| Description | Steam Boat Engines (9 items).
1252. Southend Steamer King William IV (QN, formerly YH & YL). Mar., May, Jul. 1830. 9 items.
Two 25 horse power side lever boat engines, with 30 inch cylinders, 2½ foot strokes. Engines formerly 20 horses and fitted in the Favourite steam boat.
Cross-section of the boat and engines (this drawing notes the engines as 26 horses), longitudinal section of the engine room and boiler, plan and side view of the engine platform, plan of the engine deck beams, plan of the engine sleepers etc. - reverse drawings made in the London office; sections and plan of the boiler - partially coloured original and reverse drawings made in the London office; paddle wheel and shafts etc. - partially shaded reverse drawing; cylinder and slide valve and case etc. - coloured reverse drawing (this drawing notes the cylinder as being 26 horses and 30¼ inches in diameter, and was also used for Hawk). The last 2 items bear letter codes.
Original Portfolio or 'Book' No. 834. Catalogue of Old Engines p. 318.
For London to Southend services. This boat was launched in 1830 at Blackwall and fitted with engines YH and YL, which had formerly been in the Favourite steam boat [see portofolio 5/1251]. The engines were increased to 25 horses, and the new parts were given the code QN in Engine Order Book No. 11 (QN was formerly a 25 horse power land engine which had been countermanded). The boat was initially known as the New Favourite, but by early Jul. 1830 she had been re-named Lark. However by the end of Jul. she had been re-named again as King William IV. The Catalogue of Old Engines erroneously gives her final name as New Favourite. In the 1830s she was bought by two Australians, T. Street and J. H. Groves. They sold her to a fleet owner called Joseph Hickey Grose. [Note that Street and Grose also bought the James Watt, therefore "Groves" may be an erroneous reading of "Grose".] In May 1839 Grose used the King William IV to explore the Clarence River with a view to settling the lower reaches. One of the passengers, a Mr. Williams, kept a diary of the voyage. Following that voyage Grose used the King William IV for trading between Sydney and Newcastle on the River Hunter. However on 4 Jul. 1839 she was wrecked on a bank called Oyster Bank at the entrance to the Hunter. The engines appear to have been salvaged, and used in another of Grose's vessels called the Sovereign, built in 1841, which was lost in 1847. [For further details of King William IV's Australian career see e/Lee, S.] |