The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-08-10 00:00:00

A PERILOUS VOYAGE.

A small American boat, the Nautilus, which
left Boston, United States, about five weeks ago
for Havre, with only two men in her, landed her
crew at Mullyon Cove, on Wednesday in last
week, having been prevented by an east wind from
making Falmouth. The dimensions of the boat are
19ft. deck, 151 t. keel, breadth flit., zft. 3in. deep, and
draws about 6in. of water. It is the smallest boat
which has ever crossed the Atlantic. The crew are
two brothers named Andrew. When about half-way
out they encountered foggy, heavy weather, and on
one occasion the boat was fairly lifted out of the water
several feet by a huge wave. The brothers have been
48 days coming from Boston, but were delayed several
days at starting in consequence of an accident. They
are typical Americans, apparently well educated. The
log they have kept of the voyage is well written, and
interspersed with many original and quaint remarks.
They say they have never been to sea before, but have
coasted in fishing-boats. One, the elder, is by trade
a pianoforte-maker; and the younger, Walter, a
joiner. The NaPtilus left Mullyon for Havre on Mon-
day morning.

In reference to the above, The Times publishes the
following letter :
Sir,—Observing in The Times descriptions under thi
heading of the voyage of the Nautilus, a small American
boat, across the Atlantic, it which itis stated that it is the
smallest boat which has ever crossed the Atlantic, I beg to
ask you to correct that statement. In the spring of 1870, I,
in company with N. Primriaz, sailed in the City of Ragusa
from Liverpool to Boston in 90 days, returning from New
York to Liverpool in 1871 in 38i days. In our outward
voyage we experienced the fearful and terrific storm of
September 3, 1870, on the St. George's Bank, lat. 4812, long,
6827, when two large vessels were dismasted, and on the
homeward voyage we rode out a gale. All sailors will readily
admit that, compared with an outward voyage, a homeward
voyage is a trifle, because in the homeward voyage a vessel
has the advantage of the assistance of the Gulf Stream.
The City of Ragusa was visited in America by Presi-
dent Grant and all the State officials of Boston and by the
Governor and ex-Governor of Rhode Island, and was seen
by Admiral Northcott and many other officers of Her
Majesty's Navy and over 400,000 persons at the Crystal
Palace. She is 19ft. long and 6ft. wide (the Nautilus being
6f I. 71n.), and now lies at Liverpool, and is the only vessel
of that size which has ever accomplished the outward and
homeward passage. I hope next year to have her on view at
at my boat-house here.—Yours, obediently,
Maidenhead, Aug. 3. E. R. W. HAYTER.

In a leader commenting upon the feat of the
Nautilus, the Standard remarks :
. . . "Now that the sea is the highway of the world, it is
difficult to realise the hardihood of those who were the
first to set out, ignorant whither they were going or what
they might reach—whether, as the Ulysses of Tennyson puts
it, the gulfs would wash them down, or whether they would
reach the happy isles and find the great Achilles still reign-
ing. There is now but little of the earth's surface unex-
plored—unless, indeed, it be at the extreme Poles—and
the mariner who weighs anchor in a well-found vessel,
properly manned and equipped—unlesshe be bent on forcing
his way through Smith Sound into the Polar pack, or
through the perpetual barrier of fog that lies far beyond the
Falkland Islands, round the earth's southernmost point—
has before him a task practically as simple as if he were
hooked from Euston to Liverpool, or from New York to San
Francisco.
"On the other hand, the trip of the tiny Nautilus over the
wide Atlantic shows us what can be done by men of courage,
Of what a well-built, well-found yacht is capable we know.
What Barentz did on the Spitzbergen Seas, what Columbus
did when he stood boldly out to the far West. What
Magellan did when he ventured through the Straits which
stilt hear his name, that, in effect, was done by Rajah
Brooke, when, in the Royalist, a small topsail schooner
of but some forty-five tons, he fearlessly steered round
the Cape, and, regardless of the pirates who infest the
Straits of Sunda, planted the English flag on Borneo,
and offered the English Crown a colony which an unwise
and short-sighted policy refused. He was the first English
yachtsman of modern days who scorned the Solent and
dared to victual his craft for a year's voyage. Many have
followed him, but his is the first glory. Since then, Lord
Dufferin and Mr. Smith have forced their way to "high
latitudes." !sir. Lamont, of Knockdow, has attacked the
Kara Seal Captain Allen Young, in the Pandora, has
pushed his way to the extreme edge of the Polar pack;
Lord Pembroke has cruised among the coral reefs of the
Southern Ocean; while Mr. Brassey, in a vessel which
has not her equal afloat, haa circumnavigated the globe.
But few of us are millionaires who can put upon the stocks
a Sunbeam or a Diana. None the less the trip of the
Nautilus ought to show our young men what can be done
by those who have the will. With a forty-ton cutter, for
instance, a dozen young Englishmen, fairly accustomed to
the sea and capable of handling a rope, could, it they chose,
make their way far north beyond the Maelstrom to Hamerfest
and Tromso, or might even rove to Christianashaab, or deso-
late Disco itself. The expenses of such a trip would be small,
and the toil immense; but for those who love hard work
for its own sake, and who revel in adventure, such
a voyage ought to have far more charm than a lazy sojourn
of a month or a couple of months at Scarborough, Brighton,
or Boulogne. Nor is a yacht of this size needed. We know
what the Water Lily did on the Danube. Her "log" is
the pleasantest nautical narrative ever made public. What
the Water Lily did can be done again. For those whose
daring carries them yet further, the Jordan may be ex-
plored in a frail canoe, such as those which flash up and
down the Thames; or in a small yawl of five tons, or even
less, the Channel can be crossed, and by cautiously hugging
the coast a visit can be paid to the ruined cities of the
Zuyder Zee, or conger of gigantic size be captured off Sark,
or even, if the weather be friendly and the crew capable and
resolute, Finisterre itself may be sighted and conclusion
tried with the Biscay billows It is strange indeed that the
old passion for the sea, which was once the soul of England,
should now bo so rare, and that strong, well-built young men
should lie idling their time on shore when health and enjoy-
ment, and what Browning terms 'the wild joy of living,'
await them afloat."

It appears from a return just issued that the num-
ber of railway and other private Bills brought before
Parliament in the present session was 276, and the amount
of capital proposed to be raised by them £49,361,071, of
which it was intended to raise £30,029,800 by shares, and
£19,31,271 by loans. Last year the number of Bills brought
before Parliament was 268, and the amount of capital pro-
posed to be raised £42,057,129. In 1876 there were 270
hills, by which it was proposed to raise £49,126,283. The
number of bills in 1875 was 266, and the capital £49,944,307 ;
in 1874 the Bills numbered 281, the capital being £63,365,240;
In 1873 there were 334 Bills, the capital being £86,893,943;
and in 1872 there were 304 Bills, professing to raise capital
mounting to £86,444,831.