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SJ VOL. V. NO 18. CLEVELAND, ©. MAY 5 1883. $2.00 PER ANNUM SINGLE Copies 5 CENTS, THE GREAT EASTERN. There are parties in this city who are seriously contemplating the purchase of the Great Eastern, with a view of altering her very materially, such as razing her so that she will draw much less water, and at the same time reduce her. carrying capacity, which is considered to be too yreat for the present requirements of profitable trade. Itis contemplated, should she be purchased, to remove all her present motive power and substitute for it a pxir of compound engines, driving in its stead twin screws, which would give her an average speed of from 10 to 12 knots. per hour. She would be fitted as a general freighter and perticularly as a cattle boat, for which she would be well adapted in her changed dimensions. It is believed that her outer bottom is in. good condition, while her interior, and above the - waterline is in first class order. | ties of this remarkable ship, but have found renson for not making her the property of the nation. She ceuld carry coals to our toaling stations, but she would probably ake to many, and would cost too much for her maintainance. Eight thousand soldiers could be conveyed in her capacious hull; but if such a precious freight were cast away the British Army would be sensibly weakened. A suggestion that the gigantic craft should be converted intow floating hotel, to be moored off the coust is perhaps as near the mark, and as wide of it, as any other pro- posal. It would seem av if some entirely new requirement must spring up in order to give employment toa vessel for which at present the world has no need. A brief sketch of the Great Eastern may not be uninteresting in this connection. She was sold at auction on the 19 ult., and bid on for about $150,000. She is 680 feet long 83 feet broad and 60 feet deep, being of 22,927 tons builder’s, 18,915 gross and 13,344 of Angus, one of the “lines” of the season, | his canoe and a spear in his hand, but the In April, 1861, she was seized for debt, her unfortunate stockholders being again called upon to subseribe to secrre her release. In, the same summer she did good service car- ryifig treops to Canada, In 1864 Messrs Glass & Elliott bought the great ship and found a vocation for her, On June 30, 1866, she saile] with the new Atlantic cable, the laying of which was successfully aecompll- shed July 27. On the 2 of September she lifted the old cable of 1865, which was relaid, andon. the 19 returned triumphantly to Liverpool. She was put on the New York passanger route in 1867, but lost money and went into the sheriff's hands on her return. Ip June, 1869, she laid the French Atlantic cable, and in January, 1870, the Suez cable. In 1873 she once more visited America on a eable-laying expedition, - As a business _en- terprise, hewever, she has never paid. Last year she lost $42,163, her value being then placed at $433,575. At present the Great idea is really stolen trom him,” Paymaster Read has the most perfect ar- rangements for his work. He will be able to photograph fish and shells, as soon a8 they are taken out of the water, by a verti- caleamera. ‘This is neccessary, as in some cases the air changes the form of some of the curiosities of the sea, ‘The sea water will also be brought to the surface from any de- sired depth for analyzation, During the trip of the Albatross from Wilmington an are light has been first successfully operated on an Edison circuit, and. an invention has been completed for lighting the surface of the sea, which will be used tor signaling and for the prosecution of all kinds ot work at night. THE ITALIAN MERCANTILE NAVY. The réport of the Committee appointed to inquire into the condition of the [talian Mercantile Navy, which has been drawn up THE GREAT EASTERN. The main question upon which her pur-{ net. register. She was built at Milwall, chases binges brought under an Anierican regisrer, so that she can fly the American flag. ‘This question will be submitted to the ‘Treasury Defart mentin a few days; the would-be purchasers believing that the change of register can be wrought, especially asthe character of the vessel’s to be entirely changed. In this par- ticular we are not so sanguine as some of proposed purchasers are. She isa “white elephant”? in Great Britain and would be here, unless charged as we have indicated. The London Standard of a recent date in commenting upon this vessel says: On the whole, it isa question whether this mountain of a ship would not be dear asagitt, Yet she is a noble vessel, of immence structural strength, and capable of battling with storm and tempest tor years tocome. Her sole fault is her enormous s She xeems to have been built for the planet! Jupiter, rather than for a globe of the modest | dimensions which characterize our earth, She isa magnificent specimen of naval archi- tecture and engineering skill, bat nobody knows what todo with her. Ef she one half her actual