19 Dec 1846 the Steam Sloop Inflexible arrived on Sunday last from England via the Cape of Good Hope. She left Plymouth on the 9th August, with 2000 stand of arms, 800 barrels of gunpowder, and £515,000 of specie ; also, seven field officers, which were landed at the Cape, to be placed at the disposal of the Commander of the Forces there. The Inflexible arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on the 28th of September, after a passage of 49 days, during which she steamed the whole distance, and landed there £20,000 in specie, and 106,000 rounds of ball cartridge. After leaving there she proceeded to Algoa Bay. and landed 293,500 rounds ball cartridge, 2000 stand of arms, and £35,000. Left on the 8th November for Sydney, and has thus completed the passage (not including the detention at the Cape), in seventy-three days, having steamed throughout. December 7th. in lat. 39 ° 56 ' S., 135 ° 21 ' E., spoke the Wanderer, schooner, from Batavia for Sydney.

The Inflexible was built at Milford Haven, in the early part of the present year by Sir W. Symonds, the celebrated naval architect ; so expeditiously was she put together and fitted up, that from the time she was commenced till she was afloat and ready for sea hardly six months elapsed. Her dimensions are, length of keel, 190 feet, length over all 199 feet, breadth of beam, 42 feet, depth of hold, 27 feet 8 inches, register steam boat tonnage, 1123 tons, and draws at present about 13 feet water. Her crew, including officers, consist of 160 individuals. She is armed with one ten-inch pivot gun aft, upwards of eleven feet in length, which with a charge of 12 Ibs. of powder, is capable of throwing an 84 lb. shot a distance of 3170 yards, or upwards of 1 mile and 4-5ths ; the time occupied by the flight of the shot from this gun is 16 seconds. There is another pivot gun forward of eleven feet in length, with a bore of seven and seven-tenths inches, which with a charge of fourteen pounds of powder will throw a fifty-six pound shot 3614 yards, or two miles and ninety-four yards; the flight of the shot occupying fifteen and a half seconds. The two guns weigh respectively four tons eight cwt., and four tons four cwt. There are also four carronades, each eight feet long, weighing two tons each, with a bore of six three-tenths inches, which with a charge of six pounds of powder will throw a shot of thirty-two pounds to the distance of 2576 yards, or about one and a half miles ; the flight of the shot requiring ten and a half seconds. Besides these six-principal guns there is a brass six-pounder field-piece, and several twelve pounder carronades. intended principally for being used in the boats, of which. besides the usual number of common boats belonging to Queen's ships of the same class as the Inflexible, there are two diagonal built life boats, secured in an inverted position, one on the top of each paddle-box, from which in a case of emergency they can be lowered in a few seconds by means of davits rising from the deck at the extremity of the paddle-boxes : either of these boats is capable of carrying all hands, and have already been worked with fifteen tons of dead weight in them respectively.

The machinery has been constructed on the most improved principle, by Fawcett and Preston, of Liverpool, and constitutes what engineers designate a direct acting marine engine, of 375 horse-power, being composed of four equal and similar parts, of which the diameter of the cylinders is seventy-two inches, and the length of the stroke five feet nine inches. There are four boilers, one for each cylinder, each of which has the fuel applied under it by means of three flues. The four primary parts of the engine are so constructed and connected together, that the steam of either one, two, three, or the whole four boilers may be used simultaneously. The daily consumption of coal may be gathered from the fact that when the Inflexible left the Cape, she had 460 tons of coal in her boxes, and after steaming all the way to this port, which was effected in thirty-five days, at the vessel's arrival in Port Jackson there remained about five tons in the boxes, so that the consumption in thirty-five days was about 455 tons. The paddle wheels are of gigantic contour, having a diameter of 29½ feet each, or 92.67 feet in circumference, round which there are placed in each wheel twenty-four float boards, each containing a surface of twenty and a quarter square feet. which perform from eighteen to twenty revolutions per minute. The maximum speed hitherto obtained by the Inflexible has been about twelve and a-half miles per hour. The interior arrangements appear to be made so as to secure ample accommodation with compactness. The galleys for cooking being placed in the same line with the paddle boxes, and under the same coverings, leave the deck clear fore and aft, with the exception of the cylinder shaft which turns the paddles, which is encased in sheet iron. There is one arrangement on board this vessel which appears to be well worth the attention of the owners of Australian steamers, especially as it could be adopted on board all of them without inconvenience or creating any large expense, and would be a decided improvement on the mode at present employed for conveying the commander's or pilot's orders to the engineer below, which has hitherto been done here by stationing a man at the engineer's hatch for the purpose of passing the orders down to the engine-room Instead of this mode, on boar the Inflexible there is a telegraph clock erected on the stage or bridge over and between the paddle boxes, which communicates with a similar telegraph dial placed in the engine room below, and the two are so connected that whenever the index of the dial on the stage is moved, the index below moves in the same manner, so as to point directly to words on the dial expressive of what is to be done-such as " half-speed," " stop her," " stroke astern, &c. ;" and in order to warn those below that an order has been given on deck, a small bell rings below whenever the index on the stage has been moved. In like manner, whenever the engineer has obeyed the order, a small bell on the stage rings as a signal that the order has been complied with. Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the machinery of this vessel from the space which is occupied by the engine room, which is fifty-five feet in (length. and extending through nearly the breadth and depth of the vessel.

Through the polite invitation of Captain Hoseason, the directors and officers of the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company paid a visit on Thursday to this fine steamer, and were much pleased by the modern improvements and arrangements introduced in her engines and machinery, and with much interesting information, afforded by Captain Hoseason. upon recent experiments conducted by the Admiralty, with a view to the economical employment of steam power in propelling vessels. The courtesy of Captain Hoseason, who is evidently intimately acquainted with the steam engine, practically as well as theoretically, in minutely explaining personally all the arrangements of the machinery and vessel, was highly gratifying to the party, and creditable to himself as a gentleman and a man of science, desirous to communicate the knowledge he possessed of recent improvements.

^ back to top ^