| Description | Written from 18 Duke Street, Westminster, London. The letter explains that Brunel has considered in detail the question of steering the Eastern Steam Navigation Company's ship by power and, although he had assumed he would use such a method, Brunel has finally decided that the ship should use the least possible amount of steering since there is unlikely to be much variation in the course and therefore the machinery for steering would largely go unused and may fail if used in an emergency. Brunel would prefer to have several under-utilised humans available to provide extra power in the event of an emergency rather than additional machinery. |