Originally she had been named the _Leviathan_, and her beginning happened as follows: Already the fact had come to be appreciated that there was a superior advantage in a large steamer compared with a ship of smaller size when voyages of considerable distances were contemplated, and that, as already pointed out on a previous page, length of hull, other things being equal, makes for speed. In designing the _Great Eastern_ with an extreme length of 692 feet she spanned over so large a number of wave-lengths that the possibility of pitching was very decidedly reduced. But even in smooth water length still means speed, and to take the case of a rowing “eight” and compare it with a single “sculler,” we find that this law is well exemplified. Without pursuing so interesting a point beyond our limitations of subject, we might remark that quite recently an expert took the trouble to work out data obtained from the performances respectively of a Leander “eight” and a “sculler” as observed at a Henley Regatta. Although the displacement of the eight-oared craft works out at about 240 pounds per rowing man, or including the coxswain at about 217 pounds, whilst the sculler only displaces 208 lb., yet for all that the speed of the longer boat was found to be greater in the proportion as 9.75 knots are to 8.12 knots, and this, bear in mind, while the eight is carrying a ninth man who contributes nothing to the speed of the craft. We mention this as a simple example of that important fact of the superiority of length in ship-making, an importance that is now exhibited so clearly in the enormous lengths of the latest liners.