THE STEAMSHIP GREAT EASTERN.

[Footnote: See Engraving in SUPPLEMENT NO. 584.]


The history of the Great Eastern is full of surprises. It is always that
which is most unlikely to happen to her which occurs. Not long since we
recorded her sale by auction in Liverpool for £26,000. It was stated that
her purchasers were going to fit her out for the Australian trade, and that
she would at once be sent from Dublin to Glasgow to be fitted with new
engines and boilers, and to undergo thorough renovation. Lord Ravensworth,
in his address to the Institution of Naval Architects, spoke recently of
the bright future before her in that Australian trade for which she was
specially built. Yet at this moment the Great Eastern is lying in her old
berth in the Sloyne at Liverpool, and unless something else at present
quite unforeseen takes place, she will once more play the undignified part
of a floating music hall. It seems that although she was certainly sold, as
we have stated, the transaction was not completed. Her owners then cast
about for the next highest bidder, who at once took her. He is, we
understand, a Manchester cotton spinner, and he paid £25,500 for her. It is
no secret that Messrs. Lewis made a considerable sum out of the ship last
year, and the knowledge of this fact has no doubt induced her present owner
to follow their example. The ship left Dublin on Sunday, April 3, under her
own steam and in tow of two Liverpool tugs, the Brilliant Star and the
Wrestler, and arrived in the Mersey without accident on Monday, after a
passage of only thirteen hours. Mr. Reeves, formerly her chief officer, has