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[maywillow] 16/9/2003 12:32

BRUSSELS (AFX) - The European Commission said the convertible bond proposed
by the French government to assist in the bailout of Alstom must be conditional
upon its approval of the entire aid package, said competition spokesman Tilman
Lueder.
Lueder said: "We have several proposals on the table, one of them being a
convertible bond. The core is not whether the commission controls the conversion
but whether the conversion of debt into equity is conditional upon us approving
the restructuring plan."
If there is no approval, then the bonds will converted into cash.
"The central point," said Lueder, "is the conversion needs to be conditional
upon approval otherwise we are facing a fait accompli."
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ed/cml

[grupo guitarlumber] 15/9/2003 09:40

PARIS (AFX) - European Commission president Romano Prodi said the Commission
would not allow the French government to side-step European rules governing
state aid payments to troubled businesses Alstom and Bull.
In an interview with Les Echos business daily, Prodi said: "The cases of
Bull and Alstom are very similar. For France Telecom the situation is
different."
"In the case of Alstom the situation is simple in that European rules forbid
state aid. It is a tangible principle. There is no reason to treat companies
differently depending on which country they come from," he said.
He said the rules have been applied dozens of times and the Commission had
been firm in its treatment of German regional banks, adding that it would be
harder to change rules relating to state aid than to alter the Stability and
Growth Pact.
"I completely understand the social and political problems faced by (French
finance minister) Francis Mer. But it is important to remember the aims of the
competition rules. To help one company in difficulty would be to give it an
advantage versus its competitors."
Prodi said the single European market could only function if the rules are
applied by all EU states.
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dl/cmr

[maywillow] 10/9/2003 17:04

(Updating with background on deficit, Alstom from 3rd para)
POITIERS, France (AFX) - Finance minister Francis Mer said he is confident
of finding agreement with the European Commission in talks over the country's
growing budget deficit and the government's contentious financial support of the
ailing manufacturer Alstom.
Speaking in Poitiers, France, he said: "We are going to find a solution. We
are dealing with intelligent, responsible people."
EC competition commissioner Mario Monti yesterday agreed to allow the French
government to offer a short-term loan to Alstom to keep the company afloat while
it gets its restructuring plans in motion.
Initially, the commission insisted Alstom would only be allowed
restructuring aid, requiring a detailed viability plan for the company, and that
no short-term funding would be permitted by the commission.
The commission was particularly concerned that short-term rescue aid would
not be recovered by the French government, given its failure to recoup a 450 mln
eur loan to failing computer company Bull.
France last week confirmed reports that this year's budget deficit would be
around 4 pct, exceeding the 3 pct of GDP maximum set out in the EU's Stability
and Growth Pact.
Press reports have suggested the government's tax-cutting programme will
also leave the deficit at the 4 pct mark in 2004.
French budget minister Alain Lambert said on France's Europe 1 radio that he
expects the country's budget deficit to come under 3 pct of GDP around 2006.
[e-mail]
dl/cml

[waldron] 09/9/2003 13:40

BRUSSELS (AFX) - European competition commissioner Mario Monti has agreed to
allow the French government to offer a short-term loan to Alstom to keep the
company afloat while it gets its restructuring plans in motion, said his
spokesman Tilman Lueder.
Initially, the commission insisted that Alstom would only be allowed
restructuring aid, requiring a detailed viability plan for the company, and that
no short-term funding would be permitted by the commission.
The commission was particularly concerned that short-term rescue aid would
not be recovered by the French government, given its failure to recoup 450 mln
eur loan to failing computer company Bull.
However, in crisis talks last night between French finance minister Francis
Mer and Monti, Mer said the capital increase will not take place until Sept 27
and that the company risks bankruptcy.
Commissioner Monti backed down on the granting of a short-term loan --
rescue aid -- because of the potential bankruptcy of the company and loss of
62,000 jobs.
"Commissioner Monti has taken the lesser of the evils and agreed that if
anything needs to be granted due to the urgency of the situation then it must be
a short-term loan," said Lueder.
"We have a company here with 62,000 employees. It is not the commission that
is going to shut it down," he added.
The commission does not normally grant rescue aid when a restructuring
package, which in this case will also be investigated by the commission, is
being put together.
Lueder said commissioner Monti was faced with three options: allow the
restructuring aid to go ahead before the formal investigation, forbid any aid
and see 62,000 employees lose their jobs, or strike a compromise whereby
permanent measures would not be allowed but a short-term loan may be put in
place.
Lueder noted that the commission has changed its position on the granting of
rescue aid but said: "This is not buckling in on the commission's part. We will
insist on the approval for a capital increase in the long-term."
He said that in spite of the Bull dossier, the commission decided to allow
the short-term loan to keep Alstom afloat.
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ed/vm/jc

