At the time of the “_Trent_ Difficulty,” as it was called, in 1861, the _Australasian_ and the _Persia_ of the Cunard Line were chartered by the British Government to bring out troops to Canada. On the 4th of December orders were received to prepare the _Australasian_ with all speed for this service; her fittings were completed on the 10th, she took in her coal on the 11th, and sailed on the 13th with the 60th Rifles. On the 5th of the same month similar orders were received for the _Persia_, which sailed on the 16th with 1,180 troops, consisting of 1st Battalion of the 16th Regiment and a detachment of sappers. Captain Cook, of the _Australasian_, having encountered much ice in the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, had to turn back, and took his ship to Halifax and thence to St. John, New Brunswick, where he landed his contingent. Judkins, on the other hand, brought the _Persia_ right up to Bic and landed his men, but, the ice threatening to keep him there, he quickly bolted for the open sea, leaving his boats behind him! Of the more recent commanders, Captain W. H. P. Haines, late of the _Campania_ and Commodore of the Cunard fleet, may be instanced as a good specimen. A born sailor he may be called, inasmuch as he is a native of Plymouth, whose father and grandfather before him followed the sea and who himself has been sailing for nearly fifty years and counts 592 voyages across the Atlantic. Captain Haines has always been as noted for caution as for skill. It is said of him that “whatever temptation there might be to make a fast passage, he would never neglect to take soundings, nor rely on any patent apparatus, without repeatedly fortifying its results by stopping his ship to get up and down casts with the ordinary lead.” To guard against the risks of collision with other vessels, the Cunard steamers follow prescribed routes laid out for them, by which the ships, both outward and homeward bound, are kept at a respectable distance. In estimating the runs of the Atlantic liners from Liverpool to New York and return, Daunt’s Rock, off Queenstown, and the Sandy Hook lightship, twenty-six knots from New York, are regarded as the points of departure and arrival; but as Daunt’s Rock is about 244 knots from Liverpool, it follows that, to complete the voyage, a full half day’s run must be added to the record as usually announced. It is also to be remembered that the day at sea is longer or shorter according to the speed of the ship. On a twenty-knot vessel going east the average length of day is about 23 hours and 10 minutes; going westward it is about 24 hours and 50 minutes. The difference of time between Greenwich and New York is about five hours. [Illustration: CUNARD TRACK CHART.]