3-017-080 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Saloon Steam-Packet Company's vessel Alexandra, for passenger traffic on the Thames, 1865. 'She is estimated at 140-horse power, nominal, and she is capable of travelling at the rate of nearly twenty miles an hour. Her burden is 157.29 tons, and, being flat bottomed, her draught of water is scarcely 4 ft. This is considered a great advantage, and one which forms a special feature in the vessel's construction, as the steam-ships at present on the Thames have sharp keels, and could not, therefore, be rendered capable of carrying the weight of a deck saloon. This deck saloon, formed upon the plan of the "hurricane decks" known in America, constitutes the great novelty which the directors have sought to introduce into this country...they have adapted a vessel, originally intended for a blockade-runner, to the peaceful purpose of conveying passengers from London Bridge to Gravesend...The vessel is constructed for carrying 1048 passengers, and these can be so distributed that there need be no apprehension of "over-crowding." The builders of the vessels were Messrs. Kirkpatrick and M'Intyre, of Port Glasgow; and Messrs. Smith and Co., of Greenock, constructed the engines, which are on the diagonal oscillating principle'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.