The Express.
London, England, 1858-07-15 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 15, MS.

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH EXPE-

DITION.

QUEENSTOWN, JULY 19.
The second expedition for laying the telegraphic
cable between Ireland and Newfoundland, which left
Plymouth Bound on the 10th of June, has again re-
turned unsuccessful to its starting point. The expedi-
tion met from first to last with an unprecedented
series of difficulties and misfortunes, against which
even the greatest perseveranoe was unequal to
bear up. A violent gale was encountered, which
lasted nine days, and in which the Agamemnon was
nearly lost in reaching the place of rendezvous in
mid-ocean; three times was the cable joined, and
three times was it lost. And though the Agamem-
non and Valorous again returned to the rendezvous
for the purpose of making a fourth and last attempt,
a dense fog prevented their falling in with the
Niagara. They had no resource left, therefore, but
to return to Queenstown, where they. arrived on
the 12th of July, having been out of sight of land
thirty-three days. From what occurred during the
various operation, there is now less doubt than ever
of the practicability of the scheme. The squadron
is, therefore, coaling and refitting in Cork harbour,
4qd will in
148.,rphebakti file Art pain On Saturtisi
nftt for the or main( a lint and, kis to be
hoped, a success I, attempt to establish the own-
munication between the Old and the New world.
The various ships comprising the squadron, as is
mentioned above, started trom Plymouth Sound early
on the morning of Thursday, the 10th of June,
and by dawn on the following morning they were
well clear of the Scilly Isles. The weather was
unusually fine ; the barometer was high, the sky
was clear, and the sea was calm ; in fact,
everythiniersetaeklmed to promise well for the snows'
of the undertaking During During Friday and the greater
portion of Saturday one uninterrupted calm pre-
vailed, and though it was of the greatest important*
to us that no more coals should be used than was
absolutely necessary, the Agamemnon was obliged
to get up steam. On Saturday, however, the wind
freshened considerably, and several smart squalls
which passed over us showed too plainly . that there
was another and a more unpleasant phase in Atlantic
weather than we had hitherto been accustomed to.
On Saturday evening the glass fell considerably,
in the coarse of the night it blew best part of a gale
of wind, and by Sunday morning a very considerable
sea was ranting from the south-west, which
showed us how true were our worst anticipations
respecting the beautiful rolling trim which
the Agamemnon was in. Daring the earlier
part of the day, as the wind freshened, we found
that it was with difficulty that the Valorous, which
is notoriously a slow ship, could keep pace with us.
It was of the greatest importance that we should
got to the appointed rendezvous in the middle of
the Atlantic as soon as possible, therefore a signal
was made to the Valorous for permission to leave
our station astern, and to proceed to the rendezvous
with the Niagara as fast as possible. Permission
having been granted, we soon left both her and the
Gorgon well down astern, and did not again fall in
with them till reaching the centre on the 26th of
Jane. Throughout the whole of Sunday the wind
gradually freshened, and the glass continued to
fall until about half-past three, when the sky be-
came suddenly overcast, and in half an hoar we
found ourselves in the midst of a streets south-
westerly gale. All bands were immediately sent
aloft and all sail close furled with the exception of
close-reefed topsails and storm staysails, under which
we continued to beat up against the wind during the
whole day and night. We had been taught to be-
lieve, by the assertions of Lieutenant Maury, the
experienced American meteorologist, that daring the
month of June very few gales of wind blow in the
North Atlantic, and that .when they do it was
seldom that they lasted more than 24 hours. We
readily believe, what we wish to be true, and there-
fore it is not surprising that all looked forward to
the morrow in the confident expectation of seeing
the famous calm which invariably follows a storm ;
but in this we were likely to be disappointed for
many succeeding dap. On Monday morning the wind I
blew as hard as ever, and the falling of the barometer
led us to anticipate that we had not seen the worst.
Our conjectures soon proved to be right, for as the
day advanced the wind and sea increased till about
4 o clock, when it blew a perfect hurricane. AU
hands were again summoned on deck, and the little
sail which she had carried during the preceding
twenty-four hours had to be still further shortened.
The meaning of the term " a gale of wind " has a
very different sigaifloatiim when used at sea from
what is understood by it on land. There every
stiff breeze which disturbs a few slates, or demolishes
a row of chimney-pots, is dignified by the name;
but a gale of wind at sea is quite a different thing.
Produced, as it is, by an unexplained inequality in
the pressure of the air, extending over a vast space,
and sometimes amounting to one-twelfth of the
whole atmospheric pressure, the wind sweeps across
the comparativily smooth lulus of the water with
a violence and rapidity truly awful, teeming to force
down the very waves, and driving off their white
crests like drifts of snow along the sea. To reef the
large topsails of a line-of-battle ship like the Aga-
memnon daring a heavy gale is indeed an operation
of no small danger and difficulty. The sail is thrown
aback, and about 50 men are sent on the yard, sod
while the sail is flapping and beating against the
mast as if it would tsar itself in pieces, it has to be
hauled up over the yard, and the reef points made
fast.

