| Description | Written from Williamstown, Australia. The letter introduces White's idea of the creation of a floating harbour in Melbourne, Australia to allow the Great Eastern to dock there. The letter describes the floating harbour, which is designed to be flexible, allowing the harbour to be enlarged sufficiently to accommodate the Great Eastern, but to be reduced to allow smaller ships. The letter describes how the floating harbour might be constructed and confirms that White has made a scale model of the design. White explains that his object in writing to Brunel is to gain his opinion of the practicality of the project and to ask if the Eastern Steam Navigation Company might be willing to invest in any company that White might form to carry out his plans. The letter also gives an estimate of the total cost of the eventual project. The letter was copied out in Brunel's letter books of Great Eastern correspondence as DM1306/11/1/5/folio 94-96. |