[Illustration: MODEL OF THE ENGINES OF THE “LEINSTER.”] Messrs. Scott, Russell and Co. launched at Millwall in September 1854, for a Sydney company, the steamer _Pacific_, which was expected to prove one of the fastest vessels afloat. She was 270 feet in length over all, breadth 82 feet, depth 34 feet, and tonnage 1200. She had oscillating engines of 450 horse-power nominal and over 1000 effective, four independent boilers, and her feathering paddle-wheels were of exceptional strength. She was estimated to steam sixteen miles an hour. [Illustration: THE “PACIFIC.”] There was launched in the beginning of 1861 by Messrs. Pearse and Co. of Stockton-on-Tees, for the conveyance of troops on the lower Indus, a vessel which fulfilled the rather unusual requirements of a Government Commission appointed to discover the best means of navigating the Indian rivers which, though broad, are often shallow in places, and abounding in sandbanks. This vessel was 377 feet over all, beam 46 feet, breadth over paddle-boxes 74 feet, depth 5 feet, with a displacement at 2 feet draught of 730 tons. Her tonnage was 3991 under the old system of measurement. Her engines, by Messrs. James Watt and Co., were of 220 nominal horse-power, with horizontal cylinders of 55 inches diameter and 6 feet stroke. The paddle-wheels were 26 feet in diameter. The hull was of steel strengthened longitudinally by four arched girders, two of which carried the paddle-wheels, and the other two extended nearly the full length of the ship. Other girders strengthened her athwartships. She had no rudders in the ordinary sense, but was steered at each end by blades, which were raised from or lowered into the water at the required angle. The vessel had two tiers of cabins, and could accommodate 800 troops and their officers. The paddle-steamer _Athole_, built by Messrs. Barclay, Curle and Co., Ltd., in the year 1866, was the first steamer to be fitted with the saloon above the upper deck. The credit for this improvement rests entirely with the late Mr. John Ferguson, who was then manager of the shipbuilding yard. So impressed were Lloyd’s that they desired Mr. Ferguson to patent his improvement, but this he refused to do as he considered it ought to be given to the shipbuilding world free of royalty. Messrs. A. and J. Inglis were the builders in 1882 of the steel paddle-steamer _Ho-nam_, which has the distinction of being one of the few, and probably the first, English-built vessels constructed on the American plan. She was rigged as a two-master carrying fore and aft sails only. Her paddles were placed very far aft, and she was fitted with a walking beam-engine. She was constructed for the Chinese coastal trade and was of 2364 tons gross register, and was so successful that others of the same type followed.