The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-26 00:00:00

H.M.S. TRANSIT.

ONE or two letters written by officers on board the
Transit, and detailing her wreck in the Straits of
Banca, have appeared this week. We select the
most interesting per.ions of a letter dated Singa-
pore, July 25th. The utter inefficiency of a man-of•
war carrying troops in an hour of danger to convey
those troops to a place of safety by her boats, is very
strikingly shown. Of course a ship is not built to
run upon rocks, but still, if a man-of-war is converted
temporarily into a troopship, she ought to be
supplied with some means to secure the safety of the
trnons in ens 4 of wreck. The Transit entered the
Straits of Banca on the 9th of July :
Alter steaming on that morning (Friday, the 10th)
about eight and a half miles an hour we passed the town of
Muntok (the capital of Banca), when we saw reefs ahead.
These we cleared, and along we went. About 9.30 a.m.,
as I was smoking a cigar with the purser of the ship on
the poop, suddenly bump she went and nearly threw us
overboard. The engines were stopped at once, and the
water rushed into the engine-room, for she had a large
hole in her bottom. After the shock I said, " Now we
have finished our voyage in the Transit;" and though I
am not easily frightened, I was then, for I fully expected
she would break her back every moment, and then the
consequences would have been too awful to contemplate.
The copt Lin, seeing it was all up with the vessel, ordered
the biscuits to be brought upon deck, and casks to be
Slid with as much water as could be got out of the tank;
meanwhile the troops and officers were sent below, and the
pumps set to work ; and I assure you, though we were in
the most imminent danger, the most perfect order was
preserved, and not a man left the place he was ordered to
remain in, and all sat down quietly, except those who
were employed. T had all my thines packed up and ready
to get out of the old tub if there was time, but the
water poured in. I took a peep into the engine-room; the
soldiers were working up to their necks iu water. The
great fear was the ship would slip off the rock, and then
(twin she moat have gone instantly, taking with her more
than 800 souls.

" Would slip off the rock and then go down." Here
in a few words is the real danger of an iron ship.
Iron cannot hold together like timber. If an iron
ship run on a rock she tears an open hole right
through her plates. A wooden ship knocks a
splintery hole, and either sticks fast for ever, or is
got off without any danger of going down. In three
hours the boats landed the men from the Transit,
and after a week's residence on a sandbank the
whole were rescued and carried t) Singapore. The
writer sums up his character of the Transit as
follows :

The Transit was nearly lost in the Southern Ocean a
few days after we left the Island of St. Paul ; we had a
most awful storm for three days, our sails and spars went
to the winds, and it has since been acknowledged that
had the gale lasted twenty-four hours longer every soul
on board would have perished and never so much as have
been heard of; the sea was awfully high, but the vessel
hardly shipped any water ; there was a very bad leak in
her, the iran having split in one part alone twenty-four
feet. You will hardly credit it, but one day we pumped
out of her 600 tons of water in the twenty-four hours.
She leaked from the time we left Corunna, and, of course,
it increased as we went on. The fact is we ought not
to have proceeded further than the Cape in her. No
one but those who were on board the Transit can have the
least idea of the dreadful perils we have undergone.

ANECDOTE OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPIL—I think
the most curious fact, taken altogether, that I
ever heard of the electric telegraph was told me by a
cashier of the Bank of England. " Once upon a
time, then, on a certain Saturday night, the folks at
the Bank could not make the balance come right by
just 1001. This is a serious matter in that little
establishment : I do not mean the cash, but the
mistake in arithmetic ; for it occasions a world of
scrutiny. An error in balancing has been known, I
am told, to keep a delegation of clerks from each
office at work sometimes through the wole night. A
hue and cry was of course made after this 1001., as
if the old lady in Threadneedle street would be in the
Gazette for want of it. Luzkily on the Sunday morn-
ing a clerk (in the middle of the sermon, I dare say,
if the truth were known) felt a suspicion of the truth
dart through his mind quicker than any flash of the
telegraph itself. He told the chief cashier on Mon-
day morning that perhaps the mistake might have
occurred in packing some boxes of specie for the
West Indies, which had been sent to Southampton
for shipment. The suggestion was immediately
acted upon. Here was a race—lightning against
steam! and steam with forty-eight hours' start given.
Instantly the wires asked' whether such a vess had
left the harbour.' `Just weighing anchor,' was the
answer. ' Stop her,' frantically shouted the electric
telegraph. It was done. Have up on deck certain
boxes marked so and so; weigh them carefully.'
'I hey were weighed; and one—the delinquent—was
found heavier by just one packet of a hundred
sovereigns than it ought to be. Let her go,' said
the mysterious telegraph. The West India folks
were debited with just 1001. more, and the error was
corrected without ever looking into the boxes or de-

laying the voyage by an hour. Now that is what may
he called ' doing business.'"—Letters of R. E. H.
Greyson.
A ItF.Fonm in housebuilding is about to be
attempted at Glasgow. The flats are to give way
to the Englishman's "castle." Mr. Denuistoun
contemplates erecting upon his land a new suburb
to the town, consisting entirely of private self-
contained and detached houses, each with garlen

and grounds. Architectural taste and skill are
to be employed, and the, suburb not to be left to the
usual " Carpenters' Gothic." A park and fountains
are talked of, and an inclosure wall with gates,
insuring the quiet and seclusion of the neighbour-
hood. _ _ _

LORD Powis objects to the removal of the Welsh
Circuits. In a letter to Eddowees Shrewsbury Journal.
He says :—The Judicial Commissioners are following
closely in the footsteps of the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners, and propose to give increased accommo-
dation to Lancashire and Yorkshire by taking away
existing assizes from Wales, just as the latter body
originally recommended that the Sees of Bangor and
Llandaff should be merged in St. Asaph and Bristol,
to make room for the new bishoprics of Manchester
and Ripon. Thus Cardigan with a population of
97,000, Carmarthen with 94,000, and Denbigh with
96,000, are each to lose one assize, while Hereford
with 99,000, and Westmoreland with 58,000, retain
two. Why are Welsh prosecutors, attorneys, and
witnesses to be carted from home over such an ex-
tent of country? Why is Welsh pool to be dragged
to Delgelly, and Aberystwith to Carmarthen ! Why
is Wales to lose its existing rights ?