3-065-918 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Steam-launch for the new telegraph cable-ship Faraday, 1874. 'She is provided with a steam-launch, built by Messrs. Yarrow and Hedley. The use of the launch is to tow barges for laying the shore ends of the cable on coasts which large ships are unable to approach...she has a speed of nine miles an hour. She has a three-bladed gun-metal screw-2 ft. 9 in. in diameter and 3 ft. 5 in pitch, and is capable of towing a barge loaded with fifty tons of cable. The engines are arranged for driving other machinery besides the screw propeller, with a view to the special service for which the vessel is designed. At one side is a drum of peculiar construction, connected by wheel gearing with the engine. This is for underrunning the cable in shallow water, to detect the exact locality of a fault, and to repair it when detected. A powerful davit projects from her bows, for grappling and hoisting up the cable. The launch is fitted with convenient water-tanks and coal bunkers, and is able to run out at sea 180 miles per day of twenty-four hours on a consumption of 15 cwt. of coals. Her economy in fuel was very marked at the trial on the Thames'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.