The whole of the vessel is divided transversely into ten separate perfectly water-tight compartments by bulkheads carried up to the upper-deck, and consequently far above the deepest water lines, even if the ship were water-logged, so far as such a ship could be; and these are not nominal divisions, but complete substantial bulkheads, water-tight, and of strength sufficient to bear the pressure of the water, should a compartment be even filled with water; so that if the ship were supposed to be cut in two, the separate portions would float; and no damage, however great, to the ship’s bottom, in one or even two of these compartments would endanger the floating of the whole, or even damage the cargo in the rest of the ship, or above the main-decks of the compartment in question, and all damageable cargo would be stowed above that deck. Besides these principal bulkheads there is in each compartment a second intermediate bulkhead, forming a coal bunker, and carried up to the main-deck, which can, on an emergency, also be closed. There are no openings under the deep-water line through the principal bulkheads, except one continuous gallery or pipe near the water line, through which the steam pipes pass, and which will be so constructed as to remain closed, the opening being the exception, and the closing again being easy, and the height being such that, under the most improbable circumstances of damage to the ship, ample time would be afforded to close it leisurely, and to make it perfectly water-tight. I have also adopted the system, to be followed rigidly and without exception, of making no openings whatever--even by pipes and cocks--through the ship’s bottom, or through the inner skin below the load water line, and I attach much importance to this system. In the majority of cases in which steamboats are compelled to put into port from failure of bilge-pumps and other really trifling defects, no such serious consequence would have resulted, but from the difficulty and almost impossibility of remedying at sea any defects in the numerous pipes and openings now carried through the ship’s bottom, wherever convenient, and without much regard to the danger of doing so. I have found no great difficulty in carrying out this system completely, and the advantages, both as regards safety and the facility of remedying defects without delaying the ship on her voyage, must be obvious.