This cableship was laid down in 1873 and launched in February 1874. She is 5,000 tons register, 360 feet long, 52 feet beam and 30 feet deep. In her interior are three enormous iron tanks for recieving 1,700 miles of cable, which are so built into the body of the ship as to greatly add to the strength of the structure. Two are 45 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. The third is somewhat smaller. She has on board a complete outfit of machinery for laying cables in the most efficient manner as well as for grappling and recovering lost cables. Many of the parts of her structure and apparatus showed considerable novelty of design at that time, among which may be mentioned the twin-screw-propeller. Another admirable arrangement is that both her funnels are ABREAST of each other thereby allowing the bale to be played out amidship. The gearing, fore and aft, for laying and picking up cables, is also conspicuous. She is lighted throughout by electricity and has proved herself to be a good sea-going vessel, and is capable of laying and recovering cables at all depths even in dirty weather.
Model made by Mr Daniel Aldous, an electrical mechanic who served on the "Faraday" in the employ of Siemens, for the laying of the Trans-Atlantic cable.
Mr Aldous was born in England at West Ham. He and his wife Eliza (nee Turner) and two sons arrived in Melbourne aboard the 'Orient' in December 1888. They appear on the electoral role as living at Penshurst NSW in 1916. Eliza died in 1922 and Daniel died in 1927. (information supplied by Mr Malcolm Aldous, great grandson of Daniel Aldous.)
This cableship was laid down in 1873 and launched in February 1874. She is 5,000 tons register, 360 feet long, 52 feet beam and 30 feet deep. In her interior are three enormous iron tanks for recieving 1,700 miles of cable, which are so built into the body of the ship as to greatly add to the strength of the structure. Two are 45 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. The third is somewhat smaller.
She has on board a complete outfit of machinery for laying cables in the most efficient manner as well as for grappling and recovering lost cables. Many of the parts of her structure and apparatus showed considerable novelty of design at that time, among which may be mentioned the twin-screw-propeller. Another admirable arrangement is that both her funnels are ABREAST of each other thereby allowing the bale to be played out amidship.
The gearing, fore and aft, for laying and picking up cables, is also conspicuous. She is lighted throughout by electricity and has proved herself to be a good sea-going vessel, and is capable of laying and recovering cables at all depths even in dirty weather.
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