[maywillow] 08/9/2003 19:01

BRUSSELS (AFX) - French Finance Minister Francis Mer failed to resolve a
dispute with European competition commissioner Mario Monti over France's plans
to give state aid ahead of approval to beleaguered Alstom, a spokesman for the
EU executive said.
Monti insisted in talks with Mer that any bailout "must not be implemented
without being given a green light by the European Commission," said the
spokesman, Tilman Lueder.
The French government announced the 2.8 bln eur bail-out for near-bankrupt
Alstom at the start of August, sparking a Brussels investigation into whether
the funding breaches EU state aid rules.
"The commission insists that any new measure should be approved in advance,"
Lueder said, adding that meetings are expected to take place every day this week
between Brussels and French officials aiming to resolve the disagreement.
Monti and the French minister could meet again before the end of the week,
he added.
Under the terms of the rescue plan, the French state would become its
principal shareholder with a 31.5-pctt stake, partly through a 50 pct
participation in a 600 mln eur capital increase.
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lby-bpi/mt/lt/hjp

[energyi] 08/9/2003 18:35

The Name lives, and thrives... as an Indian Shipping co.

[maywillow] 08/9/2003 05:39

A Really Great thread and a Great Link, thanks again

[philmiboots] 07/9/2003 22:59

Some cracking photos on this site-



eg. Port side looking aft




View from bow

[energyi] 07/9/2003 22:54

CONTEMPORARY PRINTS

I used to own some excellent original prints of the Great Eastern.
Gave them to the son of an ex-girlfriend.
Including the one above, and some not shown here

I hope he appreciates them

[gateside] 07/9/2003 22:52

energyi...Excellent thread, will find time tomorrow to read though it in more detail

Brunel was way ahead of his time, i admire his work very much.

Another of his achievements...

[philmiboots] 07/9/2003 22:46

Explosion on board the Great Eastern

[energyi] 07/9/2003 22:32

There's a Discussion Board with a new thread on Brunel/ Great eastern:


... and a Collecter's website:

[energyi] 07/9/2003 22:27

great find, phil

[philmiboots] 07/9/2003 22:25

Repairs after the explosion took
nine months, although J. Scott Russell had promised three weeks and the Great
Eastern's maiden voyage eventually began in June 1860. The decision had been
taken that the ship would operate in the Atlantic passenger trade, not the
Australian service for which Brunel had designed the ship. In fact this attempt
to recoup quickly the long-suffering shareholders' investment doomed the
Great Eastern to inevitable financial failure. This placid deck scene has no
hint of the storms to come ...
 

[energyi] 07/9/2003 22:15

INSPIRED PHOTO of an inspired man



Robert Howlett British, 1831 - 1858
Robert Howlett produced portraits of Crimean War heroes, genre scenes and landscapes. His major work however, was to document the construction of the massive steamship the Great Eastern. His images were translated into engravings for The Illustrated Times. They reflected and stimulated the widespread interest in this feat of engineering. Howlett also produced the well known portrait of the Great Eastern's creator and engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, standing in front of the ship's chains. This is perhaps one of the first examples of environmental portraiture

[energyi] 07/9/2003 22:00

CABLE NEWS (from Telcon):

His obsession started following a conversation in which Brunel learned that ships float not because they are made of wood but because of displacement. As long as the water displaced by the ship weighs more than the vessel, it will float. Being a trained civil engineer, Brunel instantly understood that this meant you could build a ship out of anything, as long as it displaced more water than it weighed. So he designed and built the largest iron-hulled ship up to that time, the Great Eastern.

