"Great Eastern" had a career dogged by misfortune. She was designed for the longer Britain to Australia run and proved uneconomical when used on the shorter Atlantic routes. Her maiden voyage was to the United States, leaving Southampton on 16 June 1860 with 418 crew, but only 35 paying passengers, and arriving on 28 June. Never filled to capacity and losing money, the vessel was sold from company to company and in 1867 was chartered by a French syndicate to bring American visitors to the Paris World Exhibition. She attracted only 191 passengers including Jules Verne who later wrote a book about her called "A Floating City".