A LARGE STEAMER.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2878, 7 May 1878, Page 3

A LARGE STEAMER.

The largest" vessel afloat, the Great Eastern excepted, is now lying in the Alfred Pock, at Birkenhead. The Hooper, the property of the Hooper Telegraph Company, of London, was built at ITewcastle-on-Tyne in 1873, is an iron steamer, between 360 feet and 370 feet long, is 60 feet across, and has a depth of hold of about 40 feet. She was principally constructed for purposes - of cable laying, and between the year in which she left the stocks and 1876 she successfully deposited eight submarino telegraph lines upon the sea bottom, between Cuba and Santiago, Santa Cruz and Porto Rico, Pemerara and Para, and various other points, Built from a model designed tounitegreat spaciousness with sea-going capacity, the Hooper is flatbottomed, and has large iron storage cylinders of great depth and width; while it is claimed for her that she exceeds the Great Eastern in carrying capacity, and is able " to go down to the sea" with a dead weight of cargo of 12 000 tons. Since 1876 the Hooper has been principally engaged in the India trade. Her last voyage was. from JN cw York, whence she to Xiverpodl in flfteen days with a cargo of about 7,800

tons, including 50,000 bushels of maize and 65,000 bushels of wheat, as well as large quantities of cotton and .flour. On her arrival in the Mersey it-was found impossible, on account of her vizo, to dock the Hooper on the Liverpool wide. She was therefore taken to Hirken/icad, and will only enter a Liverpool dock after she has been considerably lightened by, uuloading.