Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 2.djvu/241

 O-MORROW, at ebb tide, the brig Forward will sail from the New Prince's Docks, captain K. Z.; chief officer, Richard Shandon; destination unknown."

Such was the announcement which appeared in the Liverpool Herald of April 5, 1860.

The departure of a brig is not a very important event for one of the largest trading ports in England. Indeed, who would notice it among the crowd of ships, of every tonnage and every nation, which the long miles of floating docks can scarcely contain; and yet from an early hour on the morning of April 9th, numbers of people began to assemble on the wharf. The whole maritime population of Liverpool seemed to agree to congregate there, and not only the sailors, but all classes, came flocking thither. The dock laborers left their work, the city clerks their dingy counting-houses, and the shopkeepers their deserted shops. Omnibus after omnibus set down its load of passengers outside the dock walls, till the entire city appeared to have turned out to see the Forward sail.

The Forward was a brig of 170 tons, fitted up with a screw propeller and an engine of 12O-horse-power. She might easily have been confounded with other brigs in port by the ordinary onlooker, and yet to the practiced eye of a sailor there were certain peculiarities about her which made her unmistakable, as appeared from the conversation of a group of men assembled on the deck of the Nautilus, a vessel lying close by. They were eagerly discussing the probable destination of the Forward, and each one had his own conjecture.