The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, _MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 13, 1862,

THE BOMBAY AND MAuTJLIUS MAILS.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's screw
steamship Mooltan, Capt. E. Cooper, arrived at
Southampton at noon on Saturday, 'with the heavy
portion of these mails in charge of Mr.T.Sweeney,
of the General Post-office. During a heavy squall
she touched a bank of sand between Sconce Point
and Yarmouth in the morning, and a telegram to
that effect was forwarded from Hurst to South-
ampton, where every arrangement was immediately
made to render any assistance that might be re-
quired, but the steamers that were despatched for
the purpose met the Mooltan making up the river,
she having floated off within an hour or so, un-
aided, and received no damage.
The Mooltan left Alexandria on the 27th ult.,
Malta on the 31st, Marseilles on the 3d instant,
and Gibraltar on the 6th. She had strong head
winds from Alexandria to Malta, and thence fine
weather till she reached the Bay of Biscay ; in
the Bay she encountered strong south-westerly and
westerly gales, with hazy weather; and moderate
weather in the Channel.
At Alexandria were the usual Egyptian squad-
ron, a French steam transport, and a Russian cor-
vette.

The British squadron at Malta on the 31st con•
sisted of the Marlborough, Surprise, Medina, Nep-
tune, Firefly, Boxer, Growler, and Foxhound. The
Megfera, Commander Henderson, from Malta, ar-
rived at Gibraltar on the 29th ult., and left for the
westward on the 31st. The Caesar also left for the
west at 8.25. a.m. on the 30th; the Aboukir during
the same night; and the Lapwing at 7.15 a.m. on
the Ist inst. The Queen, Algiers, Alacrity, Doria,
Tribune, Cuckoo, and Procris were at Gibraltar
when the Mooltan left.

The Gibraltar Chronicle publishes the following
account of the gallant rescue of a shipwrecked crew
by the officers and men of her Majesty's ship Lap-

wing :

"On the morning of the 29th of December, be-
tween 2 and 3 o'clock, the Mecklenburg bark Grosse
Furstinn Catharina, R ith wheat from Trieste for
Havre, went on shore on the eastern beach near
the Tunara. Soon after daylight the agent for
Lloyd's and, the agent for the French insurers and
English maritime clubs were on the spot in order to
render every assistance. A gale was blowing from

the eastward; the surf swept the decks of the wreck
and compelled the crew to take to the rigging.
The agents succeeded in finding among the fisher-
men of the Tunara a boat's crew, and three times
the attempt was made to reach the ship from the
shore, but in each case the enormous surf filled and
drove back upon the beach the boats employed.
The case of the poor fellows who had been exposed
for so many hours in the rigging appeared despe-
rate when her Majesty's ship Lapwing, Commander
O'Reilly, was seen coming to their assistance. The
Lapwing: was brought to the very edge of the
broken water and as near to the wreck as the safety
of the vessel would permit. An eyewitness of the
scene tells that he never in his life saw anything
more admirable than the courage, calmness, and
discipline which marked the subsequent pro.
ceedings. There was no confusion or hesita-
tion. In a service in which every man's life was in
danger, the officer and boat's crew of the Lapwing
performed their noble task in as quick, quiet, and
orderly a manner as if they had been at drill exer-
cise. When the Lapwing had taken up her position
the cutter was lowered and manned by Lieutenant
Brooke and a crew of volunteers—and here we may
remark, to the credit of British seamen, that when
the commander decided that only the men who
could swim should proceed on this dangerous duty,
and volunteers from the swimmers were called for,
they volunteered in a body. As the heavy rollers
made it highly dangerous for the cutter to approach
the wreck, a smaller boat was attached to it, and it
was intended to communicate with the wreck by
taking up such a position that, by veering away the
line, the smaller boat might be dropped gradually
upon the wreck. The wind and surf, and strong
southerly set defeated every attempt to communi-
cate with the poor seamen by this method, and the
small boat always drifted a little wide of its mark.
The feelings of the spectators were now painful in
the extreme. It seemed as if all hope must be
abandoned of saving the eleven survivors still cling-
ing to the wreck (for one had perished in the at-
tempt to swim on shore), when suddenly, during a
slight lull, the small boat was cut adrift and the
cutter herself was seen dashing through the surf in
the direction of the wreck. It was a moment of
intense excitement, but in a few seconds the boat
passed safely through the breakers and was under
the lee quarter of the Catharina. There she held
on till the shipwrecked crew were all taken on
board, when the gallant officer and boat's crew of
the Lapwing, with a British cheer, again pulled
their way through the breakers, and safely reached
their own ship. Commander O'Reilly had in the
meantime left the Lapwing in a second boat,
ready to give assistance in ease of disaster to the
first. When the position of the wreck was made
known to the Governor, an officer of Engineers
and detachment of Sappers were sent by
his Excellency to endeavour to save the crew by
throwing a line over the ship by means of a rocket,
but the good work had been happily accomplished
before their arrival,"

