The GREAT BRITAIN left Blackwall on Thursday afternoon, 12th June, 1845. On passing Woolwich it seemed as if the whole population had turned out to behold her. The Dockyard was lined with the Naval and Military officers connected with that depôt, whose cheers were loud and continued. She had on board about eighty passengers, who had embarked for a trip round the coast. After calling at several ports she arrived in the Mersey about 9 o’clock on the evening of Thursday, 3rd July, on which occasion she was anxiously looked for by thousands, the pierheads and every available point on the river being densely crowded. The GREAT BRITAIN sailed on her first voyage from Liverpool to New York on Saturday, 26th July, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, taking forty-five passengers, and arrived out on the 10th August, at noon. On her return voyage she left New York on the 30th August, having on board fifty-seven passengers and 600 tons general cargo, and arrived at Liverpool on the 15th September, at 8 a.m. She continued to trade regularly between the two ports, her passenger list steadily increasing, until the 22nd September, 1846, when she stranded in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. She was, at the time of the stranding, on a voyage from Liverpool to New York with 185 passengers. Fortunately the mishap was accompanied by no loss of life. The cause of the disaster is explained by the following resolution passed by the Directors of the Company:—“With respect to the occurrences which preceded the stranding of the unfortunate ship, as explained now by Captain Hoskin, and by the Report of Captain Claxton to the Secretary, the Directors are of opinion that the ship was stranded in consequence of an error in judgment, into which it appears the Captain was betrayed through the omission of a notice of St. John’s light in the chart of this year, by which he was navigating, and of the want of knowledge on his part of such a light having been established, it being to the Directors obvious that had the light been laid, Captain Hoskin would have known that the judgment which led him at 8 o’clock to put his ship in the proper course for the North Channel, ought to have been persevered in.” The GREAT BRITAIN remained stranded for over eleven months, but on the 25th August, 1847, she was floated off and towed to Liverpool for repairs. After the completion of the repairs she lay in the Liverpool Dock for about five years, and then made one trip to New York, sailing from Liverpool on the 1st May, 1852. She sailed from New York on the 5th June, and after a rapid passage of 10 days 23 hours arrived in Liverpool on the 16th of that month. From that date she ceased to be connected with the Transatlantic Trade, and her subsequent history is sketched in the chapter devoted to the account of steam communication with Australia. [Illustration: Sailboat near land] CHAPTER XIV.