The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-25 00:00:00

FAILURE OF THE SUNDERLAND
JOINT- STOCK BANK.

SIINDEALAND, SATURDAY.—Yesterday morning the
Sunderland Joint-Stock Banking Company stopped pay-
ment. This company was established in 1836. with a
capital of 100,000/. in 101. shares, 71. 10s., or 75.0001., of
this capital being paid up. The immediate cause of the
stoppage, it is stated. was, that the London and Nest•
minster Bank refused to discount its paper; the remote
cause, losses by failures in the town,—a large manufac-
turing firm some years ago, and a shipowner this year,
having failed, with a balance considerably on the wrong
side of the bank book. The operations of the bank were
limited to the town, and, as the tradespeople did not
generally keep their accounts with it, the stoppage
will not be extensively felt. The bank was known
in the town as the " Methodist Bank," the
directors if it principally belonging to that
body, and from this circumstance its business was
somewhat of a class character. Its stoppage will be felt
most severely by small shiphuil,lers, whose work is sub-
let to them by large capitalists. Its deficiencies are
stated to amount to 20,000, but probably they will be
no more. The proprietary is limited, and some of the
shareholders are substantial men. The only fear is that
the pressure will come too heavily upon them at first.
The deposits a•nount to about 24 0001., and there seems
to be little fear but that the depositors will be paid in
full. The 'corporation nark d with the company, and
his 1,700/. d.post:ed the Sunderland Joint Stock Pr •-
m'um As,ociation, 5 0001, and a shipowner, also, has a
considerable awn locked up. There are about 4,500
shares in the bands of persons able to pay all demands,
and, as the deficiency only amounts to about the sum
stated, it will appear that the further loss to the there-
holders will ❑ot tar exceed 51. s share. A meeting of the
shareholders was held yesterday, when a call of 21. 10s.
per share was made.

DESTRUCTION OF A WHALE
SHIP BY A SPERM WHALE.
(From the Panama Herald, Oct. 16.)
We have just received the following thrilling ac-
count of the destruction of the whale-ship Ann Alex-
ander, Captain John S. Deblois, of New Bedford, by
as large sperm whale, from the lips of the captain him
self, who arrived in this city from Paita on Sunday
last in the schooner Providence. A similar circum-
stance has never been known to occur but once in the
whole -
history of whale fishing, and that was the de-
struction of the
ship
E. isex, some twenty or twenty-
five years
which many of our readers fully re-
member. ago, and
proceed to the narrative as furnished
us by Captain Deblois,and which is fully authenticated
by nine of the craw in
liperxotest under the seal of the
United States Consul,
The ship Ann Alexander, . Ruden, at Paita.
Captaini S. Deblois, sailed
from Ne w Bedford, Mass.,
June
1850, for a cruise
in the S,iuth Pacific for sperm whale.st Having taken
about 500 barrels of oil in the Atlantic,tie ship pro-
ceeded on her voyage to the Pacific. Nothing of un-
usual interest occurred until, when passing Cape
Horn, one of the men, named Jackson Walker, f
Newport, N. H., was lost overboard in a storm.
Reaching the Pacific, she came up the coast and
stopped at Valdivia, coast of Chili, for fresh provi-
sions, and on the 31st of May. last she called at Paita
for the purpose of shipping a man. The vessel pro-
ceeded on her voyage to the South Pacific.
On the 20th of August last she reached what is
well known to all whalers as the " Off-shore ground,"
in latitude 5 deg. 50 min, S., long. 102 deg. W. In
the morning of that day, at about nine o'clock, whales
were
discovered in the neighbourhood, and about noon
th
same day they succeeded in making fast to one.
Two boats had gone after the whales—the larboard
amnadto, staarnhintahe rd,the former commanded by the first
which they hadlatter by Captain Deblois. The whale
boat. After struckrunning
was harpooned by the larboard
nriishgsiome time the whale turned
upon the boat, and
at it with tremendous vio-
lence, lifted open its enormous
r jaws, and taking the
boat in, actually crushed it
into fragments as small as
a common-sized chair.
Deblois immediately
struck for the scene of the dlinsaalstll expectation in res-
er with the starboard
w
boa', and succeeded against a
cuing the whole of the ore of the boat, nine in
number.
There were now eighteen men in the starboad boat,
consisting of the captain, the tirst mate, and the crews
of both boats. The frightful disaster had beenwit-
nessed from the ship, and the wave boat was called
into readiness and sent to their relief. The distance
from tlie ship was about As miles. As soon as the
weikte bot arrived, the crew› were divided, and it was
deterrptiAd to pursue the same whale, and make an-
°tiler *,llat:k upon him. Accordingly they separated,
and ded at some distance from each other, as is
usual firijsuch occasions, after the whale. Ina short