They dallied in Liverpool for two days, and then boarded the newly commissioned Cunard steamer Gallia, “a very fine ship.” Coincidentally, they sailed with Sams friend the Earl of Dunraven, “an uncommonly clever fellow.” During the transatlantic voyage, the body of a passenger who had died en route was packed in ice and stored in a lifeboat, and Sam added a grisly note to this news in his notebook: “the hilarious Passengers sing & laugh & joke under him” as “the melting ice drips on them.” The family landed in New York on September 2 after a tour that had lasted nearly eighteen mont
Voyage Home 1879: Day By Day
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 28 Thursday – Sam’s entry in his notebook objected to a long title in the Nation—what he called “compounding-disease” [MTNJ 2: 341].
September 1 Monday – Sam, en route on the S.S.Gallia, dictated an inscription and signed a book for an unidentified person. The book: The New Republic by William H. Mallock (1878). The inscription is pure Twain:
September 2 Tuesday – The Cunard liner S.S.Gallia steamed into New York. Fatout: