Shortly after the recovery of the Ulunda, below described, the North
American and West Indian squadron of the Royal Navy visited Halifax,
Nova Scotia. The simple and novel means adopted for raising the ship
attracted considerable attention among the officers of the fleet, and by
way of stimulating the studies of the junior officers in this branch of
their duties, a prize was offered for the best essay on the subject, to
be competed for by the midshipmen of the various ships. The essays were
adjudicated upon by Captain W.G. Stopford, of the flag ship--H.M.S.
Bellerophon--and the first prize was awarded to the following paper,
written by Mr. A. Gordon Smith, of H.M.S. Canada. The article needs no
apology, but it is only just, says the _Engineer_, to mention the fact
that the writer is not yet eighteen years of age.

The steamship Ulunda, on the remarkable raising and recovery of which
this paper is written, is an iron screw ship of 1,161 tons, until lately
belonging to the Furness line. It is a sister ship to the Damara, of the
same company, and was built and engined by Alex. Stephens, shipbuilder
and engineer, at Glasgow, being fitted with compound vertical engines,
of 200 nominal horse power, having two cylinders of 33 inches and 66
inches diameter respectively, which are capable of sixty-five
revolutions per minute, and give a speed of twelve knots an hour.

For supplying steam to the engines there are two return-tube boilers,
each having three furnaces, and there is also a donkey boiler, which is
used in harbor for working the four steam winches on deck.

She is divided into seven watertight compartments by athwartship
bulkheads. The foremost one is the usual collision bulkhead. Between