To ascertain the facts by experience, we dispatched Mr.Alexander Wilson, younger brother of the manager who had been formerly a pupil of Messrs.

Macnab and Co., of Greenock, and was thoroughly able for the work--to make a number of voyages in steam vessels fitted with the best examples of compound engines.
The result of this careful inquiry was the design of the machinery and boilers of the Oceanic and five sister-ships.

They were constructed on the vertical overhead "tandem" type, with five-feet stroke (at that time thought excessive), oval single-ended transverse boilers, with a working pressure of sixty pounds.

We contracted with Messrs.

Maudslay, Sons, and Field, of London, for three of these sets, and with Messrs.
George Forrester and Co., of Liverpool, for the other three; and as we found we could build the six vessels in the same time as the machinery was being constructed; and, as all this machinery had to be conveyed to Belfast to be there fitted on board, whilst the vessels were being otherwise finished, we built a little screw-steamer, the Camel, of extra strength, with very big hatchways, to receive these large masses of iron; and this, in course of time, was found to work with great advantage; until eventually we constructed our own machinery.
We were most fortunate in the type of engine we had fixed upon, for it proved both economical and serviceable in all ways; and, with but slight modifications, we repeated it in the many subsequent vessels which we built for the White Star Company.