This ship wasn't just a copy of a "normal" ship made of iron instead of wood. No, this was the largest floating object yet. It weighed more than 18,000 tons and was almost 700 feet long and 85 feet wide. In 1858, it cost more than $250,000, many hundreds of times that value in today's dollars.

The Great Eastern carried sails but was outfitted with a steam-powered paddlewheel system amidships. It had not one but two paddlewheels, one on each side. This allowed the ship to turn on a dime. Just turn one paddlewheel one way, and the other the other way, and it could turn a circle in its own length.



Brunel, near bankruptcy as the ship was completed, thought he would make a killing speeding passengers from London to New York. Unfortunately, it wasn't as speedy as other regular steam-powered propellor-driven vessels. And many passengers were too scared to travel on an iron ship because they thought it would sink. Brunel's greatest triumph became his undoing. In 1859, barely a year after its launching, he died of exhaustion at 53.

Thus the greatest ship built to that time sat in a salvage dock until it was noticed by an engineer working for Glass Elliott of Greenwich, England, one of the firms working on the transatlantic cable. Here, in the Great Eastern, was the obvious solution to one of their most pressing problems. They paid $25,000 for the ship - 10 cents on the dollar - and refitted it. For what? Why, to carry the wire!


Miles and miles

The ship could now handle three gigantic reels of wire, each over 1,000 miles long. And they could feed off the back of the ship. The size and weight of the ship helped solve the problems of rough seas or bad weather. And its ability to turn tightly was a godsend when soundings indicated obstructions below.



Only the Great Eastern could have carried the largest roll of wire made to that point (2,700 miles). In July of 1866, the Great Eastern successfully ran a cable across the Atlantic. One previous cable had worked only sporadically for two weeks before it failed.

This new cable was manufactured by Telcon, an amazingly modern name for a Victorian company. Its cable design was lighter and stronger than previous cables and consisted of seven strands of copper under three layers of gutta percha and one layer of hemp. The entire construction was covered with 18 strands of iron wire.

Not only that, but the Great Eastern then turned around and found a broken cable from a previous attempt, 680 miles from shore, and completed that. In the space of a few weeks, Cyrus Fields (1819-1892) and the Anglo-American Telegraph Company had two operating cables.

The new chief engineer, Professor William Thomson (1824-1907), later named Lord Kelvin, had a brilliant idea, e.g. publicity stunt. He assembled engineers, scientists and reporters in the transmission building on the Irish coast and sent a message to the Newfoundland station asking them to attach the two cables at their end. This gave him a 3,200-mile cable that began and ended in the same room.

He then made a simple battery, using a silver ladies thimble, a steel pin and a few drops of lemon juice. With his key and this battery, he sent a clearly discernible message down 3,200 miles of cable to the astonished multitude. This was also made possible by his invention of the "mirror galvanometer," which could move a light beam on a wall with the most microscopic change in current on the cable

[energyi] 07/9/2003 21:51

Our Great Eastern stateroom honors the vessel Launched in 1858. During the second half of the 19th century, The Great Eastern, was the largest steam ship in the world.

Your stateroom is spacious and well appointed with elegant first class furnishings of fine mahogany, walnut and crystal.

The room features a museum quality collection of beautiful Great Eastern etchings. They are from original issues of the London's Illustrated News published in 1858 and 1859. A rare photograph of the ship and other lovely period prints adorn the walls.

The Victorian decor includes a Queen size sleigh bed and goose down comforter to provide for a pleasant and restful night. An adjacent three-piece private bath provides the modern amenities. Luxurious cotton terry bath robes are provided for your use.
...Source:

[philmiboots] 07/9/2003 20:33

Next time you're in Brighton.....The Great Eastern
103 Trafalgar Street,
Brighton, BN1 4ER
01273 685681

[energyi] 07/9/2003 18:29

Interesting, Phil.
It's good to know those course are available

[philmiboots] 07/9/2003 17:21

Merchandising!

   

Great Eastern
1858 Paddle Wheel and Screw Steamer
Overall Length: 5"8"

I.K. Brunel's final project, which wound up killing him, was this 688 foot
18,914 ton ship. It was more massive than any other ship built at that time and
pressed the technology of that period to its limits. The paddle wheel and prop
will turn in a stiff breeze.

Price $7900