The shipwrecked master and crew of the Catha-
rina published in the Chronicle the following gra-
tifying letter of thanks:—
" We, the undersigned master and crew of the

late Mecklenburg barque Grosse Furstinn Catha-
rina, deem it our duty publicly to acknowledge cur
gratitude for the assistance rendered to us in our
perilous situation .while lying stranded off the
Eastern Beach. We have to thank his Excellency
the Governor, and the military detachment sent by
his Excellency to our aid, for their prompt and
humane exertions on our behalf ; also Capt. War-
den, R.N., senior naval officer of this station, for
his readiness in affording the assistance of her Ma-
jesty's steam sloop Lapwing, Commander M.
O'Reilly, officers, and crew of the said ship, for
their aid and humane behaviour towards us through.
out this melancholy catastrophe ; but, above all, our
everlasting gratitude is due to Lieutenant Brooke,
who, with a boat's crew, ventured to save our lives
from the wreck. We cannot praise too much the
masterly way in which this brave young officer and
his gallant men overcame the dangers and difficul-
ties which the elements threw against the comple-
tion of their humane undertaking; words are not
adequate to convey our gratitude to these brave
men, they will, however, in their own hearts feel
the reward which the consciousness of having saved
the lives of 11 fellow-creatures must afford every
true Christian. Their gallant conduct will add
another page to the history of the British sailor,
who ever was, and ever will be, ready in the hour
of danger to sacrifice his life in the cause of huma-
nity.—Gibraltar, Dec. 30, 1861."
Unusually heavy rainfalls occurred at Gibraltar
at the end of last month, during the prevalence of
a fresh easterly gale. No leas than 101 inches of
rain fell in three days, from the 27th to the 30th
ult., inundating many parts of the town. The
directors of the Gas Company were compelled to
advertise the stoppage of one of the gasholders, in
consequence of a landslip at the works caused by
the heavy rains.
The following British merchant steamers had
arrived out at Gibraltar :—December 29, the Penin-
sular, Captain F. Archer, eight days from London;
31st, the Egyptian, Captain S. Hine, 51 days from
Liverpool, for Genoa, &c. ; January 1, the Italia,
Captain W. H. Bishop, eight days from London,
for Genoa, Leghorn, &c. ; same day, the Delta,
Captain J. S. Field, four days 23 hours from South-
ampton, 'with mails, &c., for Malta and Alexandria.
Also, the following sailing ships, all laden with
coal :—From Newport.—Gowerian, E. Evans.
From Cardiff.—Laura, E. Jenkins; Colleen Bawn,
IT. Arnesburg ; Ann Catherine, I. Owen ; Dinah

J. Ainsworth; Borland, J. Pomroy. From Swan-
sea.—Sarah, 1), Morgan. From Liverpool.—Eng-
lishman, T. Sullock ; Juanita, W. Davies. From
Middlesborough.—Janet, J. Jones.

