THE “BESSEMER.”
On May Bth the Bessemer steamer started from Dover to Calais, on an experimental trip, having a party of about 200 gentlemen on board. It was found on starting, much to the surprise of all on board, that the oscillating saloon was not to be tried during the trip, it being understood that the machinery to work it was incomplete. The vessel made Calais Harbor in ninety minutes, but was fated to meet with a mishap, which is thus described by a correspondent of the Observer :—“ We entered the port on the southern side, and it is, necessary to put on full steam power in order to get sufficient way on, to avoid the risk of being carried against the pier heads. We had hardly, however, got clear within the harbor before the tide, which runs almost diagonally across the piers, turned the vessel right round towards rtha southern pier. To an unprofessional, eye it) seemed as if -we were steering straight against) the pier. Whether . any effort was, made to alter the course of the vessel, or whether she refused to answer the helm, the fact is .certain that she ran straight into the pier with as much precision as if she had been an iron ram endeavoring to run down an enemy’s vessel. It was impossible not to be startled by the crash with which the Bessemer crushed dowii upon the pier. The piles ’ and beams and timbers literally cracked like tinder. The foremast of the steamer was snapped in two by the shook,! and for a minute or so the air was filled with splinters.. When at last the Bessemer was stopped, some fifty to sixty yards of the pier were knocked down like nine-pins iff a skittle-alley, and the water of the harbor waii covered with broken planks and beams; The vessel itself is so strongly built that she was only grazed, and the injury done to her might probably be made good in a few hours’ time at a trifling ’ cost. But the lower end of the southern pier of Calais Harbor will have to bo rebuilt, and the bill will be a heavy one. The more serious question is whether this accident could have been avoided. The impression is that the Bessemer is too large a vessel for Calais Harbor, and that, with her great weight and size, there must always be a certain amount of risk in her entering so narrow a poit with the velocity required to carry her across the bars. As it was, the water was so smooth that there was no difficulty in slewing the ship round and disengaging her from the broken pier in which her bows w ere entangled.’
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18750709.2.17
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4463, 9 July 1875, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
454THE “BESSEMER.” New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4463, 9 July 1875, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.