The directors of the Great Ship Company announce that their
affairs must be closed. The ship has earned this season 37,308/. and spent 57,3081., there is a mortgage on her of 30,002/., and further moneys are required for outfit. Under these circumstances, the shareholders must either raise more money or sell her by auction, and it may be hard to find a purchaser. She is too big for some of the best lines, she could not enter the Hooghly, for example, and her working expenses seem to be very great. The easiest thing to do with her would be to anchor her off Cowes, and fit her up as a vast floating hotel. There are invalids enough who are ordered sea trips to make such a speculation pay. Like almost every other plan of the Brunels, she has illustrated their grasp of design and ruined her shareholders.
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