The wind continued with unabated violence
throughout Monday night, but on the morning of
y, the 16th of June, it moderated a little.
The sea, which previously had been partially kept
down by the excessive violence of the wind, now
began to rise to • dangerous height, and the
Agamemnon to roll and strain considerably
with the tremendous dead weight with which
she was loaded. Every wave that struck her seemed
to make her quiver in every joint es if she wee
coming to pieces. We now for the first time began
to entertain serious: apprehensions that, rolling as
the ship continually did to an angle of 36 degrees
each way in nine seconds, there was great danger that
the 230 tons of cable which was coiled away on the
forward part of the upper deck would shift from its
place, and smash away the side of the ship, in which
case we should all have gone to the bottom in • few
minutes. This feeling of uneasiness which had taken
possession of our minds respecting the safety of the
coil was rather augmented during the evening,
when it wee reported that one of the lower deck
beams directly under it had been broken by the
working of the ship. Anything to equal the
state of discomfort everyone had to endure during
this and the six succeeding days, while the
gale lasted, cannot readily be appreciated by those
not on board. Every wave that struck her mine in
upon the main and lower decks in tons thesugh the
ports and hawse-holes, and as the scuppers had all
been closed up to prevent the bilgewater running
down upon the main coil, it all poured in gallons
into all the cabins, putting six inches of water on the
floor, and wetting through bedding and bedclothes
in such a manner that no one thought of undressing
to go to bed, while many, as an additional egus
scutum, might be seen arraying themselves in • tint
of macintosh before retiring to rest. It was not at
all an uncommon thing to wake up in the night to
be the spectator of an animated regatta performed
by all the floatable portions of your furniture from
side to side of the cabin with the roll of the ship.
If you were disposed to move about, nothing but the
most practised agility would save you from severe
contusions ; for es the ship rolled *lowly and steadily
towards the wind, she would fly back in an opposite
direction with • sudden and violent jerk which would
send everything and everybody flying from one side
of the vessel to the other. But what made the roll-
ing more unpleasant than anything was that it ren-
dered it difficult to get anything cooked, and still
more so to get what was cooked served up. There
was something uncommonly ridiculous in seeing

every one sitting down to a meal holding on to the
table u if life and death depended upon it, looking
at the dishes, while they dare not let go to partake
of the contents until some intrepid individual
would set the example by loosing his hold.
In an instant his chair slips, and coming
in contact with that of his neighbour, the
doubtful equilibrium is at once destroyed, and in
an instant some half dozen chairs, with their occu-
pants, are rolling over each other from one side of
the cabin to the other, probably accompanied by the
debris of plates, dishes, or anything else that may
have been caught up daring the mitee. These scenes
were excessively amusing once or twice, and excited
their due share of merriment among the victims ;
but when we found that the joke was repeated three
times a day for more than a week, and generally
ended in our getting very little to eat, it grew rather
a sorry one in our estimation.

Throughout Wednesday Wednesday and Thursday, the 18th
and 17th of lane, the wind continued to blow with
very little intermission as hard as ever, and the sea
every day rose higher and higher. Though the wind
was nearly dead against as we still continued under
sail, and consequently made but very little progress,
for on the morning of Saturday, the 19th of June, we
had 5ti11233 miles tAgo before gaining the rendeavons.
All tfis vigelf WM been anihni to the northward

of our course before the gale, and were, on Saturday
at noon, no less than 15 deg. to the north of it. Daring
the forenoon of Saturday the wind abated a little,
bat the sea continued as high as ever, and as the
barometer still fell we took the temporary hill as no
indication of the approach of fine weather. We
were right, for u the night advanced the gale again
returned with redoubled violence, and by the morn-
Mg of Sunday, the 20th Jane, it blew a perfect bur
ricane. The scene which the sea and sky pre-
sented that morning was one of such terrible
grandeur that those who witnessed it will probably
remember to their latest hour. Nothing could be
heard on deck but the loud hoarse roar of the wind as
it rushed through the rigging, straining every rope,
and bending the masts like whip-sticks. The sky was
of a dull and uniform lead colour, which was reflected
in a supernatural greyish tint by the white foam
which covered the water. The sea, which had now
been gradually rising for eight days, rose up in steep
walls of water, fifty feet from the base, rolled
onward towards the ship, curling over one another
with a noise like thunder, which could be heard even
above the roaring of the wind. The uniformly
black colour of the horizon was only relieved here
and there by a white streak when some violent gust
had caught up the white crest of a wave and carried
it through the air likes snowdrift. The sea was running
on the beam, so every wave made the Agamemnon
roll on as i f she would capsize altogether. Large u she is
the gigantic waves, as they came lowering on, seemed
as if they must break upon her decks and overwhelm
her. At one moment the ship would fall off into the
trough of the water which rose on all sides close over
her, and in the next was thrown up into the air
amidst a cloud of foam, again to fall upon the next
sea with a shock that made every timber in her
vibrate.

