3-047-128 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sections of the Bessemer saloon-steamer, 1872. Illustration of '...the joint design of Mr. E. J. Reed, C B., late Chief Constructor of the Navy, and Mr. H. Bessemer, known as the author of great improvements in the iron and steel manufacture, for a Channel passage steam-ship with a suspended saloon to prevent sea-sickness...The Bessemer saloon will form by far the finest cabin that has ever been fitted in a ship. Its great size and height will enable it to be completely ventilated, unlike the ordinary cabin between decks, which is so unpleasant that ladies and delicate persons endure the worst weather on deck rather than accept shelter in it...the perfect action of Mr. Bessemer's hydraulic apparatus...will always insure the floor being kept level...when the ship is rolling at sea, this power of acting on the saloon enables the steersman to retain the saloon constantly in a perfectly vertical position, while the floor of the ship is rising and falling beneath it...As designed by Mr. Reed, [the saloon] will be fitted at each end with four principal rooms for ladies and four for gentlemen, which, as well as the promenade deck, will be accessible at all times by means of a broad staircase free from all motion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.