The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-11 00:00:00

IHE ARMY.

His Serene Highness the Prince of Waldeck
and suite yesterday inspected the manufacturing
departments of Woolwich Arsenal. The Prince
entered the establishment at half-past 11 a.m., and
remained until five o'clock, the greater part of the
time being occupied in witnessing the manufacture
of the Armstrong gun. His Serene Highness was
formally received by the officials in full uniform,
according to instructions to that effect from the
Secretary of State for War.
It was yesterday stated in Woolwich Arsenal
that the great reduction which has commenced in
the establishment will amount to a total of 6,000
persons. The dischargeE are ordered to be carried
out at the rate of 150 hands per week, from each
department, and will be continued until the esta-
blishment is reduced to about 4,000 men. At the
close of the financial year the gun factories, labora-

tory, and carriage departments were employiag
upwards of 3,000 hands each, and the grand total
of the establishment was at that time about 13,000.
The large amount of stores now in hand continues
to increase, and the mechanics, who are mostly em-
ployed at piecework, have worked themselves down
to one week in three, and are gradually leaving of

their own accord. About 500 men and boys were
dismissed last week, and a similar number have re-
ceived notice of dismissal for the present week.
This includes the weekly discharge from the whole
of the departments.
I The detachment of the sth Lancers, under the

command of Major Slade and Capt. Massey, ordered
to Ipswich arrived at the barracks there on Tues-
day. It numbers 180 men and 153 horses.

TERRIBLE STEAMBOAT DISASTER,

(From the Memphis Bulletin, Aug. 22.)
On Wednesday, the steamboat Acacia, com-
manded by Captain Malvern, left this port for
Helena. Her cabin was crowded with passengers,
estimated at about 150 persons. They were most
of them soldiers on their return to their regiments
at Helena. There were six ladies, stated to be the
wives of officers among them. There were about
75 tons of freight aboard ; most of it consisted of

sutler's goods. At 12 o'clock the pilot on duty

Lieut. Hampton, left the wheel, which was then
taken by V. Maconley, the other pilot. The night
was not clear, what the pilots call " gray ;" there
was some starlight, but not bright. At half-past
one o'clock—on Thursday morning of course—as
the boat was passing Grand Cut Off, which is sixty
miles below this city, she struck a snag, so that the
end of the snag caught a plank in the hull, twenty

feet from the bow, ripping it off from end to end.
The water, of course, rushed into the hold with
extreme rapidity, and in five minutes from the
time of striking the boat keeled over and com-

pletely capsized. The skylight, as the raised
portion of the hurricane deck is called, parted from
the rest, and, with the " texas," or pilot house and
the atate rooms connected with it, floated. The
hull completely capsized, and in doing so glided
from the shoal where the accident took place,
and sunk in deep water. So rapidly did all this
take place, the shock—the rush of water into the
hull below—the rolling overboard of the chimneys
above—the riving of parting timbers, as the hurri-
cane deck separated from the cabin, and this at a
Itime when nearly every tenant of the ill-fated boat
was in deep sleep, that there was no opportunity
I for one to help another. Those who were on the

hurricane deek heard agonising cries, heart-rending
exclamations, and vain calls for help from those
Then they and the rest were all struggling
Waves that surged wildly round
the spot
vibnehl
theoe
rwe. t h 0
capsized boat was swallowed up.
°
seventy-five persons, perished. One white
one-half,the passengers, it is estimated that at least
woman and a coloured '
chambermaid were saved •
five ladies were carried down when the boiler deck
broke from the
bull, and the hurricane deck from
that. Such of the survivors as we have seen saw
nothing of the ladies. They probably, in their
wild fright, made some attempt to dress from the
suggestions of instinctive modesty, and those few
moments were fatal. The captain, clerk, and crew,
with the exception perhaps of some of the deck
hands and the nee ro cook, got safely to land. The
survivors speak with admiration of the conduct of
the engineer, Tom Baldwin, who stood faithfully
.at his post until the waters had covered the work-
Ing_parts of the engine.
The
pilot Hampton was asleep at the moment of
striking ; he
rushed from his room, shouted out
some hasty instructions to the other pilot at the
wheel, when he found the boat keeling
the chimneys falling.
until
He slid along the decir
he was caught by then ovier and
the chimneys. So
held,
sleeve by the guy of ore of
oed, he was carried down into
the water, and far
d
was carried beneath
iron, when his struggles re
twhne. as it appears to him, he
s.urfaee with the sinking
t
the sleeve from the
guy, and he reached the surface
and contrived to
get upon the hurricane deck. On ol' •
s deck others
managed to crawl, or were dragged on. by those
already there; others seized floating boles, bales,
and broken pieces of wreck, and were
thin sup.
ported above water. The pilot arid some others
ashore at Mrs. Br. K ent's landing. Thatgot
showed them hospitable kindness. Somet. lady
time after
the accident the W. H. 13 , despatch boat, came
down and picked up a number of the survivors and
took them to Helena. Of course we know not who
they were. The Conway, on her trip up, rescued
a number; she met the skylight hurricane deck
floating twenty-miles below the spot of the wreck,
and five persons clinging to it, whom she took off;
others were reneed from the water. Fiom 75 to
80, it is doubted, sunk beneath the waters,