size she would: be worth twice the money. She is too big for the Suez Canal, and that robs her at once of all claim to command the [ndian or Australian trade, With regard tothe traffic across the Athuntic, | the Great Eastern does very well for laying ocean telegraph cables; but as for carrying passengers and goods, Brunels big ship is useless, What ber ultimate “are will be it is hard to conjecture. We presume that the Admiralty have vot overlooked the capabili- were) Satraffle. is as to whether she can be] from the plans and under the superintend- enee of the late Sir fsimbard K, Brauel, by Messers Scott, Russell & Company her origi- nal name being the Leviathan. It was at- tempted to launch her November 3, 1857, but she in ie the ways, and not until the 31 of January did she enter the water, The most powerfal bydraulic rams were smployed in) the process, butat mes she remained immovable for days even when they were exerting a pressure of six tons fo the square inch, When at dast she was got into the water and had been towed down to Deptford, the company that built her lad exhausted its capitol $3,200,000, and anew organization bought her for about a fifth of her Gost. The naune was changed to the Great Eastern, by way of recalling the Gr Western, the marine giant of an earlier day, and on the 7 of August, 1859, she left Dept- ford. ‘Two ysdater,on her trial trip od Hastings, ket round one of the funnels exploded, killing ten nen and causing much damages already sevecal lives bul been lost in launching ber, Her il-luck followed her, foron the 2Lof January, 1860. her com- ander, Captain Harrison, an old Canarder. was drowned when going ashore at South hampton. ‘Phe vessel had been intended for the passenger trade. and) was meant to earry 800 first-class passengers, 2,000 second tass and 1.200 third class, with a erew of 400 men, but there was no market for such June 17, 1860, under Captain Vine Hall, she sailed tor New York, making a passage of ten and ahalfdays, vod remained on this side of the Athintic until the middle Eastern is fitted with four cable tanks, occupying some cargo space and most of the dining saloons, but all ean be easily removed and the ship fitted as. originally. The pomi- nal power of her paddle engines is 1,000 horse, and her screw engines are 1,600 horse power, | Her boflers, which are tubular and situate amidships, are eight in) number, of which six, by Forester, were new in_ 1867, The number of plates in the hull is 80,000, and abont 30,000,000 rivets were ured in fastening them, No less than ten thousand tons of iron was used in her coustruction, and she was the first vessel titted with steam steering gear.— Nautical Gazette 1881, FISUING BY ELECVKICLITY. According to a correspondent of the Phil- adelphia Press, the electrical apparatus of Protessor Baird’s expedition is very com- plete, ‘The seaceh light is one of the most hovel of the wonderful inventions of the the nineteenth century. [tt consists of three K-lison electric lights of 16 candle power each, inelosed in a hermetically sealed) glass case, Which is: surrondded by a glass globe, amd capable of resisting the pressure of the water ata great depth. [tis proposed tosink the amp and ilaminate the sea by turning on the light. This, itis expected, will attract the fish, and a net ten feec in di- ameter atts mouth placed below the light willbe drawn at the proper tine, and) the Unknown fish of the lower waters will be caught. “fle is ao improvement,” said one of the officers of the ship, “fon the method of the Lndian who searched the rivers at night time with a burning pine knot in the bow of by M. Boeselli, will shortly be presented to the Ltalian Parliament. [te recommendations are as follows: ‘To create a Ministry of Mer- cantile Marine; to grant bounties to con- structors of steamers built in Uraly; to grant navigation bounties for ten years to steamers ul for eight years to sailing vessels, which either ocean-going-or are engaged in the coasting trade Gna large scale; to: suspend for the same term the tax on personal pro- perty imposed on owners of vessels not re- eeiving bounties; to reform and reduce con- ss reciprocity is condensed 3 to endeavor. to have a small proportional tax substituted for the fixed impost levied on Ltalian) coral in Algeria; tounify the various funds acitated merehant seaman, and to establish a single fand in) conneetion with the Deposite and Cousiguments Funds. a Bermuda is to be made the depot at pres- ent for American whiskey. For the past three months whiskey has been shipped to Bermuda, in order to escape taking it out of bond here, The internal revenne tax of 90 cents per gallon on high) wines, whiea amounts to about $1.50 per gallon on. reeti- tied whiskey, is payable on the expiration of three y utter distillation, provided the liquor remains in bend in this country that long. But if it is shipped to aforeignpor be- fore thattime expires and is then returned to the United States, it will not have to pay she tax for three years more,