Feb-Mar-Apr, May-June-July 1972 - Navy League of Australia

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interval in between without the
reader referring back to several previous
pages to pick up the thread of
the story.
Information on the dust jacket
informs us that Mr O'Callaghan
delved deeply into contemporary
sources including diaries, log books
and unpublished letters, etc. The
truth of this statement is revealed
the further one reads into this book;
in fact Mr O'Callaghan relies in large
measure on copious verbatim quotations
from contemporary sources
to bolster his narrative. This is
rather unfortunate as the precise
grammatical style of early Victorian
England is not always easily
comprehended by the present-day
reader and it can sometimes happen
that an inordinate amount of
time can be wasted by the reader in
attempting to place certain pasages
in their correct context. (A
good example of this would be the
word "memorial". Its meaning
today is obvious, however in 1840
the word was sometimes used as a
substitute for the present-day word
"memorandum").
Moreover, several passages of
text, including several of the verbatim
quotations, would be far more
easily understood by a marine
engineer than by the average reader.
The unique nature of the Great
Britain's power plant is worthy of
mention — no illustrations of her
engines appear in the book. Whilst it
is quite feasible to assume that no
actual photographs of the original
engines exist, there happens to be a
functioning model of this same
power plant on exhibition at one of
the great maritime museums in England:
in fact movie film of this engine
was included in the recent television
film Tha Great Iron Ship.
Mr. O'Callaghan includes the story
of the famous tug of war between the
paddle steamer Alecto and the screwsteamer
Rattier which took place on
3 January. 1845. and which proved
to the satisfaction of the Great
Britain's designer. Isambard Kingdom
Brunei, the superiority of the
screw over the paddle wheel. As it
happened, the Rattler, using a twobladed
Smith propeller, won by tugging
Alecto astern at 2.8 knots.
On Page 49. the author mentions
an incident which occurred during a
trial voyage to London, in the course
of which the Great Britain was hit by
a heavy sea on the starboard bow
thereby occasioning a small degree
of damage. The impact occurred at
3.20 p.m. in the afternoon of the 24
January. 1845. and "it is thought
that the best known print of the ship
during this part of her life is a reconstruction
of the 3.20 p.m. wave". In
the illustrated centre section of the
book there appears a black and
white reproduction of a painting
which clearly shows her being struck
on the starboard bow by a huge
wave. However this reproduction is
labelled "after her first refitting in
1846" and clearly depicts the Great
Britain with five masts, two of which
are square-rigged, including that
immediately abaft the funnel. I am
puzzled by the inclusion in the book
of this black and white reproduction.
particularly when I note that
on the dust jacket of the book there
appears a full colour reproduction
of an almost identical painting
which clearly depicts the Graat
Britain as being rigged with six
masts, only the second of which is
square-rigged, the additional third
mast being fore-and-aft rigged. The
question obviously is why include
either of these paintings when,
taken separately, they do not appear
to relate easily to the text. It should
be remembered that not all books
fall into the hands of their readers
complete with dust jacket and therefore
on the occasion when this
occurs, the centre illustration
would not appear to relate to the text
at all — thereby remaining simply
just another pleasant picture in the
book.
I must say I was looking forward
to reading this book, particularly
so when its subject matter was. and
still is. of great interest to me.
Frankly. I was disappointed. It was
not an easy book to read as I stated
earlier, however. I ploughed along in
vain, hoping that its style might
improve. In my opinion it did not.
There can be no denying the fact
that the author obviously went to
great lengths to ensure the authenticity
of its text, however I feel this
was accomplished at the expense of
style, thereby seriously impairing its
appeal to the less-sophisticated
reader of maritime affairs.
As it is. to the best of my knowledge.
the only definitive work on
this subject to appear so far. it
would be a boon to the dedicated
researcher To others less wellendowed
with perseverance. I feel it
could be a burden.
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Page Sixty-two THE NAVY May/JunV.
May/June/July THE NAVY Pag* Slxty-Um*