The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-01 00:00:00

The Foyal Sovereign at Sea.

The attempt made, by shelving the Royal Sovereign, to
prevent any real knowledge of her capabilities reaching the
public ear has, in one sense, been made a little too late. We
are enabled to state confidently that the vessel has already
been severely tested, and that the results obtained have
been so entirely satisfactory that it is simply impossible
for the Admiralty to refuse Captain Coles another ship.
It is probable that no man living knows the capabili-
ties of the Royal Sovereign better than her commander,
Captain S. Osborn. With all her defects he must be
equally familiar, and no good reason can be assigned for
appealing from his decision. Capt. Osborn's report is to the
last degree favourable. Between the 28th of August and
the 17th of September he had the ship under weigh in the
Channel on ten different occasions, testing her in every
variety of weather, from perfect calm with heavy swell
to a double-reefed topsail breeze and a smart sea. On one
occasion the ship was put into the broken water of Portland
Race just as a heavy gale had broken. On all occasions
the ship behaved remarkably well, proving herself not only
a buoyant seaboat, but much faster than one would suppose
was consistent with her coarse bows. Under the most
trying circumstances the maximum roll of the ship has
been but 11 degreci each way, doing this at the rate of about
ten times in a minute. The great width of the deck, 63
feet, is a serious defect, but that is purely owing to the ship
being a converted vessel, and Capt. Osborn is perfectly well
aware that this width is in no way necessary to the turret
system. As it is, when riding at anchor in bad weather, the
drift and wet blow along in a very trying manner, but as
the ship has no masts the crew do not really suffer in con
sequence, and a sea-going ship would of course be spe.
cially designed to prevent this exposure. So much
for the qualities of the ship as such. As a man-of-war,
we learn that the turrets and guns work admira-
bly, in all 177 rounds have been fired under every
condition, and the rolling of the ship affects neither the
evolutions of the turret nor the guns. The only defects
discovered by Captain Osborn appear to lie in the use of
wooden instead of iron gun carriages, and the absence of
winches to run the guns in and out with instead of the
old-fashioned tackle. Both these defects are in course of
being remedied. Captain Osborn believes that the Royal
Sovereign, as she now stands, is the most formidable
vessel of war which he has ever been en board of.
She would destroy easily, if her guns were rifled, any of our
present ironclads, whether of the Hector, Warrior, or—and
Mr Reed should dwell on this—the Research class, Clumsy
as she has been called, her real handiness, speed, and weight
of broadside, and the small target she offers, increase ten-
fold her powers of attack and defence. While he has such
facts as these in his favour, Capt. Coles can laugh to scorn the
various attacks made on him by the opponents of his sys-
tem. Apparently there is no limit to the weight of the
guns which can be worked on the turret system. It must
not be forgotten, too, that the Royal Sovereign requires
but 300 hands, instead of 1,100. Even now, in this time
of our peace, we find that men are scarce, and hard to get ;
what would it be in time of war ? Let us add that during
the time the Royal Sovereign has been at sea a single gun-
breeching has not been carried away, nor so much as a finger
hurt in working her enormous guns. The only damage
done has been to a few weak fittings on the deck. For
that done to the hawse pipe Captain Osborn takes all the
blame to himself.—Mechanics' Magazine.

Melancholy Occurrence at Sea.

EIGHT LIVES LOST.

One of the most painful and heart-rending incidents
which have transpired during the late gale was witneessed
by the crew of the brig Sovereign, Captain Jackson, on her
passage from Vyborg to West Hartlepool. The Sovereign
arrived at West Hartlepool on Friday night, and the cap.
tain reports that on Thursday he was some distance from
Hartlepool in a gale of wind and with a heavy sea run-
ning. About half-past eleven o'clock in the morning he
was steeling the vessel, and was suddenly startled by
voices crying out " Brig ahoy I" He called out to the
man on watch to know where it proceeded from, and for
a few moments they could not perceive any one; but
looking behind they discovered a small " dingey," or
ship's boat, with seven men and a boy in it. One of them
had a small 'leg on a stick waving it as a signal of distress,
and beckoning the men to turn the vessel round. All hands
were called on deck and the ship's course was speedily
altered, and in a short time the vessel was close to the poor
fellows, who were being tossed about in their little craft, in
momentary expectation of being swamped. On nearing them
it was seen that the occupants of the boat were sailors, and
one, who was taken for the captain, was steering the boat
with an oar. They appeared to be quite exhausted, as though
they had been shipwrecked the previous day, and had been
fighting between life and death with the surging waves
without either food or water; in fact, there was nothing in
the boat but a saw and a life-buoy. A line was immediately
hove to the boat, and eagerly caught by the men, who by its
aid hauled themselves up to the side of the ship. One of
the men in the boat caught hold of the chain fasten-
ings of the rigging for the purpose of keeping the boat close
to the ship, but a heavy sea caught the vessel, and pitching
it to a side lifted the man out of the boat. Finding himself
in this position he let go, and„fell into the boat at the fore-
most part of it with his feet, his head going over into the
water. On his companions seeing his danger they sprang
forward to keep him in the boat, but in doing so they upset
their little craft, and the whole of them were pitched into
the sea. Two of the men kept hold of the small line that
had been pitched to them, and were dragged a short distance
with the vessel, which was sailing under close-reefed top
sails, but the pitching they received by the sea overcame
their strength, and they had to let go. They appeared
to be swimmers, and were vainly following in the track
of the ship, but only a few moments elapsed and
they sank, Others were trying to mount the inverted
boat, but they were no sooner on it than a heavy sea washed
them off. Others were waving and calling out for help, and
for a moment disappearing under the water and then rising
again, renewing their signs for assistance, Gradually they
all went down, but one kept up about five minutes longer
than the rest, who was supposed to be the captain, who had
the life-buoy in his hand in the boat. About ten minutes
afterwards nothing but the inverted boat was to be seen,
and in five minutes more a schooner, directed by signals from
the brig, passed immediately the spot where they had gone
down, but no signs of life were to be seen. The captain of
the Sovereign believed tho poor fellows who have come to
so untimely an end were the crew of some Swedish vessel,
as they had the appearance of Swedes, and a boat similar to
thime used by such ships. Sonic of them could speak
English, but with a fvreigii acceut.—.Arewcast(e Chronicle.