The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-01 00:00:00

THE SAME.

Causes.
Defectiveness of hull ; intoxication }
of captain and mate ... othsav Castle.
Ditto of bull, boilers, and engines... Northern Yacht.
Ditto of boiler, cables, and anchors Forfarshire.
Ditto of boilers, cables, and sails... Ardincaple.
Dit to of boilers and crankness ... Aurora.
Ditto of boilers, engine, or vessel... Erin.
Ditto of boiler or engine, and sails . Killarney.
Ditto of hull, cables, engine, and
Abbey.
boiler •••

Instances.

OF EXPLOSIONS.

Ignorance, carelessness, recklessness, and drunken-
ness of engine-men.

Bad construction or insufficiency of safety-valves.
Inattention to, or want of, proper apparatus to de-
note the level of water and pressure of steam in the
boilers.

Malformation of boilers to sustain pressure.
Working old boilers too long, and at too great pres-
sure.

Bad materials and bad workmanship of boilers.
OF FIRES.

Carelessness and want of cleanliness.
Bad construction of coal receptacles.
Stowing coals on the boilers and against the uncle.
fended sides of the vessel.

Placing boilers too hear the decks and sides of the
vessel.

Defective state of the boilers.
Want of fire-extinguishing apparatus.
OF COLLISIONS.

Want of an universal code of night signals.
NVant Gf a defined and compulsory " rule of the
road."

Racing.
Carelessness, or neglect of look-out.
The principal measures of prevention recom-
mended by the Commissioners are a national system
of registration, periodical surveys of the vessels and
machinery, and the granting or withholding certifi-
cates of sea-worthiness, and of the sight to ply with
passengers. Much useful information on these
subjects was communicated by Mr. C. W. Williams,
Managing Director to the City of Dublin Steam
Packet Company ; and few men of the present day,
if any, are so competent to give instruction on the
subject. This gentleman may be said to have
created a new era in the history of steam navigation.
The first steam-vessel ever intended for the convey-
ance of merchandise across the Irish Channel, and
to ply during winter, was started by this Company,
and chiefly through his exertions and enterprise.
The Company was formed. in 1824, when they
commenced trade with one vessel between Liverpool
and Dublin. They have now a fleet of twenty-oile
sea-going steamers, amounting to neatly 9,500 tons
gross measurement, propelled by engines of 5,550
aggregate horse-power ; they have also several river
steam-vessels on the Upper and Lower Shannon.
Independent of these, there are the three giant
Transatlantic vessels, passing regularly between
England anti America—the Great Western, the
Liverpool, and the British Queen, the principal
dimensions of which are thus given by Mr. Shaw,
with additions by Messrs. Curling and Young, and
Messrs. Maudslay and Field—probably the most
correct description of them yet published, together
with the dimensions of two other large steamers, the
President at.d the United Kingdom, destined for
the same traffic :

Dimensions.

Great
Western

!Liverpool

British
Queen

Presi-
dent

-cs g
.21-z
•6. be
-9'

Years. China. All other
Total.
places.
3 ... •.. 7,598 1,810 9,408
4 ... ••• 10.216 1.7n11 10 non

1832-33 7,598
1833 34 10,216
1834-35 ... . 9,455
1835-36 ... ... I 13,094
1836-37 ... ... 10,393
1837-38 ... ... 16,297

Total 67,083

1,810 9,408
1,790 12,096
1,530 10,995
1,757 14,851
2,213 12,606
3,303 19,600

12,303 I 74,446

It appears from this table, that of an aggregate of
79,446 chests actually despatched from Calcutta in six
years, 67,083 chests were exported to China direct.
The correctness of this statement will bQ borne out by
the records of the Government Custom-house through
which the vessels laden with opium were cleared ex-
pressly for China, and it cannot, therefore, be asserted
either that Government were not perfectly aware of the
existence of the opium trade with China, or that they
did not in fact look to that direct thetradeast this principal
source source of consumption. It is important that
should be borne especially in mind with reference to the
prayer of this memorial.
3. Neither should it be forgotten that the opium
trade has been distinctly recognized by the Governmentt
of- Great Britain and by the Imperial Parliament that
the net profits of this trade have yielded to the Ircliaari
Government an enormous revenue, varying 'from
1,000,000/. to 2,000,000/. sterling per annum, and
that by this revenue, in fact, have the proprietors of
East India Stock been hitherto enabled to receive the I
very high dividend guaranteed by Parliament in the
new charter, 3 and 4 William IV., chap. 85.