Page:Floating City (1904).djvu/90



day, at half-past twelve, a steersman posted up on the grand saloon door the following observation:—

Lat. 51° 15′ N. Long. 18° 13′ W. Dist.: Fastenet, 323 miles.

This signified that at noon we were three hundred and twenty-three miles from the Fastenet lighthouse, the last which we had passed on the Irish coast, and at 51° 15′ north latitude, and 18° 13′ west longitude, from the meridian of Greenwich. It was the ship's bearing, which the captain thus made known to the passengers every day. By consulting this bearing, and referring it to a chart, the course of the "Great Eastern" might be followed. Up to this time she had only made three hundred and twenty miles in thirty-six hours, it was not satisfactory, for a steamer at its ordinary speed does not go less than three hundred miles in twenty-four hours.