"Still, while time goes on, and the question becomes more and more
urgent, the bar, with its eight feet of water at low tide, remains as
it was, save that some navigators contend that it grows worse.

"Yesterday 340 passengers, of whom I was one, by the noble Cunard ship
'The Etruria,' experienced the difficulty in all its varieties of
trouble.

"After rushing through very heavy seas and against violent winds for
three or four days, we cast anchor a good way outside the bar at 5
o'clock yesterday (Sunday) morning. The weather was too rough for the
fine tug-boat, 'The Skirmisher,' to come so far out. So, after swinging
about till 10 o'clock, we moved slowly on, crossed the bar about half-
past 11, and were off the northernmost dock later on. Here the usual
process of hauling the ship round by the aid of the tug took place, and
then the further process of putting the baggage on board the tug, in
advance of taking the passengers. I was fortunate in being taken off
the ship in a special tug-boat by some friends, got to the landing-
stage, where the baggage is examined by the Customs, and, a carriage
waiting for me, was at the Central Station at Liverpool at one o'clock.
But, with all these comfortable arrangements, I had lost at least seven
hours, and had missed all morning trains. The other passengers, I fear,
did not get through for two or three hours later, and those for London
would be lucky if they just caught the 4 o'clock train.

"It would not, I am told, be prudent to take a ship of the size and
draught of 'The Etruria' over the bar till two hours before high water
on a flowing, and one hour after on an ebbing, tide. Thus, for such a
ship--and the tendency is to build larger and larger vessels--the