A Floating City
CHAPTER I
THE "GREAT EASTERN"
N the 18th of March, 1867, I arrived at Liverpool, intending to take a berth simply as an amateur traveler on board the Great Eastern, which in a few days was to sail for New York. I had sometimes thought of paying a visit to North America, and was now tempted to cross the Atlantic on board this gigantic boat. First of all the Great Eastern, then the country celebrated by Cooper.
This steamship is indeed a masterpiece of naval construction; more than a vessel, it is a floating city, part of the country, detached from English soil, which after having crossed the sea, unites itself to the American Continent. I pictured to myself this enormous bulk borne on the waves, her defiant struggle with the wind, her boldness before the powerless sea, her indifference to the billows, her stability in the midst of that element which tosses "Warriors" and "Solferinos" like ship's boats. But my imagination carried me no farther; all these things I did indeed see during the passage, and many others which do not exclusively belong to the maritime domain. If the Great Eastern is not merely a nautical engine, but rather a microcosm, and carries a small world with it, an observer will not be astonished to meet here, as on a larger theater, all the instincts, follies, and passions of human nature.
On leaving the station, I went to the Adelphi Hotel. The Great Eastern was announced to sail on the 20th of March, and as I wished to witness the last preparations, I asked permission of Captain Anderson, the commander, to take my place on board immediately, which permission he very obligingly granted.
The next day I went down towards the basins which form a double line of docks on the banks of the Mersey. The gate-keepers allowed me to go onto Prince's Landing-Stage, a kind of movable raft which rises and falls with the
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