THE GREAT EASTERN.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1016, 24 December 1881, Page 4

THE GREAT EASTERN.

I wonder what Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have said could he have seen the last and most wonderful creation of his genius brought to the hammer on Oct. 21, 1881, and actually bought in for £30,000. The Great Eastern steamship is, in fact, too big even for this age of big things. Her tonnage is 22,000 and she could carry an army of 8000 men comfortably, but the fact is her engines are too" slow and antiquated, and the Government would be afraid to put so many eggs in one basket. One use she certainly befits, and that is the laying of Atlantic cables, but even here there is no demand. Originally she was intended for the Atlantic service and to carry 2000 passengers, but she never obtained more than a tenth of the number, and in other respects failed as an ocean-going craft Her size prevents her passing through the Suez Canal, and so doing anything in the India or China trade, otherwise perhaps, your readers might catch a glimpse of her gigantic hull evan in Antipodean waters. One proposal—and not a bad one —is to convert the monster into a floating hotel somewhere off Margate or Ramsgate, so that invalids and others might enjoy the full benefit of unadulterated ozone and iodine without the perils of mal de mer. Originally she cost nearly a million of money.