Excerpt from In Tudor Times: Short Character-Studies of the Great Elizabethans

A Great Atlantic liner was leaving the bustling landing-stage of an English seaport. On board were not less than three thousand souls, passengers and crew all told. Her proportions were noble, her fittings as faultless as modern ideas of luxury could demand. The best of many brains had been spent in her contrivance, everything about her spoke of strength, ingenuity, comfort. As she began to make her way slowly over the grey-green waters she went with the stately movement of a queen, and at each proud motion forward, like a woman shaking out the frills of her gown, she scattered behind her circles upon circles of creamy foam. At the landward end of the stage a, man stood watching her depart. His eyes were fixed upon her dreamily, noting each point of her beauty. Then, as he looked, a strange thing came to pass. For the vessel of thirty thousand tons vanished, swiftly, as if she had been engulfed by the eager grey-green waves, and in her place there appeared a tiny barque atrim with canvas and of barely one hundred tons freightage.

The spectator noted another important point of difference, the direction had become changed. Whereas the first had been going from the stage, the second was coming towards it.

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