Chapter XI (3)

Finally, the commander’s attention must be devoted exclusively to
the general management of the whole system under his control, and
his attention must not be diverted by frivolous pursuits and
unimportant occupations. I believe that even in the present large
steamers much advantage would result from relieving the captain
from all care of the passengers and cargo; but in our case, where
we may have to provide for thousands instead of hundreds, and
arranged in different classes, and living in completely separate
saloons and compartments, the present system of a captain dining at
the table and associating with the passengers would be
impracticable, even if it were desirable. But for much more
important reasons, and on general grounds, I think that while the
commander is of course supreme over every department, he should not
be embarrassed by undertaking any one, still less should he have
his mind occupied with the troublesome and frivolous concerns of a
vast hotel, nor should he be hampered by the necessity of attending
to the hours and the forms of a large society. Moreover, I consider
it essential that he should by his presence and control keep up the
position and the sense of responsibility of the chief officers
under him, by living and messing with them; the commander and those
acting immediately under him must occupy a more dignified position
than they now do.

The result of all these general views is, that the command of this
ship must be considered to consist mainly in the superintending and
keeping up in a high state of order the perfect working of a highly
methodical pre-arranged system, by means of which the ship is to be
made to go like a piece of very accurate machinery, precisely in
the course which has been pre-arranged, and precisely at the speed,
and with the consumption of power, which has been ascertained to be
the highest attainable with the requisite economy; and there must
be a proper establishment of assistants, competent to control each
department of this system. As regards the constitution of this
establishment, I consider the commander should have a staff of
chief officers or captains. I believe three will be necessary, with
a fourth performing general duties and ready to take the place of
any one of the three; that one of them should always be in command
of the ship (under the commander); that, besides these chief
officers, there should be a master, corresponding to a master in a
Queen’s ship, who would have assistants and calculators or clerks,
whose duties would be to keep the ship’s reckoning, to keep up
perfect and continuous observations, to calculate with precision
and set from hour to hour the exact course by compass which has to
be followed, to keep in the course determined upon by the captain,
to keep a series of accurate observations and records of all
matters that can affect the ship’s movements--duties involving an
amount of science and practical astronomical and mathematical
knowledge which requires a superior education, and which is found
only in this class of men. The duty of the master would be
therefore to supply the science necessary for the conduct of the
ship, and to be the commander’s cyclopædia and book of reference,
to be able at any moment to report to the commander the exact
position of the ship and her course, and the variation of her
compasses, and take the soundings, if any, to note the fact of a
change in the temperature of the water, indicating approach of ice,
and any other symptom or fact which can affect the ship’s
movements--all which should be determined by continuous
observations methodically and mechanically made, and not be
dependent upon the chance of the commander’s anxiety or greater or
less forethought. The chief engineer should also be a superior man,
selected more for his general qualifications as a good director of
men and machinery, than as a mere marine engineer. These should
form a staff, and be of a standing to live and mess with the
commander; so that each department should thus be furnished with a
chief competent for the special duties of his department, and
reporting to and acting under the general control of the commander.

That the principles thus laid down as to following exactly a
prescribed and predetermined course, and as to regulating exactly
the consumption of power and consequently of fuel, and the keeping
up a system of what may be termed scientific observation for the
purpose of ensuring this regularity, I submit should be rigidly
enforced; and the commander should be required to adopt these
principles as the guide of his conduct, and to use the measures
that are placed at his disposal for working this machine in the
manner and with the precision pointed out.

_Letter on the Duties of the Chief Engineer._

March 19, 1857.

The duties which I apprehend will devolve upon the chief engineer
of our ship will be, firstly, the supreme direction and management
of both the principal engines, and all the auxiliary engines and
machinery worked by them in the ship; and as the construction of
such a ship, and of many of its adjuncts, such as the iron masts
and yards, steering apparatus, and other parts, are strictly of an
engineering character, and such as in the event of repairs,
particularly at sea or in foreign ports, would require a mechanical
engineer rather than a shipwright, I think it must be made part of
your duty, as the most competent officer, to make yourself
thoroughly acquainted with the construction of the ship and all its
parts, and all mechanism within it, so as to be prepared to take
such share of responsibility as to the state of the structure of
the ship as it may be found desirable to throw upon you as chief
engineer, and at all events to be prepared to be the captain’s
chief authority and responsible adviser on all matters of
mechanical engineering.

The principal duty, however, will of course be the management of
the engines, including the care of the paddle, screw, and other
machinery immediately connected with the engines, or worked by
them; and as the success of the ship as a steamboat will depend
entirely upon the amount of power developed by the engines, in
proportion to the fuel consumed, there is no limit to the degree of
attention, of judgment, and of skill, that not only may be usefully
applied, but that must be applied to ensure success.

I have no wish to alarm you as to the amount of work or
responsibility that will devolve upon you; my object is rather to
show you the opportunity afforded of displaying judgment, skill,
and assiduous attention, and thus, as I hope, to excite your
ambition, when I seek to draw your attention very strongly to the
peculiarities of this case.

In ordinary steam navigation, whatever perfection has as yet been
sought for or attained, the business of the engineer has been
mainly to keep the engines in perfect order, and to develope the
greatest amount of power possible, and, secondly, to effect as
great economy as possible in the consumption of fuel; but the
latter has been merely a question of economy in a pecuniary point
of view, and not of necessity, and has been entirely secondary to
the first condition, so much so that the most successful ships have
not been by any means the most economical, on the contrary, they
have been rather extravagant consumers.

