The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-26 00:00:00

Ii A, Lll :774i I

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1841,

Our naval intelligence of Saturday evening con-
tained another striking evidence of the advantages
derivable from the adoption of the screw propeller.
From the accounts headed Singapore it will have been
observed that, but for fortunately having encountered
the Renard (11 guns), the Cleopatra (26 guns),
would have remained becalmed in the Straits of
Banca without a chance of being enabled to replenish
herself with water, of which she had already been
some time run short, beyond the changes dependent
upon the iluctuations in the weather. It was added,
moreover, by the naval correspondent, that the little
vessel already mentioned, the Renard, has proved
herself capable of traversing in two days a distance
which, to a ship supplied with a different motive
power, would have required a period of not less than
a fortnight. To ourselves the circumstances re-
lated in connexion with the Renard are
fraught with a remarkable interest, seeing
that it is the first vessel constructed
on the screw principle that has yet doubled the Cape.
For that reason we have been particularly solicitous
to acquire the facts of a voyage which, notwithstand-
ing a violent gale encountered off St. Paul's, has
proved singulary favourable. After being sixteen
hours and twenty-four days at anchor, and ten hours
and ninety-nine days at sea since her departure from
England, it appeared on her arrival at Singapore that
within that period, it had required only a consumption
of sixty-five ton' of fuel to enable the Renard to
traverse the enormous distance of 14,973 miles.
Considering that this was the first voyage, as we have
already indinated, ever yet attempted in those quarters,
we cannot but regard the result as having been peculiarly
satisfactory. The occurrence deserved to be consi-
dered in the light of an eminently successful experi-
ment; and we trust will be received by the admini-
strative authorities of the service as justifying au
extension of a principle which, in its preliminary
endeavours, has proved itself so signally advantageous.
Unless this resolution be adopted, the British ships
will be liable to the casualties which threatened to
becalm the Cleopatra, and dependent upon the acci-
dental assistance to be derived from such chance
adventures as that of the Renard.

What is especially deserving of attention, among the
benefits derivable from the employment of the screw
propeller, is the fact that the time of any voyage may
be pre-calculated with the utmost possible particula-
rity. Even when compelled to take in tow a vessel of
larger bulk, the speed acquirable from the steam power
acting through the invisible agency of the screw, is
far, very far indeed, beyond that to be drawn from
any other principle of locomotion. In the case pre-
viously specified, it was found, for instance, that even
while tugging the Cleopatra, and at a season of the
year when the heat in the stoke hole was no less than
136 degrees, the little Renard attained an average
speed of just 41- knots. It should also
be borne in recollection that the machinery in
the principle in question is in no comparable degree
liable to the disarrangement to which the machinery
of other kinds of steam-vessels is subject. Its
vulnerable parts are neither so exposed nor so
capable of being withdrawn from their intended
object as where at intervals a steam-ship built on
the ordinary principle is heeling over, with one
paddle-wheel immersed to an unconscionable depth
in the water, while its companion is spinning round
high and dry in the air, at a most useless
elevation. With the screw-propeller such a
position •of the motive force would be alto-
gether impracticable, the screw effectually working
according to its original intention, being only relieved
from its natural position when the vessel is laid down
upon her yardarms imte.ediately prior to the catas-
trophe of foundering.
How far the introduction of the principle here
advocated into the navy of England would tend to
facilitate the labour of our sea captains, and to dind-

nish the anxieties and responsibilities of the superior
officers, the commanders cf fleets and squadrons, it
needs not us to particularise. Yet it is possibly
deserving of some little more consideration, that
while aiding the captains of vessels and the
admirals on foreign stations, it would simul-
taneously decrease the anxieties of the Admiralty,
and lessen the responsibilities of the Foreign
Secretary. It would carry no inconsiderable allevia-
tions into the official chambers opposite Whitehall,
and into the Ministerial closets in Downing-street.
On occasions, say resembling the recent position of
affairs at Constantinople, a capacity wuuld have been
imparted to the chief command of the Mediterranean
fleet to proceed without any appreciable loss of time
to the point at which the principal intrigues of the