Note 433 — Chapter XIV

In the various newspapers and reports I have searched for information about this ship, and other inquiries, I have never had any reason assigned for the Great Eastern not having been placed, when ready for sea, on the India line, from which so much was expected of her, and for which she was specially built; or why her new directors sent her, on hap-hazard and expensive cruises, down channel and across the Atlantic, when every trip showed a ruinous loss. But I suppose the true reason is to be found in the fact, that they could not obtain for either India or Australia sufficient goods and passengers to justify the heavy outlay necessary for such long voyages (the cost of outfit may in itself have been an obstacle), and that, in truth, there was no branch of maritime commerce wherein she could then be profitably employed.