In the present case, the circumstances are totally different, and
it will be essential that you should change altogether your
accustomed views on this subject.

This ship is built to go round the world with a defined and limited
amount of fuel, which you have no power to exceed, or rather, if
you exceed it, at any part of the voyage, the whole is a failure.
The circumstances are therefore reversed, with this additional
condition, that there is no medium or partial success. In the
ordinary cases you have a limited power of engine and an excess of
fuel, in which it is desirable but not essential that you should
effect economy; in the present case you have a limited and defined
quantity of fuel to consume, with an excess of engine power, and
the art will be to obtain the largest total amount of power from
this fuel, expending it progressively, and in such a manner as to
reach a given point. To effect this, and obtain the best possible
results, will require of course that the engines should be kept in
the best possible order; but this, although a preliminary
condition, is an ordinary one, requiring no peculiar duties or
exercise of judgment, and must be assumed, as on all occasions, a
matter of course. The peculiar duties in our case will be the
continuous study in every trifling detail that can effect the
result of the means of obtaining the largest amount of steam from
the defined expenditure of fuel and the use of this steam, so as to
obtain the largest amount of power, and the largest amount of
result.

The mere study of this question must necessarily occupy some time,
and for several voyages it will be a subject of experiment; but the
more rapidly positive information can be obtained, the more prompt
and certain will be our success. To attain success will require a
degree of attention to every minute detail, which it has never yet
been necessary or profitable to devote to this branch.

The continuous weighing out of coals and measure of the products of
each boiler (for which means will be provided), the continual
observation of the extent to which blowing-off is desirable, the
continuous measure by indicator of the performance of the engines
under different pressures and degrees of expansion, so that you can
at all times furnish the captain with the exact performances of the
two engines, and the cost of fuel required to produce given results
in each; so that he may have the means of comparing your
expenditure with the results he obtained in the speed of the ship,
and of learning the relative beneficial effects of employing more
or less the paddle or the screw in different states of weather, or
different immersions of the ship, will be required; and every
method of increasing the performance of each gang of stokers, and
of stimulating their skill and care, and every refinement in each
separate branch of the work, to effect economy of fuel, or rather,
development of power with a given amount of fuel, will be
necessary. We all know full well how, if every effort is
continuously made and every possible care is continuously bestowed
in each department, 4 or 5 per cent. can be saved or gained in many
points, and at many times in the 24 hours, between the drawing of
the coals from the bunkers and the development of power at the
paddle board or the screw blades; and if only 1 per cent. can be
thus gained in a few points, the aggregate will soon amount to 10
per cent., which with us may make the difference between success
and failure. All these things will require judgment, thought and
attention, rather than labour, and, above all, close watching and
method, and good management of men.

Besides these more than ordinary duties during the voyage, the only
peculiarity in the service will be that, with such a costly
machine, the mere interest of money and fixed expenditure upon
which will not be short of 200_l_. a day, and the perfect state of
which is so essential, you will be required to give more attention
to the machinery when in port than is usually required.

I trust that this strong but not exaggerated statement of what
would be expected of the chief engineer, will excite your desire to
undertake the duties, rather than deter you from seeking the post;
and that, if the Directors should accept the offer of your
services, you will enter upon the duties with confidence, though
with a sense of their serious importance. In the event of your
appointment, it will be a necessary condition that you should be
able to commence at once the supervision of the erection of the
engines. This work is already much farther advanced than I should
have wished it to be before the chief engineer had taken charge of
it. I attach great importance to his having that familiar knowledge
of all the parts and their condition, which no study of drawings
can give so well as actual inspection during erection, and I wish
also that he should satisfy himself of the perfect truth of every
adjustment.

It will be seen from the documents which have been printed in this chapter how ‘deeply and seriously’ Mr. Brunel had considered all the conditions which were, in his opinion, necessary for the economical construction, and the successful employment, of the great ship; but it is hardly possible, by means of extracts from his correspondence, to convey an adequate impression of the amount of labour he expended--from the year 1852 to the last days of his life--on the supervision of every detail of the work. ‘The fact is,’ he said, ‘I never embarked in any one thing to which I have so entirely devoted myself, and to which I have devoted so much time, thought, and labour, and on the success of which I have staked so much reputation.’

Heavy as Mr. Brunel’s duties were in October 1854, when he wrote these words, a far greater amount of labour was subsequently imposed upon him.

During the year 1855 financial difficulties arose which interfered with the progress of the ship; and at last, in February 1856, although Mr. Brunel had done everything in his power to prevent the necessity of such a step, the works were suspended; and they were not resumed till the end of May, after which date they were carried on by the Company under the supervision of the existing staff. It was greatly against Mr. Brunel’s wishes that this was attempted, except as a temporary measure, as he considered it impossible for a company to carry on such a work efficiently and economically.

Notwithstanding all these difficulties, that which seemed at first only a confused mass of iron assumed by slow degrees the graceful proportions of a ‘great ship’; and the hull of the vessel was completed by the end of the summer of 1857, so far as it was desirable to proceed before the commencement of the launching operations.