Apart from commercial considerations, however, this premier leviathan still stands out as a wonder and pattern of naval construction. In her admirably-conceived and splendidly-wrought structural arrangements—due to the joint labours of the late Mr I. K. Brunel and Mr J. Scott Russell—she possesses as successful an embodiment of the dual quality of “strength-with-lightness” as can be found in any subsequent ocean-going merchant ship. She was, if not the first, certainly the greatest embodiment of the longitudinal system of construction, and in virtue of this, as well as of her phenomenal proportions, she represents, alone, more of the intrepidity and skill essential to thorough progress, than are exhibited by combined hosts of the “departures” of recent times. Despite the far-reaching views of the eminent designer, those changes which have since taken place in the essential conditions for successful ocean navigation eluded his vision. Owing to the opening of coal mines in almost all parts of the world, it is now no longer necessary nor desirable that a steamer should be capable of carrying coals for a return voyage, either from India or Australia—this being the dominant and regulating condition in the _Great Eastern’s_ design. Further, the improvements in marine engineering, represented by the greater possible economies in coal consumption and the fuller utilization of steam, which have since been effected, have rendered the great ship inefficient and obsolete. In short, Brunel and his financial supporters were ahead of their time, and failed to appreciate the law of progress, now better understood—“invention must wait on experience.” The urgent demands of our broader civilisation, improvements in navigation, the spread of population in new colonies and over wider continents, and, above all, the fresh accessions of experience and invention, are forces which now impel shipowners to increase the dimensions of their vessels, and shipbuilders to carry out the work. Each year the contrasts as to dimensions between the first leviathan and her later sister grow less and less. The completion within the past few years of such monster merchant ships as the _Servia_, the _City of Rome_, the _Alaska_, and the _Oregon_, and the forward state of the _Etruria_ and _Umbria_, two remarkable steamships, building on the Clyde for the Cunard Company, constitute an epoch in the history of our mercantile marine, and give colourable justification to the belief sometimes expressed, that the proportions of the _Great Eastern_ will in time be surpassed.