But what with the straight stem,--by cutting the forefoot away,
and by the introduction of powerful steering-gear, worked
amidships,--the captain was able to navigate the Persian, 90 feet
longer than the Venetian, with much less anxiety and
inconvenience.
Until the building of the Persian, we had taken great pride in
the modelling and finish of the old style of cutwater and
figurehead, with bowsprit and jib-boom; but in urging the
advantages of greater length of hull, we were met by the fact of
its being simply impossible in certain docks to swing vessels of
any greater length than those already constructed. Not to be
beaten, we proposed to do away with all these overhanging
encumbrances, and to adopt a perpendicular stem. In this way the
hull might be made so much longer; and this was, I believe, the
first occasion of its being adopted in this country in the case
of an ocean steamer; though the once celebrated Collins Line of
paddle steamers had, I believe, such stems. The iron decks, iron
bulwarks, and iron rails, were all found very serviceable in our
later vessels, there being no leaking, no caulking of deck-planks
or waterways, nor any consequent damaging of cargo. Having found
it impossible to combine satisfactorily wood with iron, each
being so differently affected by temperature and moisture, I
secured some of these novelties of construction in a patent, by
which filling in the spaces between frames, &c.
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