In March 1859, Messrs. J. and W. Dudgeon issued a circular on the subject of steam navigation direct to Calcutta round the Cape, pointing out that “steam hereafter will be almost exclusively employed in the transport of goods between East India and Australia and the United Kingdom may be taken for granted; this is merely a matter of time.” The circular continued that the Cape route would certainly be simple and safe, and therefore superior to the overland route, especially if it could be rendered expeditious and profitable. The conditions required that vessels of not less than 5500 tons, builders’ measurement, be supplied at a total cost per vessel of £150,000; the voyage, it was anticipated, would take thirty or thirty-five days, or only a couple of days more than the overland route. As a correct forecast of the size of vessels which until a few years ago conveyed the great bulk of the merchandise between Britain and the Far East, this statement is interesting and shows how accurately the needs of the traffic were estimated. [Illustration: THE “NORMAN” (UNION-CASTLE LINE, 1894).] In 1855 Messrs. A. and J. Inglis of Pointhouse, Glasgow, entered into a contract “with a degree of boldness which only complete success could have justified. They undertook to build the steamer _Tasmanian_ to the order of the European and Australian Steam Navigation Company. The machinery, of over 3000 horse-power, was at that time considered of the largest size, and to undertake the erection of it in a little wooden shop barely twenty feet high, and furnished with a fifteen-ton crane, was almost heroic. The soleplate of this set of engines weighed 40 tons, and had to be lowered with screw-jacks into a pit dug out to give height under the travelling crane. Messrs. Inglis actually built up the crank-shaft themselves, working the material in the smithy. The _Tasmanian_ proved one of the fastest screw steamers built up to that time, having easily attained over 14¹⁄₂ knots at Stokes Bay. Her consumption of coal, about three pounds per indicated horse-power, was for that day extremely moderate. The engines were constructed with three cylinders, had a built crank-shaft, valves at the side, variable expansion, steam reversing gear, a built propeller, and other fittings which are still reckoned in that comprehensive term, ‘all modern improvements.’ The engines worked most successfully until the general adoption of the compound engine made so many admirable contrivances obsolete.”[75] Shortly after building the _Tasmanian_, Messrs. A. and J. Inglis began to build for the British India Company with excellent results to all concerned, and since then they have constructed many vessels for this famous company. [75] _Engineering_, July 30, 1897.