How fast could the SS Great Eastern go?
SS Great Eastern
She also had six masts (said to be named after the days of a week – Monday being the fore mast and Saturday the spanker mast), providing space for 1,686 square metres (18,150sqft) of sails (7 gaff and max. 9 (usually 4) square sails), rigged similar to a topsail schooner with a main gaff sail (fore-and-aft sail) on each mast, one "jib" on the fore mast and three square sails on masts no. 2 and no. 3 (Tuesday & Wednesday); for a time mast no. 4 was also fitted with three yards. In later years, some of the yards were removed. According to some sources she would have carried 5,435 square metres (58,500sqft). This amount of canvas is obviously too much for seven fore-and-aft sails and max. 9 square sails. This (larger) figure of sail area lies only a few square metres below that the famous Flying P-Liner Preußen carried – with her five full-rigged masts of 30 square sails and a lot of stay sails. Setting sails turned out to be unusable at the same time as the paddles and screw were under steam, because the hot exhaust from the five (later four) funnels would set them on fire. Her maximum speed was 24km/h (13 knots).
SMS Szent István
"Szent István" possessed two shafts and two AEG-Curtis steam turbines, which were housed in a separate engine-room and powered by twelve Babcock & Wilcox boilers. This differed from the four shaft arrangement present on her three sister ships. "Szent István"s propulsion system was designed to produce a total of , which was theoretically enough to attain a maximum designed speed of . It was reported during the speed trials of her sister ship "Tegetthoff" that she attained a top speed of , though "Szent István"s actual top speed is unknown as the official sea trial data and records for all ships of the "Tegetthoff" class were lost after the war. "Szent István" also carried of coal, and an additional of fuel oil that was to be sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. At full capacity, "Szent István" could steam for at a speed of .