The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-09 00:00:00

DEPARTURE OF THE ARGO FOR AUSTRALIA

The General Screw Steam-packet Company's new screw
steam-ship Argo, Captain George Hyde, sailed yesterday
morning from Southampton for Port Philip and Sydney.
She is intended to touch only at St. Vincent's for coals,
and, it is fully expected, will make a quick run to
Australia, hopes being even entertained that, with
favourable weather, the Argo will arrive at her destina-
tion before the overland mail dispatched via Suez
and Singapore on the 4th instant. We regret to
find that the number of passengers and amount o
freight carried out by this beautiful steam-ship are
by no means commensurate with her capacity, as it
appears that the General Screw Company, in regard to
their Australian line, are suffering from the general dis-
credit into which screw steamers engaged in the Aus-
tralian trade have fallen from the repeated failures and
long passages of every steamer which has yet undertaken
the voyage. By way of rectifying the mistakes that
have hitherto been committed by other companies, the
Argo will not call at the Cape of Good Hope, St.
Helena, King George's Sound, or Adelaide, and thus
the detentions at those ports, which have destroyed
the efficiency of the previous steamers, will, it is hoped,
be avoided. The voyages of the General Screw Com-
pany's ships to the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and
India have been accomplished, on the average, with great
regularity, and have given much satisfaction. There is
no reason to doubt, therefore, but that their steamers
laid on for Australia will do equally as well. Public
confidence in Australian screw steamers will, how-
ever, scarcely be restored till one or two speedy and
successful voyages have been accomplished. A ship
letter mail is taken out by the Argo, the Post-office
authorities having made no arrangements with the
company for either a general or special mail contract.
This, in regard to the Argo, may possibly arise from the
inconvenient date of her departure, just on the eve of
the mail for Australia by the overland and Marseilles
route, thus rendering a second mail unnecessary. The
number passengers taken out by the Argo is 55,
among of
whom is Sir R. Nickle, Commander-in-Chief at
New South Wales, with his lady and aide-de-camp. The
freight-list comprises specie, value 26,0001. sterling ;
ew J• ellery, value 11,5001.; and 375 tons of cargo, of the
ordinary description of valuable goods, for the Australian
markets.

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE SOUTH COAST RAILWAY.
On Saturday night an inquest was held by Mr. W. Payne,
at Guy's Hospital, on the body of Benjamin Rance, a
porter on the South Coast Railway. From the evidence
of William Knott, a porter at the Bricklayers' Arms
Station, it appeared that on Wednesday morning the de-
ceased was crossing the line with a letter for the man-
ager, and got jammed between the buffers of two empty
trucks, in consequence of their being pushed together
by a loaded one. The loaded one was being drawn along
by a horse, but the porter that was with the horse before
he started cried out, " Look out," and the men stood
clear, but the deceased must have crossed some distance
up the line between some empty trucks, and in conse-
quence of the loaded truck being driven along they were
forced together, and he was jammed between the buffers.
He was taken to the hospital, but died on Thursday of
rupture of the liver, Verdict—" Accidental death."