Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - The White Funnel Fleet - P & A Campbell Limited

I used to envy the genial old Scottish chief engineer who would sit out most of his watch with his keen gaze fixed approvingly on his engines. Sometimes he would get up and beckon to me to accompany him down the greasy polished steel ladder, where, close to swinging eccentric-rods and the great condenser and its air-pump, we would watch those monster connecting-rods and cranks whirling majestically round. What an entrancing sight it was, with its own peculiar setting of heat and sweet-smelling hot lubricating oil!

There were wonderful moments, too, when coming alongside a pier ; the sharp metallic clang, clang, of the engine telegraph gong, the quick click of the steam reversing gear, the roar of the high pressure manoeuvring steam in the big low pressure cylinder. Then stop ! and the sudden pause and silence, broken only by the occasional distant shudder of the warping capstan astern and the spasms of the steam steering gear. Then most abruptly would come the clang! clang! 'full speed astern,' and once more the great cranks would swing quickly in reverse direction.

Side elevation and half deck plan of the pleasure steamer 'Brighton Queen' of Shoreham.

But come, we mustn't linger too long in this paradise! Once more on deck one noted 'Brighton Queen's' fine white funnel with its man-o'-war top - a feature shared by the Belle steamers, but other wise rarely seen on paddle steamers. On the boiler casing were four small stockhold ventilators, very shapely and of the usual construction, by which I mean that they were built up of four plates beaten to shape and riveted together. The largest was the back plate, and this and the two sides were bent to easy curves. The smallest plate was that forming the throat, and this was worked to the sharpest curves. The circular mouth was strengthened by a hoop of half-round beading.