THE LOG OF THE SAVANNAH. 639 



the morning of April 4, 1838 ; and the Great Western left Bristol, the 

 same port from which the Cabots sailed years before, at 2 o'clock in 

 the afternoon of the 7th of the same month. 



The story of the first steamship race across the Atlantic half a cen- 

 tury ago is a tame affair compared with the weekly trials of speed by 

 the numerous 5,000-ton u Ocean Greyhounds " now running weekly be- 

 tween the two hemispheres; and upon which hundreds of tons of coal 

 are burned to reduce the record by a few minutes. Nevertheless, both 

 continents were electrified by the accounts of the preparations for this 

 trial of speed, and citizens of all classes eagerly watched the results. 

 On the 23d of April, 1838, both vessels arrived at Sandy Hook, the 

 Sirius preceding the Great Western by a few hours. 



Commenting upon this event, the "Atheneuni" pays this glowing 

 tribute to the American people : 



The generous and enthusiastic welcome with which the officers of the Sirius and 

 Great Western were received in New York does honor to the Americans; every pos- 

 sible testimony of respect and hearty good will and good wishes were shown to them; 

 not a whisper of regret was heard at the time that the great enterprise had been at- 

 tempted by British skill; they were welcomed as brothers by men who saw only in 

 this event the revolution which had been at once effected in the commercial, and we 

 may say in the social, relations of the two countries, an eveut which will form an 

 epoch in the history of civilization itself, which tends to unite in the bonds of endur- 

 ing fellowship the greatest nations of the earth allied by language common, by litera- 

 ture, by interest, and by blood, and offers to both a guarantee a thousand times more 

 binding than all the treaties that were ever penned for the preservation of that hon- 

 orable peace which now gladdens aud enriches them.* 



Under these happy auspices and within twenty years of the pioneer 

 voyages of the steamship Savannah, the era of transatlantic steam 

 navigation was fully inaugurated. 



* The Atheneum, May 26, 183d. 



'-"- V*' 



