THE STEAMSHIP GREAT EASTERN. [Footnote: See Engraving in SUPPLEMENT NO. 584.] The history of the Great Eastern is full of surprises. It is always that which is most unlikely to happen to her which occurs. Not long since we recorded her sale by auction in Liverpool for £26,000. It was stated that her purchasers were going to fit her out for the Australian trade, and that she would at once be sent from Dublin to Glasgow to be fitted with new engines and boilers, and to undergo thorough renovation. Lord Ravensworth, in his address to the Institution of Naval Architects, spoke recently of the bright future before her in that Australian trade for which she was specially built. Yet at this moment the Great Eastern is lying in her old berth in the Sloyne at Liverpool, and unless something else at present quite unforeseen takes place, she will once more play the undignified part of a floating music hall. It seems that although she was certainly sold, as we have stated, the transaction was not completed. Her owners then cast about for the next highest bidder, who at once took her. He is, we understand, a Manchester cotton spinner, and he paid £25,500 for her. It is no secret that Messrs. Lewis made a considerable sum out of the ship last year, and the knowledge of this fact has no doubt induced her present owner to follow their example. The ship left Dublin on Sunday, April 3, under her own steam and in tow of two Liverpool tugs, the Brilliant Star and the Wrestler, and arrived in the Mersey without accident on Monday, after a passage of only thirteen hours. Mr. Reeves, formerly her chief officer, has been made captain. Mr. Jackson is still chief engineer. We cannot at present explain the fact that she went more than twice as fast as she has done recently, her engines making as many as 36 revolutions a minute, save on the assumption that while lying at Dublin much of the enormous growth of seaweed on her bottom died off, as will sometimes happen as a result of change of water. Her engines and boilers, too, have had a good overhaul by Mr. Jackson, and this may account in part for this improvement. It is much to be regretted that the scheme of using the ship for her legitimate purpose has not been carried out. It is not, however, yet too late. The Great Eastern was not a success in Dublin, for one reason, that a beer and spirit license could not be obtained for her. It is said that notice has been given at the Birkenhead police court that any application for a license of a similar kind will be opposed. Whether the ship will be as popular a resort without as she was with a license, we cannot pretend to say; and we may add that all our predilections are against her degradation to the status of a floating music hall. The greater her failure as such, the greater the chance of her being put to a better use; and it may help to that desirable end if we say here something concerning the way in which she could be rendered a commercial success as a trader.