The year 1839 will long be remembered by all those who have taken any interest in Eastern affairs. The harsh and unwarrantable measures of Commissioner Lin, the imprisonment of Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary and all other English subjects, and the wild but brief career of uncontrolled violence which marked his reign, called imperatively on our part for stronger measures than had yet been resorted to; and such measures were at once adopted by the Court of Directors of the East India Company, as well as by the government of the country, their direct object being to ensure the speedy departure of an adequate force for the protection of British subjects and British trade in China, and to demand proper reparation for the violence and insult offered to Her Majesty's representative.

It was scarcely to be expected that, under these circumstances, hostilities could be altogether avoided; and, as the principal scene of them, if they occurred, would be in rivers and along the coasts, attention was directed to the fitting out of armed vessels, which should be peculiarly adapted for that particular service. Iron, as a material for ship-building, had been already tried, and found to answer; and this was considered an extremely favourable opportunity for testing the advantages or otherwise of iron steam-vessels; and the numerous rivers along the coast of China, hitherto very imperfectly known, and almost totally unsurveyed, presented an admirable field for these experiments. If successful there, it might be readily inferred that their utility in the fine rivers and along the shores of Hindostan, and other portions of the Company's territories, would be demonstrated, and by degrees a very powerful steam fleet would become an invaluable addition to the already vast resources of the Indian government.

Orders were therefore given for the immediate building of several stout iron steamers, to be constructed with peculiar reference to their employment in river navigation. They were all to be adequately armed and manned, and no reasonable expense was to be spared in fitting them out in a manner best adapted to the particular object sought to be attained by them. No iron steamer had ever yet doubled the Cape of Good Hope; their qualities, therefore, remained yet to be tested in the stormy seas about Southern Africa; and various questions respecting the errors of the compasses, the effects of lightning, &c., upon vessels of this description, remained still imperfectly solved, particularly in reference to those tropical regions, where the great phenomena of nature are exhibited in a more intense and dangerous degree. In fact, no experience had yet been gained of their capabilities for the performance of long and perilous voyages; and it was a bold conception which suggested that they should be sent round the Cape, to the eastward, in the very worst season of the year, when even the stoutest and largest wooden ships trust themselves as little as possible in that stormy region.

The equipment and destination of the Nemesis, however, was kept a profound secret, except to those who were personally concerned in it, and even they (with the exception of the authorities) had little notion of the precise service upon which she was to be employed.

The Nemesis was at length finished, and sent to sea as a private armed steamer. She was never commissioned under the articles of war, although commanded principally by officers belonging to the Royal Navy; neither was she classed among the ships of the regular navy of the East India Company. In short, the Nemesis was equipped under very peculiar circumstances, which, together with the novelty of her construction, caused her to become an object of very general interest. The "wooden walls" of England had, in fact, been so long identified with her proudest recollections, and had constituted for so many centuries her national "boast," that it seemed an almost unnational innovation to attempt to build them of iron. Indeed, it was rather looked upon as one of the dangerous experiments of modern days. Moreover, as the floating property of wood, without reference to its shape or fashion, rendered it the most natural material for the construction of ships, so did the sinking property of iron make it appear, at first sight, very ill adapted for a similar purpose. It was sometimes forgotten that even wooden ships are composed of wood, iron, and copper together, and that the bulkiness of these necessary materials greatly diminishes the buoyancy of the wood.

A minute and scientific description of the structure of the Nemesis will be found in the United Service Journal for May, 1840, and it will therefore be sufficient, in this place, merely to notice one or two peculiarities, in which it differs from that of wooden ships in general. With the exception of the great paddle-beams, across the ship, and the planks of the deck and the cabin-fittings, together with one or two other parts, the names of which would be only intelligible to the scientific reader, the whole vessel was built of iron.

Credit is due to Mr. Laird, of the Birkenhead Iron Works, Liverpool, for the admirable manner in which she was constructed, and for the elegance of her form and model, which fully answered every purpose required of her.

Her burden was about 680 tons, and her engines of 120-horse power, constructed by Messrs. Forrester and Co., also of Liverpool; and with twelve days' supply of coals, together with water and provisions for four months, and stores of all sorts for two years, with duplicate machinery, &c., and all her armament complete, her mean load draught of water was only six feet. But commonly, in actual service, she drew little more than five feet. Her length over all was 184 feet, her breadth 29 feet, and her depth 11 feet. Her keel-plate was laid, and the vessel built and launched, in the short space of three months.