The brigantine lonian Belle, J. Hardy, from Port
Talbot, w ith iron for Messina, was in collision at
8 30 p.m. on the 2d inst., in Gibraltar Straits, with
an unknown bark, and had her maintopmast broken,
besides other damages.

THE NAVY.

-_~--_

The Biafralo, 2, iron screw store vessel, Master
Commander Alexander Brown, arrived at Spithead
shortly after noon on Saturday from the West
Coast of Africa, where she has been employed since
1857. She sailed from Sierra Leone on the 22d of
November last, and from Goree on the Ist of De-
cember, and has experienced easterly winds until
within 400 miles of the Channel. These, together
with an excessively foul bottom, have much length-
ened her passage. Two passengers have come home
by her, who were wrecked in the Queen, of Jersey,
in Yof.bay, north of Cape Verde. The Buffalo has
brought home condemned naval stores, and after
receiving provisions, of which she was run out, and
supernumeraries, at Spithead yesterday, sailed
thence for Woolwich, where she will be put out of
commission and repaired for further service.

The St. Vincent, three-decker, depot ship for
training boys at Portsmouth, dragged her moorings
in the harbour during a hardgale from the W.S.W.
on Saturday, and drove broadside on to the east
mudland, off the north corner of the dockyard. She
remained there until 1 a.m. yesterday, when she was
osd lying further up
to have sustained
rescued from her position and moored alongside the
the Nelson,
harbour.screw
supposed

any damage.
The w
frome Gibraltarsteamship
Capt. Thomas H.
Mason,
Ba;rived at Plymouth
D Cefec . s a
2rB„ 6
sre
yesterday morning. In the gale on Saturday she
sprung her main yardarm, carried away the cross
jack-yard, and lost the starboard-quarter boat. The
Cesar having reported a merchant ship, said to be
an American, in the Channel, in distress, Port-
Admiral Sir Houston Stewart despatched the
paddlewheel tender Avon, 3, to render assistance.
The screw gunboats Spanker, Herring, and
Misletoe, belonging to the steam-reserve in the
Medway, went alongside the Ordnance wharf at
Chatham, on Saturday, for the purpose of shipping
their Armstrong guns, as well as their shot and
shell. They are to be held in readiness for service
wherever required.
On Saturday nearly 600 fathoms of the largest
chain bower cable used in the navy arrived at Chat-
ham Dockyard from the factory of Messrs. Brown
and Lennox, Cardiff, for the iron screw steam
frigate Defence, 18, Captain Powell, CM. The
whole of the cable was landed during the day, and
a considerable portion removed to the testing-house
to be subjected to the usual hydraulic tests before
it is put on board. The bower and sheet anchors
for the Defence, all of which are of enormous size,
have undergone the most severe tests at Chatham
Dockyard without the least flaw being detected in
them. They will be shipped to-day. According
to orders issued in the dockyard on Saturday even-
ing the Defence will leave her present moorings in
the harbour on Wednesday next and proceed to
Folly Point, a short distance below the dockyard,
where she will complete fitting. The extent to
which she takes the ground at very low tides has
caused some apprehension to be felt lest she should
experience any injury, and the Admiralty have
wisely determined not to risk the effects of another
spring tide by permitting her to remain at her pre-
sent berth after Wednesday next. Her pinnace
launches, and other boats have arrived at the dock-
yard, and are in readiness to be put on board. She
has not yet been furnished with her armament, and
as no order has been received at the dockyard re-
lative to this portion of her equipment, it is pro-
bable her Armstrong and other guns will not be
put on board until she arrives at Portsmouth.

