The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-13 00:00:00

LOSS OF THE GANGES STEAMER.

The Athenian brings intelligence of the total loss
of the steamer Ganges, built by John Laird, Esq.,
of Birkenhead, for the Oriental Inland Steani Na-
vigation Company.

The Ganges was intended for the navigation of
the Indian rivers, and was a vessel of exceedingly
light draught of water. She foundered in a sudden
and unexpected manner on the 29th July, in lat.
35.10 N., lon. 13 W.

She left Liverpool on the 12th June, bound for
India. The crew upon abandoning her divided
themselves into three small boats, and steered a
course for the island of Madeira, but in consequence
of the high sea running at the time they all
parted company during the night. One boat,
containing seven of the crew, in the charge of the
second officer, made Madeira after being exposed to
a tremendous sea for four days, and as the Athenian
was steaming out of port she passed another of the
boats, in charge of the chief officer. The lifeboat,
containing the captain and nine men, was still
missing, and much anxiety was felt for them, five
days having elapsed since the loss of the Ganged.
The captain's boat was the best fitted out of the
three. The Athenian brings home those saved in
the first boat. The names of those still missing
are :—Tames William Callan, master; Charles
William Humphries, chief engineer; Wm. Charles
Thompson, carpenter; Lawrence Holland, steward ;
John River, seaman ; William Edwards, seaman ;
Thomas Brown, seaman ; William Braidwood, fire-
man ; William Caddy, fireman.

LETTER FROM GARIRALDI TO QUEEN

VICTORIA.

Your Majesty,—Called by my duty to my Italian father-
land to defend its cause in Sicily, I have assumed the dic-
tatorship of a generous people, who, after a long-continued
struggle, wish for nothing but to participate in the national
life and freedom under the sceptre of the magnanimous
prince in whom Italy trusts.

The envoy who presents himself to your Majesty in the
name of the Provisional Government which now rules this
country does not pretend to represent a special and distinct
State, but he comes as the interpreter of the thoughts and
sentiments of two millions and a-half of Italians. By this
title I beg your Majesty to deign to receive him, granting
a kind audience and attention to what he may respectfully
urge upon your Majesty in behalf of this most beautiful and
noble part of Italy. G. GARIBiLDI.

PLlelmo, June 22.
To her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

FUTURE NAVAL WARFARE.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—The application of steam and screws to
vessels of war has eaused much speculation as to
what will be their effect in the first naval warfare
that occurs, and has turned men's minds to con-
sidering what defects may arise, and what is the
best means of overcoming them.
Sir Howard Douglas, in his able work on "Naval
Warfare," has pointed out the danger of the screw
becoming fouled from floating or submerged wreck,
or the rigging of disabled spars dragging astern
and fouling the screw ; and nothing can be of
greater importance, for a vessel, when once her
motive power was gone, would be a useless log
upon the water, unable to alter her position, either
for her own advantage or at the order of the
commander-in-chief, and might thereby jeopardise
the result of a great naval action. In putee, also,
it is of the utmost importance. Two cases have
already occurred in which the masts going over
the side have fouled and disabled the screw, and
the vessels been lost. The first was the Prince, in
Balaklava harbour, the other the Royal Charter;
and in the latter, case one of the principal officers
gave it as his opinion, on the Government inquiry,
that " in a screw••ship, whenever the mast goes over
the side, the screw would be disabled."
It is these disasters, and those which might occur
in our first naval action, that determined me to try
to find some means of preventing them, and I have
fitted to the model of a 50-gun screw-frigate, a
guard, simple in the extreme, which would have
the effect of stopping and turning from the screw
all things likely to foul it, and at the same time
fits, when out of use, so closely to her side that it
would not depreciate her speed. I have shown it
to many eminent shipbuilders, and have received
from them all an approval of its merits and ease of
application, and some of them have given me writ-
ten testimonials, which I enclose, and which I hope
you will publish with this letter ; but others would
not do so, because they feared to get into disgrace
with the Admiralty—a sad state of affairs, when a
shipbuilder is afraid to recommend a simple and
useful invention, one that might some day change
the fortune of a battle, for fear of receiving
censure instead of praise from the authorities at
Whitehall. There is now a plan of hoisting the
screw on board the ship, but it is doubtful, except
from fouling, whether it is safer from shot in that
position than under the water; but in addition
to the time lost in lowering the screw when wanted
is the fact that under the counter, and in the place
vacated by the screw when hoisted, is the very place
where all the wreck would congregate, and the
rigging hanging to wounded spars drag itself ; and
the screw when lowered (if not prevented from
being so by the wreck) would most likely be fouled
and stopped at its first revolution.
My plan would obviate these difficulties if the
Admiralty would only try it on a gunboat. I have
no wish to get anything for it; I am ready to pre-
sent it to the country, and content for reward to
know that some day, if not in peace, yet in the first
war, I shall be acknowledged to be its benefactor.
It is for this reason I beg of you to publish this
letter, that the present Board of admiralty may not
be allowed to reject without trial for the nation a
thing which, in the hour of need, may be of the
greatest service to our natural national defence and
safeguard—the British navy.—l remain, sir, your
obedient servant,

