Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/370

 ease;" and they talk of the ship being buoyant even if chopped into ten ships&mdash;like those animals which seem to have ten lives instead of one.

It is not easy to form, an adequate idea of the dimensions of this iron monster. When we recollect that the Great Western, which twenty years ago was regarded as a marvel of vastness, is 236 feet long; the Great Britain, the first ocean screw steamer, is 322 feet long; and that the majestic Himalaya is 370 feet long we may get, by comparison, a rough notion of the magnitude of the Leviathan, which is 680 feet long between the perpendiculars, and 691 feet on the upper deck. The breadth of the hull is 83 feet, the extreme breadth across the paddle-boxes 118 feet, and the depth from deck to keel 58 feet. In the construction of the hull 30,000 iron plates were used, and these plates were fastened with 2,000,000 rivets. The weight of iron in the hull amounts to 8000 tons, and the weight of the entire vessel when voyaging with its passengers, crew, coals, and cargo on board, will be from 25,000 to 30,000 tons.

Many ingenious comparisons have been made to enable the mind to form a true conception of the value of the above figures. The London streets and squares have frequently been selected as familiar illustrations of the Leviathan's dimensions. Thus it has been said that if any gigantic power could transport the monster to Pall Mall, or