THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE “GREAT EASTERN.”

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 25, 19 December 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE “GREAT EASTERN.”

(From the Cork Examiner Sept 19.) The Oreat Eastern's temporary steering gear was found yesterday to be quite inadequate to conteract tho influence of the wind on her huge side and all attempts to get her into the habour ■were quite ineffectual. The four tugs in attendance upon her were utterly powerless. At last she had to give up and come to an anchor last night five miles south of the harbour’s mouth in order to have plenty of sea-room in case of her anchors dragging. To-day the weather is too bad to admit of any attempt being made. A passenger returned to Liverpool on Thursday from Cork, with particulars of the incidents of the disaster which befel tho Great Eastern in her attempted voyage from Liverpool to America. She left her moorings in the Mersey at 25 minutes to one o’clock on Tuesday and parted finally from the pilot at four o’clock that day, putting on full

speed. All went well until Thursday at four o’clock when a strong breeze prevailed, and tho aft tackle of the forward boats on the port side became unhooked, leaving it suspended by one tackle. The Captain endeavoured to steady the ship whilst this could be rectified, but found to his surprise that she could not answer tho helm. The fact was, although it was not known, that the rudder-pin was broken, and tho wheel had no command over the the rudder. The fore staysail was run up, the wind immediately split it to ribbons. The fore trysail was also run up, but that was blown away. The paddle engines were stopped, and tho boat was cut away. The Oreat Eastern once more started on her course. The passengers went down to dinner, and from that moment commenced a chaos of breakages which lasted without intermission for three days. Everything breakable was broken ; furniture, fittings, service, glasses, piano —all were involved in one common wreck. It became known that the rudder was unmanageable. After dinner, about six o’clock, the vessel had to be stopped again owing to two rolls of sheet lead, weighing some seven cut. each, and which were in the engine room rolling about with every oscillation of the vessel with fearful force. These having been secured, another start was effected, when a tremendous grinding similar to light thunder, was heard under the paddle-boxes. The paddles had become twisted, and the floats were grinding against the sides of the ship. The paddles were stopped, and thenceforward the scene is described as having been fearful in the extreme. Tiie ship rolled so violently that the boats, although placed thirty or forty feef above water, wpre washed away. The cabin, besides the inconveniences and dangers arising from the crashes and collisions which were constantly going on, had shipped a great deal of water, and stores were floating about in utter confusion and ruin. Some of the chandeliers came down ; a large mirror was smashed into thousands of fragments. The rails of the banister bars and numerous other fittings were broken; and some idea of the roughness of the night’s incidents may be gathered from the fact that the chain cables polished themselves bright with the friction on the deck. A spare riding bitt gave way on the cable deck and knocked a hole through the ship’s side. Two oil tanks, also on the cable, deck were so much damaged by another concussion that tho 200 gallons o f fish oil which they contained ran into the hold, and caused, during the rest of the unhappy voyage, a most intolerable odour. The passengers’ luggage in the lower after cargo space was lying not piled up, two feet in water, and before the ship’s deliverance was effected was reduced literally to rags and shreds and pieces of timber. Nor were the injuries confined to inanimate objects. No less than twenty-five fractures of bones occurred, arising out of concussions caused by the tremendous lurching of the vessel, cuts and braises were innumerable. A cook was cast violently by one of those lurches against the paddlebox, sustaining fearful bruises on the arm which he put out to protect himself, when another lurch came and drove him against one of the stanchions. By that concussion one of the poor fellow’s legs was broken in three places. The baker received injuries of a very terrible character in a vital part; and one of the most striking incidents of the affair was this poor man’s crawling in his agony to extinguish some portion of his baking gear, which at that untimely moment had caught fire. The accident of the cowshed being knocked into the ladies’ cabin was reported by telegram. On Thursday night the gale was from south-west, but on Friday morning it had veered to the north-w’est, and the ship was drifting unmanageable as a log in the sea. She did not ship much water on deck. It was soon discovered what was the matter with the rudder. The pin upon which it turned, that which was turned by the wheel on deck, had broken off three feet above the point where it entered the stern of the ship. It was of wrought iron, ten inches in diameter. Its breaking at that particular spot was one of the most curious incidents of the disaster. The thing to bo done now was to rig up some discription of steering gear. A plan was suggested to the captain, however, by one of the passengers, to the adoption of which the escape of the vessel is probably to be attributed. It was to pass two or three turns of chain cable ■ round the rudder pin, immediately below the point at which the breakage occurred and to secure it with wedges and small chains. By pulling either of the chains a circular motion of the pin was produced, and a connection being effected with the usual chain attached to the rudder and a temporary wheel being rigged up below the deck, a shift was made once more to proceed. But the screw of the vessel upon which at this time all the locomotion depended, inasmuch as hardly a vestige of the paddles remained in tho boxes, soon stopped, being fouled by the rudder. To meet this difficulty another plan had to be adopted. It consisted in an arrangement of chains tightened by a shackle over the rudder, and secured in an indentation which the screw had conveniently made in the rudder edge when the rudder fouled it. In the rigging out of this impromptu steering gear an act of great bravery occurred. A seaman deby a rope from the stem of the ship, with a knife in his mouth to cut through some entanglement which had arisen. It was a task of no common risk, for with every roll of the ship and every dash of the waves he was violently submerged. But he persevered, cut through the entanglement, and on being hauled up received from the passengers and captain some well-earned gratuities. All Friday wasoccupied withthese arrangements. On Saturday night, however, a circumstance occurred which greatly restored the spirits of all on board. A ship hove in sight, and by means of a blue light, rockets, and the firing of a cannon, her attention was attracted. The vessel proved to bo the brig Magnet , of Halifax ; and the commander of this ship deserves the most honourable mention for tho kindness with which he consented to lay to during the night, and for the other attentions which he very cordially paid to the distressed Leviathan. On Sunday, at two o’clock, the Great Eastern got under way. Experiment succeeded. The rudder was found to act, and the vessel proceeded nine knots an hour propelled by her screw alone. Her meeting with the Persia, which took place next morning at nine o’clock, was of a rather singular character. The Great Eastern signalled her lesser rival to come under her lee. The Persia did so, but perceiving that the great ship did not at all

slacken her pace, is presumed to Lave concluded that the intentions the Great Eastern entertained towards her were not altogether fair ; so, without more words, the Persia put on full speed, and was soon beyond recall. The great vessel continued her course, and on Tuesday morning arrived (the weather being exceedingly fine) off the old Head of Kinsale. ahe stopped from ten o’clock till two o’clock to arrange her tackle, and then fired two cannons and otherwise signalled to the shore, but although she must have been visible along miles of the coast, her signals produced no effect except upon two old fishing boats. At length about four o clock she arrived off Cork. A small steam-tug was put off thence to assist her, and was employed by the captain to turn the ship. The harbour was immediately reached. It would bo almost impossible to exaggerate the anxious and disturbed state of things that prevailed while the fate of the ship was still doubtful. Religious services were frequently held. A meeting was held in the saloon on Tuesday, when resolutions of a pious and congratulatory character were passed. From all we can learn we are inclined to suppose that the calamity entirely arose from the breaking of the rudder, as all testimony concurs that although the interior fittings of the ship were open to adverse comment the ship herself behaved splendidly. Her strength may be estimated from the fact that although the working of her gigantic engines of 2,600 horse power produces hardly a vibration in her, she trembled like a leaf whenever she arose from one of the tremendous rolls to which, throughout these three or four memorable and critical days, she was constantly subjected.