The screw corvette Racoon, 22, Captain W. C.
Chamberlain, was towed into Chatham harbour on
Saturday, from Short Reach, to be dismantled and
paid off. In consequence of the news from America
the intention to refit her for temporary service has
been abandoned, and orders were received yesterday
for her to be dismantled and placed in the third-
class steam reserve. On Saturday the crew were
busily engaged in sending down her topmasts and
rigging and returning her stores to the dockyard.
Her Armstrong and other guns have been landed
at the Ordnance-wharf. Notwithstanding that
the Racoon has been in commission more than four
years she i 3 in excellent condition, and on the occa-
sion of her inspection by Vice-Admiral Johnstone
he highly complemented Capt. Chamberlain on the
appearance of both the ship and crew.
The Calypso, 18, sailing ship, Capt. F. B. Mon-
tresor, has arrived off the dockyard at Chatham
from the Pacific, to .pay off and be put out of com-
mission.

Admiralty orders have been received at Chatham
directing that the whole of the hired workmen,
mechanics, and labourers are not to be retained at
the dockyard after the close of the present financial
year. A similar order has also been received at
Sheerness Dockyard.

The moulds for the armour plates for the iron-
clad frigate Royal Oak, 51 guns, building at Chat-
ham, were despatched from that dockyard on Satur-
day to the works of the Thames Iron Company,
where the plates are to be manufactured. They
are to be of rolled iron, and the edges are to be
plain, without being grooved. Each plate will
measure 15ft. by 3ft. 2in., and will weigh 4 tons.
The machinery for bending the plates cold to the
shape of the ship's side has arrived at the dockyard
from the factory of Messrs. Westwood, Baillie,
Campbell, and Co. The bending process will be
performed by hydraulic pressure.

- -
The screw steam sloop Perseus, 17, at Devon-
port, having been advanced to the first division of
the steam reserve, was removed on Friday from
No. 3 dock in Keyham Steamyard to the basin.
The Rifleman, 5, Master in command J.W. Reed
(1857), went down the river from Greenhithe on Sa-
turday morning for the official trial of her engines. A
strong south-west gale was blowing at the time,
and increased so much later in the day that no runs
at the measured mile were attempted, but the per-
formance of the boilers and machinery was found
to be quite satisfactory. This ship has been com-
missioned for the important work of surveying the
China seas and Eastern passages to China. She
was fitted for that service with the utmost care.
Although her nominal tonnage is but 486, her actual
displacement is 624 tons. She has a complement of
90 officers and men, the number being increased for
the purpose of effectually manning the numerous
boats which her work will render necessary. Her
armament has been reduced to five guns, four of
them being 24-pounder brass howitzers, and one a
40-pounder Armstrong, which will be sufficient to
render her a formidable check on piracy. The first
work of the Rifleman will be to search for the Julia,
Christopher Rawsen, and other shoals in the
vicinity of Pulo Sapata. She will next fix the
positions of the western edges of the reefs, in
the China sea, survey the Catwicks, Paracels, and
adjacent dangers, the southern part of Hainan, and
coast of Cochin China, the Macclesfield Bank, &c.
The great object of the survey is to furnish a cor-
rect !chart of the whole route usually taken by
vessels making passage between Singapore and
China, either in working up and down the China
sea, or running with a fair monsoon. In the
strength of the monsoons, when it will be impos-
sible to work in the China sea, she will be employed
in surveying the eastern passages to China.
The Government has decided on convert ng the
gaol at Lewes, Sussex, into a naval prison, for the
exclusive reception of seamen and Marines serving
afloat, instead of distributing them over the several

county gaols. The prison at Lewes is capable of
accharnodating about 400 prisoners.
The screw steamer Wisbeach has been engaged by
the Admiralty for the conveyance of stores to Halifax.
Supernumerary seamen, boys, and Marines sent
on Thursday morning on board the screw steam
sloop Stromboli, 6, Commander Arthur H. Henry,
in Plymouth Sound, were, in consequence of a few
cases of sickness among the crew, disembarked in
the afternoon. The sickness having sufficiently
abated on Friday, the supernumeraries were em-
barked again on Saturday, and she will proceed
with the gunboat Spider, 4, Commander Stubbs,
for the South East coast of America, on the receipt
of orders.

The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—Commander H. D. Selby
to the Coastguard, vice Willoughby, promoted ; and
Mr. ho. Giles nominated to a naval cadetship.