The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-12 00:00:00

THE GREAT BRITAIN

DUNDRUM BAY, WEDNESDAY NOON, OCT. 7.

My report to-day will be comparatively uninteresting.
The springs have now passed, and the opportunity of
getting the Great Britain off has been lost. Last night's
tide was accompanied with a heavy gale, and the Great
Britain this morning appears to have forged some fifteen
yards further up the beach, with her head pointing
N.N.W. She is not now afloat, but high tide will again
make in about half an hour, and she may possibly then
more. It cannot, however, be for the better. The
wind is now blowing almost a gale from the south; the
sea setting right into the bay lashes violently under the
ship's stern, and the salt spray is bursting in clouds
over half the length of her decks. The scene is grand
and impressive in the extreme. The bight of the bay
')n the ncrth and west from the coast-guard station-
house, where I now write, presents, from the rolling of
a terrific and rapid succession of waves, a most sublime
appearance, as, indeed, does the whole of this rocky and
stony coast, extending from St. John's Point lighthouse
to Annalong Point to the south, where the lofty Mourne
Mountains terminate in the sea. The distance between
these two points, forming the outer boundaries of the
bay, is perhaps twenty miles.
The rudder of the ship has disappeared for some days,
and the screw-propeller appears to be considerably in-
jurel. There can be no question that the vessel is
thumping on the shore, and she has made from time to
time during the last few days an immense quantity of
water.

The country peg ple are still engaged in removing the
(ilicharged coals from the beach, but some still, I learn,
r..main on board.

OIIF O'CLOCK, P.M.

•
The storm keeps increasing as the tide becomes nearly
full, and it is now accompanied by a heavy b-ating rain
and spendrift, which dashes against the look-out win-
dows of the station-house. The surf continues to wash
over the ship more and more violently, and she presents
a truly std spectacle. The great probability is, that her
whole frame is strained and her bottom injured; but the
real facts cannot be ascertained until low water. She
has still several chain cables and anchors out astern. but
they appear to be slack; and as the ship has all the
morning had her forward gaffsail or spanker set. I think
it likely that all hopes of getting her off are abandoned,
and that the object now is to forge her on as far as pos-
sib!e upon the beach, in orti,,r that her position may be
rendered secure, or that if she be broken up the mate-
rials may be better secured. The ship rolls slightly,
and has apparently altered her position. Her bow lies
to the north. Her larboard quarter is most exposed to
the sea.

Fouß O'CLOCK. P.M.
The tide has fallen but little, if anything, from the
ship. She has shifted her stern to about N.W. I fear
she must have sustained deplorable damage; and should
the gale continue, I cannot but apprehend that the tide
will be forced beyond its proper bounds;and that the sea•
way may prove still more disastrous to the noble but ill-
'fated vessel.

We annex the following from the No, thern Wlt g
:
WEDNESDAY MORNING, NINE O'CLOCK, A.X.
Last night's weather has given a more severe trial to
the unrortunate Great Britain than she has had to en-
counter since she came ashore here. The wind is now
about due south, blowing stiffly, and the seaway in the
bay is absolutely terrific. There is not, except the
Great Britain herself, a single craft of any dimensions
within view, nor is there the slightest chance that any
can, during this, the last of the Ilicth tides, approach
her. The war of the waves dashing themselves into
minute particles of foam upon the rocks at the edge of
the coast, borders on the sublime, and the spray which
beats against the larboard side of the Great Britain,
which lies to seaward, falls in a shower into the tide on
the starboard side ; the waves, at intervals, rising over
her stern, and washing her so far fore as her main-
mast.

The country people are still engaged carting off the
coals, a considerable heap of which lie on the beach yet.
That she can never leave the spot she now occupies
amounts to all but an absolute certainty. The captain is
still in charge of her, and continues on board. One of
the crew just now informed me that a number of the
hands leave her to-day ; but Ido not pledge myself to
the accuracy of the statement. I have heard rumours
also respecting handing her over to the insurance com-
pany's agents, but as I had no opportunity of informing
myself in authentic sources, I do not feel myself at liberty
to state them.

