also supplied a hoisting engine, for delivering and receiving cargo and coaling the ship by steam. In fact, everything that would add to the eificieucy of the engineer department has been supplied. The paddle-wheels are 40 feet in diameter, having a face of 12 feet ; and each wheel is supplied with 34 buckets, with a width of 24 inches. She is to sail from i^an Fraucisco for China September 4. i The China line will consist ofthe Colorado, Great Republic, Celestial Empire, America, I aud Niphon, the last two of which are yet to be built. These fine steamers, aggregating 20,000 tons, and which may be classed among the finest in the world, tell a tale of enterprise and power of which Americans may justly be proud.— JS T ew York World.