IL B. POWULL,
Late Captain Grenadier Guards.
Foxleap Park, Lyndhurst.

CATTLE FOlt AUSTRALIA.--The Copenhagon,Capt.
Godfrey, belonging to Messrs. Dunbar, of London, sailed
from Plymouth on Saturday for Melbourne. Besides a full
general cargo (1,600 tons) of British manufactured goods,
including a large quantity of gas apparatus and pipes, sho
takes 13 choice bulls, two cows, the entire blood-horse Lien,
worth about £3OO, a superior prize mare and foal, lately
shown at the Royal Agricultural Society's Exhibition at
Canterbury, a number of rams and sheep, a pair of swans,
a quantity of poultry, &c. Most of the bulls are of the
Durham breed—one (Duke Humphrey) is valued at £2OO,
and another, Prince of Prussia, is worth double that sum.
This bull won the second prize at the last Canterbury
show, against Royal Butterfly, brother to Mast er Butterfly,
which was taken out successfully by Captain Godfrey, in
1857. The Ramillies, Captain Wright, also belonging to
Messrs. Dunbar, left this port on the Bth instant, with 287
Government emigrants for Adelaide. Three ships are
hourly expected—viz., the Result, Captain Cow, belonging
to Messrs. Green, for Melbourne; the Shah Jehan, Cap;
tain Cox, with Government emigrants for Adelaide; and
the Lady Macdonald, Captain Brumell, for Sydney.
THUNDERSTORM.—On Saturday morning, be-
tween 11 and 12 o'clock, there was a storm of thunder and
i
lightning in the metropolis, accompanied wtlinea Y
rain.
The storm did not last long, but one clap of thunder was
appalling. Several persons are said to
clap
been injured
and much damage done to property. Th© steeple of Bow
Church, Cheapside, sustained 10117, and also the clock
tower of the Royal Exchang
Bethnal-green appears to
•
is stated that a labouring man was killed by lightning in a
E , while in charge of a cock of
have suffered very much from the effects of the storm. It
field at Dagenham,
minor
ls; •
ngsland,
Hackney, I
casualties occurred in the districts of
sheep, several of whishsgx
weree
also killed. Several
Dalston, Clapton, Homerton, Bow, Stratford, Ilford, Wal-
thamstow, North Woolwich, Plaistow, West Ham, and other
parts, where much damage has been caused by the unusual
violence of the storm, and in some parts
rain fell in tor-
rents, whereby the grounds of the market gardeners were
inundated and much valuable property destroyed.
A FATAL SALUTE.—On Tuesda7 night, at
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Miss Ann. Maria Martin,
' daughter of Mr. Thomas Martin, died from the singular
effects of a wound received on Saturday,. when a salute was
fired from the yacht Zinga.
Expecting a display of firo-
works from the Zinga, as she was coining in, large num-
bers of people had gathered on the wl,A:arf. A salute from a
two-pound cannon was fired on boarel the yacht. Tho wad
was of waste cotton, and,
far below the wharf, of course, was very dense ; and,
although the muzzle of the gun ware judged to be depressed
peo-
ple, the wad struck
lower portion Miss Martin, I woke several steel hoops
yet, being pubated towards tho
in her skirt, and one of them cut : t fearful gash across the
of her body, e nowing the intestines
to protrude. She was taken ho me as soon as possible,
though the bystanders had no idea of the nature of the ter-
rible injury she had received. To, Tome who crowded around
her, and annoyed her with quf astions where she was hurt,
"
land how much, she replied in great agony, You do not
know how much lam hurt. Tile me home, that I Tway die
k with my mother."--.Nelf Fork _Tribune..?