Two O'CLOCK, P.M.

The tide has been now something better than an hour
on ebb ; but it has not receded the length of the Great
Britain's bow. Her stern is shifted north-west, or in the
direction of the coast-guard station-house, from the
window of which we have been taking observations for
the last two hours, as the rain is falling heavily. The
water does not, from this, appear to have made any im-
pression on her works ; but, as I mentioned before, there
no point on shore whence one can see her larboard
quarter, the part exposed, in the greatest degree, to the
violence of the waves. A portion of the gangway, used
for the purpose of getting on board at ebb tide, was
loosened, and drifted on shore last night. This, of
course, is not a fact of any great importance, inasmuch as
it may not have been secured very strongly to its berth.
She cannot, however, were she every inch of steel, stand
much longer, in such a sea.

The captain keeps up the foregaffsail still ; but it can-
not well be imagined that she can drift much nearer the
beach than she is at present. It is blowing nearly a gale
now, and the rain is falling in torrents. The only cir-
cumstance which could make any of the succeeding
tides at all high enough for the purpose of floating her
off, namely, a stiff breeze to the land, would render it a
task of impossibility for any craft to come near her ; so
that, viewed as it may be, there is not the slightest chance
left for it.

FOUR O'CLOCK, P.M.
The tide has now receded about half-way, and leaves
the Great Britain much the worse for the beating of the
heavy sea to which she has been exposed. She is evi-
dently in a very bad and leaky condition ; some of the
sailors stated to me to-day that water was nearly as high
within her as it rose on her outside. One of the sails on
her foremast has been set during the day, at least since
ten o'clock ; and the effect of this has been to put her as
far as she can be expected to come upon the shore. The
wind has settled considerably ; but the idea of endea-
vouring to get her off seems to have been entirely given
up. The only course now left is to get what she con-
tains as expeditiously ashore as possible.
The following is an extract from a private letter with
which we have been favoured by a gentleman residing in
town. The letter was written at Dundrum, on Monday;
and we may mention, that its author i 3 an experienced
seaman :—" The gale of the last two days has decided
her fate ; all sail is now set to harden her higher up on
the beach. She sprung a leak last night, and makrs
now two feet water per hour. I believe they intend to
let her remainhere until next summer?'

THE NAILS.-- SOUTHAMPTON, OCT. 2.
The
Madrid, Captain Bingham, arrived here at four p
and landed the Peninsular and other mails. Her dates'
are—Gibraltar, Sept. 28, Cadiz, 29, Lisbon, Oct. 2. She
has 24 passengers, and good cargo. The Madrid has
experienced very bad weather, both out and home. The
Royal Tar, Captain Hamilton, with Peninsular and
other mails, and 30 passenv,ers, left the dock at three
P.M , on Wednesday, but, from the severity of the gale,
she was compelled to anchor for the'night in Yarmouth-
roads, in the course of which she broke from her moor-
ings, losing two anchors and cables. The Royal Tar
returned to this port, and procured new anchors, &e.,
and proceeded at noon en route for Gibraltar. The
storm of wind and rain with which this port has been
visited without intermission since Friday last has been
most tremendous, and at present does not seem likely to
abate. The Lady de Saumarez, Guernsey mail-packet,
left the pier on Tuesday evening, with the mails and 53
passengers, but was obliged, in consequence of the.
weather, to come-to off Calshot Castle. She returned
to Southampton on Wednesday night, and lef.t again at
seven P.M. yesterday. The Achilles, Captain Wilson, is
due to-morrow from Alexandria, with East India and
China mails. It can hardly be expected she can be here
to time. The Transit steam-vessel, belonging to the
New South-Western Company, is daily expected from
Vigo, with a cargo of cattle.
The railways in course of construction in Ireland
afford employment to 40,000 labourers, to whom 26,0001
are paid weekly in wages. A loan from the Govern
ment to those railway companies that have got Acts of
Parliament would double the above return iu men and
labour.—Limerick Chronicle.