This beautiful and substantial vessel is designed, in connection with the City of New York, to form a regular weekly line of packets between this city and Philadelphia. Both are new vessels, built and equipped to brave the ocean in all weathers and seasons. The City of Boston is 172½ feet long on deck, 26 feet wide, and 18½ deep, including 6½ feet height of between decks, and is of near 4500 barrels capacity, exclusive of her motive power, stores, &c. She has very sharp ends, with concave lines, and rises boldly forward, the bow preserving its angular form to the rail, with an easy and graceful flare above the line of the planksheer. Although the stem is nearly upright, yet the cutwater above the load-displacement line, inclines tastefully outward, and terminates in a gilded eagle on the wing, which forms the head. She is smack-smooth forward, and is planked flush to the covering board, and painted black.
Her stern is nearly semi-circular in outline, and is ornamented with the arms of Massachusetts, in the centre of an arch of gilded carved work. Her name and port of hail are carved into the strake, below the moulding of the planksheer, and are painted white.
She has three masts, the foremast square rigged, and the others fore-and-aft rigged, which, taken in connection with the beauty of her model, set off to great advantage. Her lines, her ends and sheer impart to her all the grave of a clipper, without a clipper's weight aloft.
The accommodations for her crew are below forward; and commencing abaft the main hatchway and extending aft is an oblong square house, with a steering-room in front, and abaft it state-rooms, galleys, &c., all tastefully painted and grained. Her cabin is under a half-poop deck, and contains three spacious state-rooms, two curtained berths, a pantry and other apartments, and is painted white, edged with gilding, and elegantly furnished. The state-rooms as well as he cabin, are well lighted and ventilated, and furnished with every convenience to render their occupants comfortable. The officers, engineers, and firemen have good accommodations before the cabin.
She is strongly constructed of the best materials. Her frame, and most of her outside planking, and her hold knees and hooks are of oak, and her deckframes, &c., of hard pine. Her keel is sided 14 inches and moulded 14; her floor timbers are 12 by 15 on the keel, and beside massive midship keelsons she has sister keelsons, and is filled in solid with timber in the wake of her engines. Her bilge-work is 6 inches thick, and the clamps 7 inches; her waterways are 14 inches square, with thick-work inside and over them, and she is strongly ceiled above. The upper deck waterways are 10 inches square, the planksheer and main rail each 5 inches thick, and her deck planking of 3 inches thickness. Her beams have hanging and lodging knees, and her ends are well spanned with heavy hooks and pointers. She has two stern-posts, the first forming the end of the hull, and the second abaft it, known as the rudder post, leaving between them space for the propeller. The rudder post is stepped into the keel, and the whole square is bound together by composition knees, sunk into the wood, and closely bolted. Her stern frame is secured beyond the power of working.
Her garboards are 6 inches thick, bolted through the keel, and upwards through the timbers, and the bilge and wales are 5½ inches thick, and she is square fastened throughout. Before she was ceiled the frame was diagonally braced with iron 4 inches wide and ½ inch thick, bolted through every frame and rivetted together at every intersection. These braces extend from the floor heads to the planksheer, and are only 3½ feet apart. She is well seasoned and ventilated, and thoroughly complete in all details. She was built at Medford by Mr. Jas. O. Curtis, and it is but simple justice to state that he has abundant cause to be proud of his workmanship.
Her motive power consists of two inverted condensing engines of direct action, with cylinders 34 inches in diameter, and 2 feet 6 inches length of stroke. Each engine has its own condenser and air-pump, and the valves are worked by a link motion. The air-pumps and buckets are of composition, and the rods of bronze metal. The cranks, cross-heads, air-pumpbeams, crank-shaft and propeller-shaft are all of double worked refined iron. All the journals are fitted with composition boxes and babetted, and the propeller-bearings on the stern-post are of composition, fastened with copper bolts. The bearings weigh about 1900 pounds. The propeller is 9 feet 9 inches in diameter and 3½ fore-and-aft, with 21 feet pitch at the periphery, and 19 at the hub. The weight of her motive power is nearly in the centre of the vessel, and though very compact, yet every part of the engines can be reached with ease. Her engine room, boilers, steam-drum, coal-bins, &c., are all arranged with consummate skill, and take but little room. Her engines were made by Mr. Harrison Loring, of South Boston, under the superintendence of Mr. C.W. Copeland. Mr. Loring's work, so far as we are qualified to judge, is not inferior to the best we have ever seen; and we have the authority of a practical engineer, who saw them tested, that they are as perfect as skill could make them. In motive power, as well as beauty and strength of hull, she is not only all that her owners designed she should be, but is an honor to the place where she was built.
On the afternoon of the 22d instant she went down the Bay upon an excursion, having on board a large company of nautical gentleman [sic] and merchants, who expressed themselves much pleased with her. She performed admirably under every circumstance.
Messrs. Phineas Sprague & Co., and others, own her, and she is commanded by Capt. Goodspeed. She is now loading at T-wharf, and will sail for Philadelphia on Saturday.
Steam communication between this city and Philadelphia is now fairly open, and from every indication among shippers, will be triumphantly sustained. The enterprising projectors of this line justly merit the success which greets them on every hand.
Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius.
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Copyright © 1997 Lars Bruzelius.