Strictly speaking, the Nemesis has no fixed keel, but the lower plate of iron, which connects the two sides of the ship together along its middle, is called the keel-plate. She is, therefore, almost perfectly flat-bottomed; and, in order to obviate, as much as possible, the disadvantages attendant upon this peculiar construction, there are two sliding or moveable keels, capable of being raised or lowered to the depth of five feet below the bottom of the vessel. Each of these keels is about seven feet in length, one being placed before and the other abaft the engine-room. They are each enclosed in a narrow case or tank, one foot wide, running from the bottom of the vessel up to the deck, and which, of course being open below, allows the water to rise in it, to the level of the sea on the outside of the vessel. In this, the keel, which is of wood, 4½ inches thick, works up and down by means of a small winch, and a strong chain which is attached to it. Thus it is evident, that either the foremost or the aftermost keel can be raised or lowered, independently of the other, if circumstances require it.

As it would, however, be impossible to steer with accuracy, a vessel of this construction, with a rudder merely of the ordinary description, and which, from its shallowness, would, in a heavy sea, be in a great measure out of water, there is a contrivance by which a moveable or false rudder is attached to the lower part of the true or fixed rudder, and which descends to the same depth as the two false keels, and, like them, can be raised or lowered at pleasure.

The main or true rudder was composed of wood, but the lower or false rudder was made of iron, and was so constructed as to grasp the lower part of the upper or fixed one, firmly on either side, but was bolted through in such a way as to be moveable, as if it were fastened by a hinge, so that, by means of a chain run up to the taffrail from its outer edge, it could be hauled up to any height required.

The next striking peculiarity in the construction of the Nemesis was, that the entire vessel was divided into seven water-tight compartments, by means of iron bulkheads; so that, in fact, it somewhat resembled a number of iron tanks, cased over, so as to assume the external form of one connected vessel. By this means, the occurrence of any accident, such as striking on a rock, or shot-holes, &c., which might occasion a dangerous leak in one compartment, would have no effect upon any other part of the vessel.

The advantages of this arrangement were often tested, during her three years' hard service; and, indeed, within a few days after her first departure from Liverpool, as will be presently related, this contrivance sufficed to save her from the almost certain destruction which would otherwise have awaited her.

The last peculiarity which it seems necessary here to mention, was the provision of some kind of instrument for counteracting the effect of the local attraction of so large a mass of iron upon the compasses, and for correcting the errors occasioned thereby. This difficulty had been seriously felt by Colonel Chesney, on board the small iron steamers which he had under his orders, during his expedition to the Euphrates; although he was of opinion, that the placing of the compasses at a certain height above the vessel, so as to be further removed from the sphere of the local attraction of the iron, was sufficient to reduce their errors materially.

Without entering into the merits of Barlow's counteracting plates, or Professor Airy's interesting discoveries, it will be sufficient here to mention, that the Nemesis was fitted with correctors, very much according to the system of Professor Airy, but not under his own superintendence; that the experiments were conducted at Liverpool under every disadvantage, and that the result was never perfectly satisfactory. Indeed, the accident which shortly befel her, has been attributed, upon strong grounds, principally to the imperfection of her compasses. It is right, however, to mention, that other vessels, such as the Phlegethon and Pluto, which have been fitted with Airy's correctors, tested according to the most approved principles, and after experiments conducted with great attention, have been totally relieved from this source of danger and anxiety, and have been navigated with perfect accuracy and confidence.

We may now come to the interesting moment of the departure of the Nemesis from Liverpool, where she was built. Everything seemed at first to prosper; the weather was favourable, and the machinery perfect in all its parts. She had cleared the narrowest part of the Irish Channel, had passed the coast of Wales, and crossed the entrance to the Bristol Channel; and the course she had been steering would have taken her well clear of the Land's End.

It was now the second day since her departure. About two o'clock in the morning, the weather being still hazy and the night dark, she struck heavily on a rock.

Of course the engines were instantly stopped, but the way she already had on her appeared sufficient to carry her over the reef; and, indeed, the actual rocks themselves could be seen outside of her, so that she had evidently passed between them and the land, and had merely struck the edge of the reef.

Finding that the vessel did not hang upon the reef, and was therefore still afloat, her head was turned to seaward, and the engines kept working slowly, while the dawn was anxiously expected. It was now discovered, that the rocks upon which she had struck were aptly enough called "The Stones," lying at the entrance to the bay of St. Ives, in Cornwall, and not very far distant from the Land's End. It was soon evident, also, that the accident had occasioned a very serious leak, in one of the foremost compartments of the vessel. It was with difficulty that the water could be kept lower in it than the level of the sea outside, with the hand-pump; and, in fact, if the vessel had not been divided into these water-tight compartments, it is difficult to imagine that the accident would not have been fatal to her.

