mell, especially in connection with food, is
intensely revolting, I can imagine no heavier hours short of absolute
torture. Having endured these, I had nothing beyond them to dread, and
it was rather a satisfaction, on reaching the Irish coast, to be greeted
with a succession of hail-squalls--to work up the Channel against a wet
North-Easter, and be landed in Liverpool (after a tedious detention for
lack of water on the bar at the mouth of the Mersey) under sullen skies
and in a dripping rain. I wanted to see the thing out, and would have
taken amiss any deceitful smiles of Fortune after I had learned to
dispense with her favors.

There yet remains the grateful duty of speaking of the mitigations of
our trials. And in the first place, the Baltic herself is unquestionably
one of the safest and most commodious sea-boats in the world. She is
probably not the fastest, especially with a strong head wind and sea,
because of her great bulk and the area of resistance she presents both
above and below the water-line; but for strength and excellence of
construction, steadiness of movement, and perfection of accommodations,
she can have no superior. Her wheels never missed a revolution from the
time she discharged her New-York pilot till the time she stopped them to
take on board his Liverpool counterpart, off Holyhead: and her sailing
qualities, tested under the most unfavorable auspices, are also
admirable. She needs but good weather to make the run in ten days from
dock to dock; she would have done it this time had the winds been the
reverse of what they were or as the Asia had them before her. The luck
cannot always be against her.

Praise of commanders and officers of steamships has become so common
that it has lost all emphasis, all force. I presume this is for the most
part deserved; for it is not likely that the great responsibility of
sailing these ships would be entrusted to any other than the very
fittest hands; and this is a matter wherein mistakes may by care be
avoided. The qualities of a seaman, a commander, do not lie dormant; the
ocean tries and proves its men; while in this service the whole
traveling public are the observers and judges. But such a voyage as we
have just made tries the temper as well as the capacity, it calls into
exercise every faculty, and lays bare defects if such there be. To sweep
gaily on before a fresh, fair breeze, is comparatively easy, but few
landsmen can realize the patient assiduity