AN OLD FRIEND.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4427, 13 March 1883, Page 3

AN OLD FRIEND.

An item of news from the Mersey Shipbuilding yards, where very great activity has pre? ailed during j,hs present year, will interest Australian readers. Among the new works undertaken, such as the building and launching of several monster . ocean steamships tor the Atlantic passenger trade, and another gigantic Indian troopship, v^one firm, that of Messrs- C." and E. Crayson, has completed (he con▼ersibn into a sailing ship of that well- . known steamer, the Great Britain. She has' been classed Al at Lloyds', and sailed a few weeks ago for San Francisco ■ with a cargo of upwards of three thou* ■and tona of coal, "having at the s«me time," it is said, " a freeboard of ten fret, , which is equal to 30 per cent, space buoyancy." The Great Britain must be . - a.very .old friend to many Australians. She has probably carried more passengers and emigrants to the Antipodes than any ' ship afloat. Time was when she was one of the wonders of the deep. When ■'-'first'launched, forty years ago,'people risited her in crowds and admired her magnificent proportions. Then her ': nose ' was . gradually put out of joint ; by still larger ships, till the Great Eastern came and. practically put a limit to the dimensions of constructions afloat. But no one who knew the Great Britain in her prime would have foretold that she would have ended her career as a collier. After this, such is the extraordinary progress in naval architecture, we may well wonder what fate is in store for the splendid fleet of the Orient line and other magnificent vessels which atpresent hold pre-eminence among oceangoing ships.—Home News.