3-016-779 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Launch of the Knight Commander, iron screw steam-ship, built at Dublin, 1864. View of '...the first large iron vessel ever built in the port of Dublin as she glided off her cradle into the high-tide waters of the Liffey...The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with a large company of distinguished persons, visited on this occasion the building-yard of Messrs. Walpole, Webb, and Bewley, North Wall. The Marchioness of Kildare performed the ladylike office of "christening" the young ship by breaking a bottle of wine upon the bows. Next moment the "dog-shores" or props by which the vessel was upheld, were knocked away, and she gracefully descended into the river, saluted by the guns of H.M.S. Ajax and by the cheers of 20,000 spectators. The Knight Commander belongs to Messrs. Carlyle and Geddes, of Liverpool, and is intended for the Calcutta trade...about three hundred Irish workmen have been busy for the last twelvemonth, under skilled English and Scotch shipwrights or engineers, in building this fine iron steam-vessel. Her length over all is 230 ft.;...registered tonnage, 1450 tons; burden, 2500 tons. Her lower masts, bowsprit, and some of the yards, are of steel manufactured by Messrs. Cato, Miller, and Co.' From "Illustrated London News", 1864.