File:Race in the Channel between the Atalanta Twin-Screw Steamer and the Dover Mail-Packet Empress - ILN 1864.jpg

English: Race in the Channel between the Atalanta Twin-Screw Steamer and the Dover Mail-Packet Empress. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 2 April 1864.
RACE PETWEEN THE NEW DOUBLE-SCREW STEAMER ATALANTA AND THE DOVER MAIL-PACKET EMPRESS. Our Engraving, from a sketch taken expressly for this, journal, represents the race across the Channel which took place on Thursday, the 17th ult. (17 March), between the new "twin-screw " or "double-screw" steam vessel Atalanta and the Empress, a paddle-steamer, one of the fastest boats of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company. Which is the winner of the race need not he pointed out; a glance at the engraving will show it. The Atalanta had made her trial-trip from the Thames to Calais on the day before, having just been completed by Messrs. J. and W. Dudgeon, of Cubitt Town Yard, Millwall. She is built of iron. 200 ft. long, 21 ft. in breadth, and 11 ft. in depth, with 500 tons burden. She has a pair of screw propellers instead of a single one. There are two engines, independent of each other, each being of l100 horse power. The success of the double-screw principle, which has been already partially adopted by the Admiralty, is no longer a matter of doubt. The Atalanta, in passing down Long Reach on the 10th. during her first trip from Gravesend, made a speed of 14.138 knots an hour. with the young flood tide coming up against her and the wind blowing fresh from the E.S.E. Though, for the greater part of the time, her port engine only was at work, she completed the distance of twenty-two miles and a half, from Gravesend to the Nore, in seventy-five minutes. She arrived at Calais at six o'clock that evening. On the next day, the 17th, she crossed over from Calais to Dover. so as to steam back from the latter to the former place in company with the Empress, which was appointed to leave with the mail from Dover at 9:30. At forty-five minutes past nine the Empress came out and, the Atalanta having been placed in position as nearly a' possible abreast of her, the race across commenced. From the the of starting, the result was never for a moment in doubt. The Empress, pitching her bows into the sea as she got clear of the land, was evidently making hard work of it, and fast dropping astern of the Atalanta, which, without throwing a drop of spray over her deck, was making her way in splendid style and improving her position with every fresh puff of wind and roll of the sea. As the French land was neared the wind freshened, and as it so freshened, and the sea rose, the better the Atalanta behaved. Calais was reached in 77 minutes by the Atalanta, but the Empress took 107 minutes--being half an hour behind the double screw. Tue success of the Atalanta was so decided that it was considered unnecessary to test the speed of the boat any further, and a return course was therefore shaped for the Thames, where she arrived at 5 p.m., and where she will complete her outfit for the service for which she has been built. In crossing the channel the action of the screw on each quarter was distinctly seen in the deep water. The screws worked with a beautiful smoothness and uniformity. The engines made 120 revolutions a minute.