midshipmen I was—ran into the Peninsular
and Oriental Company's steamer Goliath, when
she was lying tranquilly off the Ragged Staff,
at Gibraltar. I feel that I owe a kind of
amende to the mercantile navy, in consequence
of my participation in that lubberly performance.
To be sure, the Admiralty—but let
us sink our private grievances, and hail a
boat. " A massive hull that of the Orinoco's
—taffrail thirty feet above the water, I dare
say. What two huge black columns these
funnels are! Really, she is as big as a line-
of-battle ship," I remark (with a slight
professional chagrin); and, indeed, she is a vessel
of two thousand two hundred and forty-five
tons; her engines are eight hundred horse
power; her crew numbers one hundred and
ten men; her length is three hundred feet.

Blackwall is not a lively place in winter.
The river looks muddy and sullen, and
seems, in the distance, to be emptying itself
into a sea of mist. The rigging of ships
looks flabby and dirty; the smoke clings
to everything. The hotels are deserted.
If you enter one of them, you find the stairs
ghastly and uncarpeted, and a general air
of an impending funeral on the first floor.
There were no temptations to look about,
so I was glad enough to find myself on
the main-deck of the Orinoco. The smart
noises of hammers, the smell of fresh paint,
loose ropes lying about, and bustling
mechanics running backwards and forwards,
showed the activity with which preparations
were going forward. I instinctively remark,
in the first place, the height of the deck;
that is always the first thing which attracts
my attention. I have served in " Symondites,"
where the loftiness of the deck is always a
characteristic, and where you will never
break your head, as you do in old-fashioned
craft. I note that the Orinoco's main-deck
is as high as the Vanguard's, in which
remark the chief officer very cordially
acquiesces. And now I go aft, to glance at the
cabins, and see the arrangements in progress
for the comfort of those ladies and gentlemen
who are now, in various parts of the country,
bidding good-bye to friends and relations, and
getting ready for the passage out.

The Orinoco, one learns, to begin with,
has sleeping accommodations for about a
hundred and fifty-six passengers. You pass
a row of them neatly painted white, with
gilt mouldings, and fitted with ornamental
glass. Each cabin is arranged, as a general
principle, to accommodate two; one of the
beds being triced up during the day, and
lowered down at right angles across the end
of the other when wanted. A particularly
admirable arrangement prevents gentlemen
from having any control over their lights at
night; the light is placed in a little triangular
nook, in perfect safety, communicating through
ground glass all the benefit that the
inhabitant can possibly require, and being ready
for snug removal from the deck outside.
Abaft are the ladies' private cabins, for their
own drawing-room purposes. Descending to
the saloon-deck, we find ourselves in the
dining saloon, where a hundred and twenty
persons " dine" (it does not become me, as a
nautical man, to grin sardonically here, but I
do.) There are sixteen cabins, and here are
two fire-places. The mahogany tables are
screwed into the deck. Here you observe
the steward's cabin, whence (in the hot
latitudes) so much consolation may be
expected to flow. In this excellent establishment,
there are arrangements for the stowage
of sixty dozen bottles; and there is a patent
filter (a work of great genius); and exquisite
conveniences protect the plates. Seeing all
this, and being informed how arrangements
have been made for the dinner to come aft in
the promptest, hottest style, I mentally
applaud peace, and reflect on the blessings
of commerce. For, indeed, I involuntarily
remember our hideous berth in the Bustard,
and how we had no filter, and, not
unfrequently, scarcely a plate either, and how
the tumblers got broken in our execrable
buffet.

From the dining saloon let us descend to
the orlop-deck, where cabins of interest are
to be seen. In these, in the very heart of
the vessel, on either side of the narrow
passage, through which we go, preceded by
a lantern, lie the bullion-cabin, and the mail-
rooms. The mail-rooms are lined with zinc,
to protect the huge bagfuls of letters, which
the steamer carries for all parts of the West.
In this region, too, are rooms for the passengers'
baggage; and down below is the magazine.
For the steamer carries two twenty-
four pounders, and small arms for a hundred
and twenty men. Meanwhile we see near us
racks laden with cheeses; and observe likewise
two wine-racks to hold a snug fifty
dozen of wine.

Feeling tolerably secure that all will go
well in the eating and drinking department,
I now descend to visit the engine-room. I
find myself in the centre of the massive
iron-work of machinery in an engine-room
seventy feet long. To supply the mighty life
that is to make all this throb gigantically—
tolerable provision is made—in five hundred
and fifty tons of coal—aft; in five hundred
and fifty ditto, in the bunkers. There are
eight boilers, fore and aft—four for each
funnel. And no wonder. The paddle-wheels
are forty feet in diameter, with floats (" feath-
ering" floats), eleven feet six inches long, and
four feet six broad;— and how these must go!

The Orinoco is fitted with " direct acting"
engines; and a peculiarity, called the " valve
motion," enables one man to work both
engines; the valves are worked by wheels from
the " intermediate shafts." The Amazon's
engines were " side-lever" engines, and were
situated farther forward.

Note, also, a little two-horse engine, which
they call the " donkey-engine"—useful as a