The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-11 00:00:00

.ily.iries at
and many of them received wounds or
Lucknow and Cawnpore. After the ti ',sops had
been inspected by the medical staff at Fort Pat, '4:u
noncommissioned officers and men were ad. 'flitted
into hospital for medical treatment, and the' re-
mainder sent to the invalid establishment.
The Northumberland Artillery arrived in Cork
on Monday morning from England, with the staff
and band, and proceeded to Kinsale, where it its to'
be stationed for the present.

TRIAL TRIP OF THE GREAT EASTE.RN

The fourth—and we believe we may now vent are
to say the last—trial trip of this vessel, previous
to her departure for New York, took place durielg
Saturday and yesterday. The trial was only of
short duration, merely extending to a run of 12
hours out to sea and 12 hours back, and was under-
taken more to ascertain the working completeness
of the various changes that have been made in the
machinery than with the view of testing the
vessel's speed. The speed, however, was tested,
and showed, as every one anticipated, from the
very foul state of the vessel's bottom, a most consi- 1
derable diminution in the rate attained during the
trips of last year. As regards the machinery, how-
ever, everything went pretty well and easily, and
in this important respect the trial was regarded by
all the engineers and professional and scientific men
on board as satisfactory. Some trifling adjustments, 1
which will scarcely occupy a day to snake, and
which could only be known by actually working
the ship, will be made in the course of to-day and
Tuesday, when the passenger certificate of the
Board of Trade will be granted, and the vessel at
last be declared ready for sea. During the period
that has elapsed since the works in connection with
this vessel were last noticed great progress has
been made. Both in her external appearance and
her internal accommodation and fittings, the Great
Eastern now presents a very different aspect com-
pared with the time when she first steamed up to
her moorings in Southampton-water, in November
last. The huge, black, coffin-like hull has now its
sombre massiveness relieved by a broad streak of
white, which, making an easy curve from stem to
stern, gives lightness to her appearance, and shows
eff her beautiful lines to perfection. The row of
black chimneys, which also disfigured her, have
bee.‘ painted cream colour, and these changes, With
othersl as to the colour of her yards, make her look
light a,nd yacht-like, and more after the style of our
swift se,:loing packets than it seemed possible to
produce LI a vessel of such colossal proportions.
In more stelestantial improvements the change is
id more mare. he un
even greater eaunsightly deck,
which former,.ly leaked atk evderyT seams and which,
both ix regard te` fitting and material,' was worse
than is seen even in small coasters. has been made
tolerably good. It is not in the power of shipwright
ever to make this et really good deck, but it has cer-
tainly been infinite sr improved. It is now, at least,
perfectly water-tight, well caulked, reduced to a fair
level, and when scraped and varnished will pass
muster well enough. Dee wheel-house, which so
spoilt the look of the stern of the vessel, has been
removed, and the steering gear entirely reconstructed
..
on a new principle. Four wh,els are now fitted, so
that 32 men can be employed, isa case of necessity,
iu very stormy weather. Eight mSIII, however, have
as yet been found ample to steer -with the greatest
ease. A tiller has also been fitted .on the lower
deck ; four very fine additional lifeboato have been
added to those already carried, and ali the boats
forward of the paddle-boxes have, in caropliance
with the wish of Board of Trade officers, been hung
inboard, so as to be out of danger in case of heavy
seas striking the bows. The india-rubber packing
has been removed from between the lowest flanges
of the iron masts, and replaced with wedges of
hornbeam, and iron gratings have been fixed over
the skylights of the saloons. With regard to the
engines, the boilers have been made self-feeding by
the use of Giffard's injector, though the paddle
boilers can also be fed from the donkey engines, and,
in addition, the new feed-pumps attached to the
screw engines furnish enough water to supply all the
boilers in the ship. The piston rods of the paddle
engines have been strengthened by lengthening the
stuffing boxes, and the dangerous vibration in the
air-pump rods relieved by easing the stiffness of the
buckets. It was also intended to strengthen them
still further with a sliding truss, but this has not
-been done, -and thus, either at starting or stopping
the paddle engine, both rods still vibrate at times
with a rapidity that is dangerous. Galleries of com-
munication have been cutthroughthe iron bulkheads
and fitted with water-tight doors ; the coal bunkers
have been better ventilated, and fitted with tubes for
testing the temperature of the fuel at all times. Ad-
ditional fire-pumps have been placed on deck, and
the wooden casings of the funnels enlarged to give
a better draught of air, keep the saloons cool, and
