3-047-102 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. S. J. Mackie's Channel passage steamer, 1872. 'In the matter of the Channel passage,...public attention has of late been directed towards a solution of the question by means of large and commodious vessels, drawing very little water, to do the work between the existing harbours without any considerable expenditure upon those harbours for improved accommodation...The system of construction adopted by Mr. Mackie is that of a composite box-girder, or compound tubular bridge, to which the skin is fastened, forming a body or general hull like that of vessels of the ordinary type. To the merits of this mode of construction, for its strength, lightness, commodiousness, and safety, the highest appreciation has everywhere been...given; and...there can be no question whatever as to these points; nor can there be any other form in which better accommodation will be furnished for travellers...Mr. Mackie's most recent design for the Channel Passage Vessel differs only from the original one, which our Illustration shows, in having four paddles instead of six, and in being 80 ft. in beam instead of 90 ft.; this reduction of the beam being for the sake of finer lines, with a view to speed of working, which will not be less than twenty miles an hour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.