Her first trial trip took place in September 1859 and was marred by an explosion which killed six men, wounded several others, and wrecked the saloon. She was designed to carry 800 first-class passengers, 2000 second-class, and 800 third-class, or 10,000 troops, it being expected that the Government would utilise her as a troopship. Her first voyage was made, not to India, to which she never went, but to New York, to which she took 36 passengers. She left Southampton on June 17, 1860, and arrived on June 28, all New York turning out to see her. Her best day’s run was 333 miles, and at no time did she exceed 14¹⁄₂ knots an hour. On her homeward voyage she did rather better, as she carried 212 passengers and a large cargo in a passage of 9 days 11 hours. Her one experience as a trooper was when she took 2125 soldiers to Canada at the time of the _Trent_ affair. On her next outward voyage she met with a gale in which her steering gear was rendered useless and she was nearly lost. In 1865 she was engaged in laying the Atlantic cables. She was employed in this kind of work for some years, off and on, until in 1886 she was acquired by an enterprising drapery and tea firm and used as a show-place and advertisement. In 1890 she was sold to be broken up, and thus disposed of in small lots at little better than old iron prices. The _Great Eastern_ was an unlucky ship from start to finish. From the bankruptcy of Mr. Scott Russell some time before she was launched until she was left to rust on a Mersey mud-bank, almost every one concerned with her had a share of her misfortune. The one task in which she acquitted herself well was the Atlantic cable-laying.