THE "GREAT EASTERN" AT NEW YORK. 135 



On the 21st January, the captain of the Great Eastern, Captain Harrison, was 

 drowned in Southampton Water by the capsizing of a small boat carrying- him from the 

 ship to the town. The boat, which was fully manned by six picked seamen and the 

 captain's coxswain, was seized in a sudden squall near the dock-gates, and upset before the 

 trysail could be lowered. Boats were at once put off from the Indus to the rescue, but 

 when Captain Harrison was reached, the body was floating a little under water, and 

 life was quite extinct death being apparently the result of apoplexy caused by the intense 

 cold. The coxswain was found insensible close by, and survived only till the evening. 

 A fine youth, son of the chief purser, was also drowned ; the chief purser himself (Mr. 

 Lay), and Dr. Watson were amongst those saved with the crew. 



The Great Eastern made her first Transatlantic voyage to New York after a very 

 successful but by no means rapid passage of ten days and a half. In many respects the 

 vessel fully answered the expectations of her builders. Her vast bulk aided the fineness 

 of her lines in cutting through the opposing waves without any apparent shock. To 

 those which rolled upon her sides she rose with a easy swing, and they passed to lee- 

 ward, seemingly deprived of their fury ; others struck her with full force, but no vibration 

 or shock was communicated to the vast mass. It was speedily discovered that there were 

 two prime defects in her appointments it was impossible to raise the steam in the 

 boilers which animate the paddle-wheel engines to the full power ; and the wheels them- 

 selves were not so placed as to act on the water with effect. 



On the 21st, the power of the ship was put to a most trying test. A strong north- 

 westerly gale had raised a rough sea. " It has always been said that she never could or 

 would pitch, but the truth is this ship does just the same on a small scale that 

 ordinary vessels in a sea may do on a very large one. The Great Eastern against a 

 head sea makes a majestic rise and fall, where a steamer of 2,000, or even 3,000, tons 

 would be labouring heavily, and perhaps taking in great seas over her bows. On this 

 Thursday she dipped down below her hawse pipes. It was a fine sight to watch her 

 motion from the bows, splitting the great waves before her into two streams of water, 

 like double fountains, and to look along her immense expanse of deck as she rose and 

 fell with a motion so easy and regular that the duration of each movement could be 

 timed to the very second/' 



On the 23rd, the ship being off the banks of Newfoundland, the temperature decreased 

 so rapidly that it was feared that floating icebergs were near, and the speed was slackened, 

 and precautions taken against accident; and, on the 26th, when not more than 450 miles 

 from New York, the ship ran into a dense fog, through which she had to feel her way. 

 These circumstances materially affected the duration of the voyage. The most anxious 

 part of the whole navigation was now at hand the passage over the shoals and bars which 

 impede the passage to New York harbour, and the ship was repeatedly stopped to take 

 soundings. All dangers were boldly passed, and the dawn of the 27th showed the coast 

 in a dim blue line, with the spit of Sandy Hook lying like a haze across the sea. The 

 lighthouse was passed at 7'20 a.m., and the Great Eastern had completed her first Trans- 

 atlantic voyage. From Sandy Hook the vessel passed into the harbour, stirring up the 

 sand on the bar, but escaping all danger by the admirable readiness with which she 