the wood free from any danger of ignition. A screw
tunnel along the screw shaft has also been made of
iron, rivetted like one piece to the iron bulkheads
and deck beams of the ship, and this, with longitu-
dinal bands of wrought iron, and extra girders of
immense strength and thickness under the cargo
deck, has made the whole hull of the vessel as strong
as it can ever be made with iron.
As regards the fittings of the saloons below, still
greater Improvements have been made, The dreary
expanse of whitewashed iron-work, which, instead
of making a feature of the construction, made it a
disfigurement, his disappeared, and the dining
saloons have been painted to resemble bird's-eye
maple, and the arched crossribs of the ceiling
marked with lines of blue and gold. In fact, all the
improvements which were suggested by the Board
of Trade, or which the experience of the trial trips
made last year showed to be wanting, have been
carefully effected, and whatever shortcomings now
remain are only mere defects of construction, and
ones which are never likely to be removed. These
defects, however, it must be understood, relate only
to the size and want of light of some of the lower
deck cabins, and to the whole ship for its size being
under-powered in her steam machinery. In all that
concerns the comfort or safety of passengers every-
thine. that could be done has been done, and the
Great Eastern ought to be now as good and well-
found a passenger ship as ever quitted the United
Kingdom. To those acquainted with her condition
last year it will be a matter of surprise that so much
has been accomplished in so short a time, and this
successful result is mainly due to the untiring ex-
ertions of Mr. Bold, and since his appointment to
Captain Vine Hell. To the reputation and exer-
tions of the latter gentleman is it owing that the
Great Eastern is now better officered and better
manned than almost any other passenger steamship
afloat.
It was expected that the Great Ship would have
slipped her moorings and stood out to sea early
on Saturday morning, but a variety of trivial cir-
cumstances which always occur on such occasions
delayed her departure till nearly lin the day. Before
that time a small party of noblemen and gentlemen
had come on board, among whom were all the di-
rectors of the company, th Earl of Shelburne, Lord
Colville, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, Lord Dun-
sany, Hon. James Howard, Hon. Ralph Dutton,
:LP., Mr, Saunders, of the Great Western Railway,
Mr. Appold, Captain Heath, R.N., Mr. Henty
Brunel, Professor Froude, Mr. J. Dillon, Captain
Mangles, chairman of the South-Western Railway,
Mr. G. Train, Colonel Baker, Rev. Mr. Nicholson,
&c. Captain Robertson, R.N., chief surveyor of
the Board of Trade, with Mr. Murray and Mr.
Ruby, were present on behalf of the Board of Trade,
to watch the result of the trial previous to the ves-
sel receiving lair passenger certificate. Steam was
got up in all the boilers early in the day, but it was
2 o'clock before all was ready for departure, when
the moorings were slipped, and the paddles and
screw turned so gently ahead that the vessel was
actually under way and stealing through the water
almost before any one on board was aware of the
start. The day was wet and squally, and a drizzly
mist, half rain, half wind, made anything like sea
cruising about as unpleasant as could well be con-
ceived. This fact, coupled with the secrecy which
had been maintained about all relating to the trial,
checked anything like a demonstration in the way
of boats aseembling to witness the departure.
Only one of the Ryde packets kept alongside for a
mile or so, and now and then the crew of a yacht
or cutter gave a cheer, but beyond such recognitions,
few and far between, the Great Eastern left her
moorings almost unheeded. Rounding Calshott
Castle the vessel was kept so close in shore, and
turned with such marvellous ease anL2 rapidity, as
to excite to the utmost the astonishment and admi-
ration of Mr. Murp
onhy, the New York pilot, who was
on board, and who, seeing how much she was "in
hand," at once expressed his belief that the Great
Eastern could go anywhere where there was water.
From Calshott she wound her way slowly past Cowes
and Ryde, through Spithead, and round the south
coast of the Isle of Wight, passing close in by the green
hills and picturesque valleys of Ventnor, over which
the rich undulations of the Undercliffcould be clearly
seen. The condition or trim of the ship was not
considered favourable to her speed, inasmuch as she
was five feet lower by the stern than the bows, and
her best trim for sailing is on a level keel. Her
draught of water was 21 feet 2 inches forward, and
26 feet 1 inch aft,—a greater depth by nearly two
feet than she has ever yet been to sea with. The
immersion of the wheels was 20 inches more than
hitherto, and the screw was so well down that all
but abcut two inches of the topmost fan was com-
pletely under water.
. Leaving the Isle of Wight on the starboard quar-
ter, and keeping out about 30 miles from land, the
Great Eastern steamed slowly down the coast for
the Start Light. The orders were given to keep both
screw and paddles going easily a-head at little more