t she
was now placed in our hands to be lengthened 39 feet, as well as to
have an iron deck added, both of which greatly improved her. We also
lengthened the Messrs. Bibby's Calpe--also built by Messrs. Thomson
while I was there--by no less than 93 feet. The advantage of
lengthening ships, retaining the same beam and power, having become
generally recognised, we were in trusted by the Cunard Company to
lengthen the Hecla, Olympus, Atlas, and Marathon, each by 63 feet. The
Royal Consort P.S., which had been lengthened first at Liverpool, was
again lengthened by us at Belfast.

The success of all this heavy work, executed for successful owners, put
a sort of backbone into the Belfast shipbuilding yard. While other
concerns were slack, we were either lengthening or building steamers as
well as sailing-ships for firms in Liverpool, London, and Belfast.
Many acres of ground were added to the works. The Harbour
Commissioners had now made a fine new graving-dock, and connected the
Queen's Island with the mainland. The yard, thus improved and
extended, was surveyed by the Admiralty, and placed on the first-class
list. We afterwards built for the Government the gun vessels Lynx and
Algerine, as well as the store and torpedo ship Hecla, of 3360 tons.

The Suez Canal being now open, our friends the Messrs. Bibby gave us an
order for three steamers of very large tonnage, capable of being
adapted for trade with the antipodes if necessary. In these new
vessels there was no retrograde step as regards length, for they were
390 feet keel by 37 feet beam, square-rigged on three of the masts,
with the yards for the first time fitted on travellers, as to enable
them to be readily sent down; thus forming a unique combination of big
fore-and-aft sails, with handy square sails. These ships were named
the Istrian, Iberian, and Illyrian, and in 1868 they went to sea; soon
after to be followed by three more ships--the Bavarian, Bohemian, and
Bulgarian--in most respects the same, though ten feet longer, with the
same beam. They were first placed in the Mediterranean trade, but were
afterwards transferred to the Liverpool and Boston trade, for cattle
and emigrants. These, with three smaller steamers for the Spanish
cattle trade, and two larger steamers for other trades, made together
twenty steam-vessels constructed for the Messrs. John Bibby, Sons, &
Co.; and it was a matter of congratulation that, after a great deal of
heavy and con