A double-hulled boat of a somewhat different type, and from which great things were expected, was the _Calais-Douvres_. Her principal features were to be an increase in speed and stability, and by means of the steadiness of her double hull, the abolition of sea-sickness. She was an enlarged _Castalia_. The expectation of her owners on these points was not realised and after a few trips she was withdrawn from service and replaced by another and more efficient vessel of the ordinary type. To the category of magnificent failures there should be added the steam-ship _Bessemer_, launched at Hull in 1874 and designed by and named after Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Bessemer. The object her designer had in view was to mitigate the horrors of the cross-Channel passage, and to accomplish this he fitted his boat with a spacious saloon which, by means of a series of pivots and a gyroscope, would remain in a level position without oscillation, no matter how much the vessel might roll or how rough the weather might be. These arrangements worked perfectly in theory, but immediately the _Bessemer_ went to sea for her trials and the test became a practical one, it was discovered that she must be relegated to a conspicuous place among the successes that might have been. Everything about her was on a lavish scale. A peculiarity was that she had four paddle-wheels, two a side, an experiment that has never been successful. Her form also was against her, and in dirty weather she would have been a wet ship, difficult to steer, and almost helpless. On her private trial trip the _Bessemer_ attained a speed of eleven knots in crossing from Dover to Calais, but was thirty-five minutes in getting alongside the French pier.