3-011-408 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Pacific Steam Navigation Company's new iron mail steam-ship Quito, 1864. 'This beautiful vessel, which left the Mersey on the 27th January with mails and passengers for St. Vincent (de Verdes) and Monte Video, en route to her station in the South Pacific, measures 271 ft. in length, 56 ft. extreme beam, 20 ft. depth, and 1400 tons builders' measurement. She was built by Messrs. Randolph, Elder, and Coy, at Goran [Govan?], near Glasgow, from designs by Mr. Thomas Smith, naval architect...and is fitted with engines of 400 nominal, and 1400 indicated, horse power; which are the twelfth pair constructed for the company by that firm on their patent double-cylinder principle. The Quito is fitted with every appliance for the comfort of passengers in warm latitudes and the efficiency of the mail service which has been suggested by the company's experience since 1840 in the Pacific waters. On her trial at Liverpool, a few days before her departure, she attained a mean speed of 13½ knots on the extremely low consumption of 27 cwt. of Scotch coal per hour, with 25lb. pressure of steam, and 24 revolutions of her engines. She will be a valuable addition to the company's steam fleet, which...now numbers seventeen first-class steamships'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.