However, she was carried, without much difficulty, round the Land's End, into Mount's Bay, where she anchored about three miles from Penzance, off St. Michael's Mount. The object here was to procure an additional pump, in the hope of being able, by that means, to empty the tank or compartment, so as to be able to stop the leak from the inside. Fortunately, one perfectly adapted for the purpose was obtained from a small coasting-vessel which was at anchor in the bay. It was an iron one, and has been preserved on board ever since, and, on many occasions, has been found of the greatest utility. Indeed, every vessel of this description should be provided with an extra pump of this kind, to be worked by hand, and at all times ready to be placed into any compartment, as an additional means of pumping it out, and also as a security against fire, for the purpose of pumping water into the vessel in case of necessity.

With the assistance of this additional pump, the water in the compartment was completely emptied, and, then it was discovered that a hole had been cut completely through her bottom by the rock, but could now be easily stopped from the inside.

This being speedily effected, the vessel pursued her voyage without the least difficulty, and came to anchor on the following evening in Yarmouth Roads, inside the Isle of Wight.

It should here be mentioned, that every compartment of the vessel was provided with a small pipe and cock, by means of which, the water could be let out of one compartment into another, and so passed on, from one to the other, into the engine-room, where it could be pumped out by the machinery. But, as this appeared a rather clumsy mode of doing it, namely, by floating nearly half the ship unnecessarily, it was not resorted to. But, in vessels more recently constructed, a great improvement has been introduced in this respect. From each of the compartments, a pipe leads directly into the engine-room itself, without communicating with any other part; so that, by means of a cock, the water can at once be pumped out by the engine, or else can be confined to the compartment itself, and pumped out by hand, when it is not desirable to let it flow into the engine-room.

As little time as possible was lost in completing the necessary repairs, and in rendering her in all respects fit to undertake the long and unknown voyage she was about to perform. At length she was cleared out for the Russian port of Odessa, much to the astonishment of every one; but those who gave themselves time to reflect hardly believed it possible that such could be her real destination.

She was armed with two 32-pounder guns, mounted on pivot, or traversing carriages, for the purpose of throwing either shot or shell, one being placed forward and the other aft, as in all armed steamers.[1]

On leaving England she had on board about sixty men and officers; but, during the operations in China, she usually had about ninety men and officers.[2] Her daily consumption of fuel was about eleven tons.

She had no paddle-boats; but in other respects, she was well found in boats, while in China. She had two cutters, pinnace, gig, jolly-boat, dingy, and always a large Chinese boat. A large platform was also built between the paddle-boxes, instead of the small bridge which is usually constructed there. This platform covered the whole space between the paddle-boxes, and was found particularly convenient, when troops were on board, as it was always occupied by the officers, while the decks were crowded with the soldiers. There was also a 6-pounder brass pivot gun, mounted upon the bridge, which was very useful for trying the range. A rocket tube and a supply of rockets were always kept in readiness upon this platform, besides ammunition for the brass gun, &c. In hot weather an awning was spread over it, and it was always a most convenient place for watching and directing the operations of the steamer.

Besides the guns above-mentioned, the Nemesis carried four brass 6-pounders and one small howitzer.

Unusual interest was excited by the expected departure of this strange vessel, upon a voyage of which both the purpose and the destination were alike unknown. Even the Admiral himself was ignorant of the service which she was called upon to perform.

At length, on the 28th of March, 1840, she really had sailed. The Needle Rocks, the high cliffs at the back of the Isle of Wight, the shores of England herself, had gradually sunk below the horizon, and the excitement attending departure had at length settled down into the cold reality of a first night at sea.

On the third day, the 30th of March, at daylight, the last glimpse was taken of the land of our birth. The Lizard disappeared, and nothing was around but the wide expanse of the blue ocean. On the gallant vessel went gaily through the Bay of Biscay, at an average rate of seven to eight knots under steam, moving gracefully to the heavy swell which at all times prevails there.

On the 2nd of April, she was well in sight of Cape Finisterre, the dread of seamen, on the rock-bound coast of Portugal, and encountered a moderate gale of wind, but made head against it without difficulty.

On the 6th of April, the lovely island of Madeira came full in sight, the ninth day since she had left Portsmouth, and only the seventh from the Land's End.

At daylight, the little island of Porto Santo having been passed, the full prospect of the larger island of Madeira lay exposed.

Though sailors are seldom poets, there is something in the aspect of this lovely island which speaks poetry to the least poetical; and where nature looks so eloquent, and the fresh green of the loaded vineyard contrasts so beautifully with the wilder rocks above it, while the sun of its scarce-failing summer sheds its glow upon the varied woods around, even the iron Nemesis and her iron-hearted crew were cheered and gladdened, as she glided close along the shore.

The Nemesis was not long in coming to anchor within the bay, not very far from the town, and between it and the remarkable rock called the Loo Rock.

Time was precious, and the great object of her visit was to be accomplished as soon as possible—namely, in the stoker's language, "coaling"—an operation anything but pleasant. But they who would enjoy the steamer's "stately march upon the waters" must be content to purchase it at the price of this necessary evil.