August 23 Saturday – The Clemens family sailed from Liverpool on the S.S.Gallia, bound for New York. Sam noted “about 9 PM brilliant moon, a calm sea, & a magnificent lunar rainbow.”  He noted the last time he’d seen one was in California [MTNJ 2: 340].

August 23 to September 2 Tuesday – The Clemens family was en route to New York on the S.S.Gallia. Sam’s noted the Colorado miner on board who hated Englishmen and wouldn’t pass things to them at the table; a dead passenger packed in ice in a hanging lifeboat and unknowing passengers singing and laughing under it as the melting ice dripped on them; a sailor who had an apoplectic fit and nearly fell from the rigging; and an announcement of Aug. 28 in Nation about an appointment of Henry Hurlbert to study European educational systems [MTNJ 2: 340-1].