. On deck
are four small steam winches or engines, each of which works a pair of
cranes on both sides of the vessel; and with these five thousand tons of
coals can be hoisted into the vessel in twenty-four hours.

The _engines_ and boilers are of immense power and magnitude. There are
both screw and paddle engines, the former being capable of working up to
6500 horse-power, the latter to 5000. There are ten boilers and one
hundred and twelve furnaces. The paddle engines, which were made by
Messrs. Scott Russell and Company, stand nearly 40 feet high. Each
cylinder weighs about 28 tons, and each paddle-wheel is 58 feet in
diameter, or considerably larger than the ring in Astley's Circus. The
screw engines were manufactured by Messrs. Watt and Company of
Birmingham. They consist of four cylinders of 84 inches diameter and 4
feet stroke. The screw propeller is 24 feet in diameter and 37 feet
pitch; and the engine-shaft is 160 feet long, or 12 feet longer than the
height of the Duke of York's Column. The paddles and screw, when
working together at their highest pitch, exert a force equal to 11,500
horsepower, which is sufficient to drive all the cotton-mills in
Manchester! The consumption of coal to produce this force is estimated
at about 250 tons per day.

Besides these engines there are also several auxiliary engines for
pumping water into the boilers, etcetera.

The passenger accommodation in the _Great Eastern_ is very extensive--
namely, 800 first-class, from 2000 to 4000 second-class, and about 1200
third-class passengers; or if troops alone were taken, it could
accommodate 10,000 men.

The _saloons_ are fitted up in the most elaborate and costly manner.
The chief saloon is magnificently furnished. It is said that the
mirrors, gilding, carpeting, and silk curtains for this apartment alone
cost 3000 pounds. In the berths, of course, no attempt is made at
costly decoration of this kind, though the fittings are good and
sufficiently luxurious. The berths are arranged in three classes: those
for parties of six or eight, and these are large rooms; those for
parties of four; and the rest in the usual style of double cabins. All
are very roomy, as cabins go--very lofty, well lit, and those on the
outer sides exceedingly well ventilated. On the lower deck the berths
are even larger, loftier, and more commodious than those on the upper.
Both the berths and saloons here are in fact almost unnecessarily high,