About 9 o'clock one very large sea struck the ship,
and threw her almost on her beam-ends. For a mo-
ment she lay u if she would never right, and then
with a tremendous crash the 160 tons of coal which
had been stowed upon the after part of the main and
upper decks broke away from their fastenings, and
carrying away companion ladders, stanchions, and
everything else breakable that came in
their way, they swept from one side of
the ship to the other, pouring down in
tons through the hatchway into the engines. For a
moment everything was confusion everyone seemed
for a second panio-struck, as no one knew what had
happened. Whether it was the deck coil had broken
away, or the side of the ship stove by the sea, was a
matter of conjecture. A party of marines were told
off to re-store the coals and extricate anyone who
might have been injured by them, while the rest of
the hands were called on .deck to wear the ship
round upon the starboard tack to ease her off from
the sea; but while these operations were being per-
formed the ship heeled over so fearfully that no one
though it was possible for the deck coil to hold on,
strongly fastened as it was. The helm wee, there-
fore, put abort, and the ship stood away in a
southerly direction. Part of the coals was then
cleared away and the ship's drummer and Mr.
Harvey, one of the usistant engineers, extri-
cated from underneath them. The former had his
arm crushed, and the latter was severely squeezed
and eternally injured; several of the men were also
hurt by the rolling of the ship. In the forenoon,
one man, to save himself from being thrown down,
put his hand into the cleft of a beam, which, as the
ship rolled back again, closed, and jammed the tops
of his fingers off. Another man was thrown down
thehatchway from the upper to the lower deck,
thoughtstrange to say, without hurting him, beyond
a severe shaking. Daring the day the ship was
comparatively easier as long as she kept upon the
starboard tack, but the wind and sea did not dimi-
nish in the least. About twelve o'clock a heavy sea
struck the stern and wrenched off one end of the
screw guard. It was composed of single iron, and
weighed several tons, and as it swung against the
side with the wash of the sea, it threatened
at every minute to establish a serious leak. There
were also great apprehensions that if more of the
fastenings got loose the wreck would infallibly foul
either the screw or the redder. An attempt was
made to cut it loose altogether, but in such • sea it
was found impossible to put men over the side to
unshackle the chains which held it. The weather
was the same throughout the afternoon, and in cue
of any emergency arising, steam was got up and the
screw was lowered ; but when the order was given to
steam a-head, at about five o'clock, it was found that
the working of the ship had wrenched asunder
the waste steam pipe, which rendered one of the
boilep useless for a time while it was being
petaled up. At six o'clock a signal was
made from the Niagara for us again to put
the ship about if we could do so with safety, and to
proceed on to the rendezvous. AU hands were once
more called on deck, and the ship was put round
again upon the port tack. The ship being again
beam on to the sea, rolled down to her hammock
netting., and twice the pinnace and the barge broke
away from their Whinge, and ran considerable risk
of staving themselves before they could be again
secured.

The ship was now in a very perilous position,
though the deck coil still held (and how it did
so is little short of a miracle). The rigging had
worked so slack that the masts fell over from aide to
side with the motion of the ship, and threatened to
go overboard at every roll. Night came, but with it
came an increase of the wind and sea, but few on board
went to bed, and those that did could not have slept
for the violent motion, even if they had been in-
clined. And as Tuesday morning broke it only
disclosed to us a more angry and broken, though
it could not be a higher, sea than that of the previous
day. No one could doubt now that the ship was in a
most perilous position, and no one knew the moment
when the next roll might throw all the masts over
the side, or capsize the ship altogether. Some of
the men were fatigued and dispirited, and it w s
only with the greatest difficnlty that they could
work the ship, for she rolled to such a fearful swell
that it was impossible for them to keep their feet.
About 4 o'clock a.m. a dense black cloud blew up
from windward ; when it approached we soon saw
that it was a violent squall, for it left a white track
in the sea as it tore the waves it passed over into a
mass of foam. It appeareduif bearing down right on
us, so the captain, who had only ost lain down, was
sent for ; but as soon as be arrived, it had fortunately
before us. Had it passed over us there can be
firtl:ddoubt that It would have taken the masts
overboard. Thins continued much in the same
state until about mu o'clock, when the chi? laboured
so heavily that it was necessary for the immediate
safety of all on board that some alteration should be
mule in her course. As we had lost sight of the