To begin with, her size and tonnage were enormous.
Also, she was four-masted, instead of the usual three, and her hull and lower spars were of steel instead of wood.

A steel sailing vessel was something of a novelty to the captain, and he was seized with a desire to go aboard and inspect.
The ladder from ship to wharf was down, of course, and getting on board was an easy matter.

When he reached the deck and looked about him, the great size of the ship was still more apparent.

The bulwarks were as high as a short man's head.

She was decked over aft, and, as the captain said afterwards, "her cabins had nigh as many stories as a house." From the roof of the "first story," level with the bulwarks, extended a series of bridges, which could be hoisted or lowered, and by means of which her officers could walk from stern to bow without descending to the deck.