I did not think that there could have
been such a breathless moment in an affair of this kind.
The ship moved majestically down toward the river; and unless it were
Niagara, I never saw anything grander and more impressive than the motion
of this mighty mass as she departed from us. We on the platform, and
everybody along both shores of the Dee, took off our hats in the rain,
waved handkerchiefs, cheered, shouted,--"Beautiful!" "What a noble
launch!" "Never was so fair a sight!"--and, really, it was so grand,
that calm, majestic movement, that I felt the tears come into my eyes.
The wooden pathway adown which she was gliding began to smoke with the
friction; when all at once, when we expected to see her plunge into the
Dee, she came to a full stop. Mr. ------, the father of my friend, a
gentleman with white hair, a dark, expressive face, bright eyes, and an
Oriental cast of features, immediately took the alarm. A moment before
his countenance had been kindled with triumph; but now he turned pale as
death, and seemed to grow ten years older while I was looking at him.
Well he might, for his noble ship was stuck fast in the land of the Dee,
and without deepening the bed of the river, I do not see how her vast
iron hulk is ever to be got out.
[This steamer was afterwards successfully floated off on the 29th of the
same month.]
There was no help for it. A steamboat was hitched on to the stranded
vessel, but broke two or three cables without stirring her an inch.
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