The ship was propelled by two separate engines, driving respectively paddle-wheels and a single propeller. The engines for the paddle-wheels were of the oscillating type. The cylinders were four in number, 74 inches in diameter, by 14-feet stroke, and each one in the finished condition weighed 28 tons. The paddle-wheels were 56 feet in diameter. Steam for these engines was supplied by four, double-ended, tubular boilers, each 17 feet 9 inches long, 17 feet 6 inches wide, and 13 feet 9 inches high, and weighing, with water, 95 tons. Each boiler contained 10 furnaces. The screw engines, which were placed in the aftermost compartment of the machinery spaces, were of the horizontal, opposed type; there were four cylinders, 84 inches in diameter, by 4-feet stroke, and each one, in the finished condition, weighed 39 tons. The propeller shafting, 150 feet in length, weighed 60 tons. The four-bladed propeller was 24 feet in diameter. Steam was supplied to these engines by six tubular boilers of about the same dimensions as those for the paddle-wheel engines. The working pressure was 25 pounds per square inch. [Illustration: Length, 692 feet; beam, 83 feet; depth, 58 feet. Subdivision: Double hull; nine main bulkheads, 53 feet high, extending to upper deck, and six sub-bulkheads 35 feet high, extending to lower deck. Two longitudinal bulkheads through machinery spaces. LONGITUDINAL SECTION AND PLAN OF THE GREAT EASTERN, 1858] The estimated speed of the _Great Eastern_ was 15 knots; her best actual performance on an extended voyage was an average speed of 14 knots, which was realised on one of her trips to New York. She was designed to carry 4,000 passengers, namely 800 first, 2,000 second, and 1,200 third class, besides a crew of 400. She had a capacity of 5,000 tons of cargo, and 12,000 tons of coal. When fitted up for the accommodation of troops she could carry 10,000. Fully laden with passengers, cargo, and coal, she displaced, on a draft of 30 feet, about 27,000 tons;--her actual draft was from 26 to 28 feet. The accommodations for passengers would have done credit to one of our modern liners. There were five saloons on the upper, and another five on the lower deck. The uppermost deck afforded two unbroken and spacious promenades, one on each side of the ship, each of which was 20 feet wide and over 600 feet in length.