Note 440 — Chapter XIV

If any further proof was required that the Great Eastern proved a failure in the two points, speed and comfort at sea, on which her protectors mainly built their hopes, it will be found in a small and amusing book by M. Jules Verne, translated from the French, and published by Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. (1875), entitled “The Floating City.” M. Verne, who made a voyage in this ship in 1867 from Liverpool to New York, records, from the official returns, her speed as not exceeding 250 nautical miles each day on the average, and he describes her movements during strong winds as “rolling frightfully, her bare masts describing immense circles in the air.”