Country of registration:
Shipbuilder: Unknown
Build location: Unknown
Build year: 1852
Built for: The Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company
The steam-ship Victoria was built of iron. It gained the prize of £500 offered by the colonies for the fastest voyage to Australia. Her time from Gravesend to Adelaide was sixty days, including two days' stay at St. Vincent. She was designed by Messrs. I. K. Brunel and J. Scott Russell for a speed of ten knots under full steam, and to provide as much passenger accommodation and space for high-priced cargo as her coal requirements would permit. She was 261 feet on the water-line and registered 1350 tons. The entrance and run of the ship were of the wave-like form, while the central 45 feet were parallel ; the bilges were round, the topsides tumbled home, and there was no external keel, so that she was very heavy in a seaway. The hull was in twelve water-tight compartments, and longitudinal bulkheads were carried through from the engine and boiler rooms so as to separate the coal from the machinery. The engines were of the oscillating type. The ship had four masts and a sail area of 1540 square yards. Under steam alone the engines at full power made 59 revolutions per minute and gave a speed of 11 knots, with a coal consumption of 37 tons per 24 hours. Under sail alone, with the screw held vertically, the speed was 5½ knots, but when the screw was allowed to run freely the speed increased to 7½ knots. Her average speed was nearly ll¾ knots" [R. A. Fletcher, Steamships: The Story of their Development to the Present Day (1910), p. 263].