3-043-742 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Calcutta and China New Line ship Vibilia, 1872. New screw-steamer built by Messrs. Wigham Richardson and Co. '...she will carry, with an easy draught of water, not less than 2500 tons of dead weight, steaming easily ten knots an hour. The Vibilia is fitted out for the conveyance of first-class passengers...On coming into European latitudes, passengers from India usually suffer not a little from the cold; but in the Vibilia this will be provided against, as far as can be done, by a complete system of steam-heating...the comfort of the stokers has been specially attended to by placing the stokeholes next to the skin of the ship, where they are exposed to the cooling action of the sea-water; while the air gratings, instead of being blocked up by side houses, are left so that there may be free access of air under the hurricane-deck, through the arches of a kind of arcade on each side, which may be noticed in our Illustration. The engines are by the old and well-known firm of Messrs. R. and W. Hawthorn...The Vibilia is commanded by Captain Baker, late of the City of Brussels, and well known in the East India trade'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.