The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-19 00:00:00

QUEEN'S COLLEGE.

The following promotions and elections to scho-
larships in this society have been this day declared :
Stone, to be removed to a scholarship of £so
London, ditto ditto
Musson ditto ditto

Whitley, ditto ditto
Brent, ditto ditto
A gratuity of £2O to be granted to Stone, and
gratuities to Lees and Johnson of £lO each. •

- Ball and Marsden elected to scholarships of £l5
each.

SCREW STEAMERS, THEIR PRESENT
CONDITION AND PROSPECTS.

•
The sale of the French screw-steamer, Francois
Arago, by auction last week at Birkenhead, by order
of the High Court of Admiralty, has excited atten-
tion to the low prices ruling for that description of
property, and speculations as to the future of the
fleet of screw steamers at present on sale. Many
have been forced on the market from the bank-
ruptcy of the companies for whom they were
originally constructed.
Since 1852 screw propulsion for sea-going ships
has increased in a much greater ratio than the
legitimate demand.

I. From the exaggerated value attached to the
combination of the screw propeller with sails.
2. From the great stimulus given to it by the
Russian war.
3. From the great facilities of credit given to specu-
lative shipbuilders and owners in this country and
on the continent from 1854 to 1857, the practical
result of. long sea voyages has proved auxiliary
screw steamships a costly mistake, and full-powered.
ones to expensive to compete with clipper-ships.
The war demands, partially revived by the In-
dian mutinies and the Chinese war, has ceased.
The failure of the Western, Newcastle, and other
Banks has put an end to the credit system of the
shipbuilders, and the general result is that screw
steamers are selling at about one-third, or, as in
the case of the Francois Arago, one-fifth their origi-
nal cost, when they can be sold at all, for the diffi-
culty is to get a bidder at any price. In Hamburg
the Petropolis and Teutonia, two magnificent seraW
ships, werr offered by public sale a few days ago at
£lO per ton, having cost near £4O, and not a single
bid was made for them.
On the 28th a new screw vessel of 2,400 tons,
belonging to the same owners, or rather to their
creditors, is to be sold by auction in the Clyde.
On the 30th the fleet of steam vessels belong-
ing to the Genoese Company, comprising sir
screws, four of them of 1,800 tons, come to the
hammer, to be followed by the Antwerp steamers,
built for the Transatlantic trade, of 2,000 tons each.
In France, the Franco-American Company having
lost their capital of 1,800,000 francs (X 64,000),
their half-dozen vessels, of 1,600 and 1,800 tons,
must be sold to pay off the liabilities of the com-
pany ; and the fleet of the European and American
Company, composed of equally magnificent ships,
must follow, if the position of the concern is to be
judged of by the price of their shares. Here, then,
are twenty to 'thirty large screw steamers, that
must be cleared before the market can revive.
Where are the buyers to come from, and. what are
the circumstances that will rule prices ? First, of
the whole, the great majority are of the highest
class, auxiliary screw ships. Perhaps there are
not above two or three that could pass- the Ad-
miralty' standard of twelve knots at the measured
mile.

It appears clear these vessels will be sold at the
price at which they will pay as sailing ships, con-
sequently their value is ruled by the freight mar-
ket, and their power of competing with the im-
proved class of timber ships now at work. With
their engines taken out many- of these ships would
answer admirably as carrying vessels ; and we pre- •
dict this will be the fate of all auxiliary ships. The
fact must be looked in the face that, in the present
navigation,oreianN,o3 no
,ageatuxilhatiatiroy steam Nolsrrysel
ffe-fB"ntale-eoa7.3"arSteamoion a
r thef whele distance.
The two or three of the lot that can steam 12
knots must look for customers in the large mail
companies, and take what price they can get for •
them. The smaller class of screws on sale, from
400 to 800 tons, will be absorbed by the coasting
and continental trade in time ; but the North of
Europe and other kindred companies have so
swamped the market that a considerable time must •,
elapse before the brokers' lists are seriously dimi-
nished. Their owners are, however, in better
plight that the holders of large steamers ; for one
purchaser for a 2,000 there are 20 for an 800 ton
screw.

Is screw steaming at an end then ? Far from it.
The joint-stock companies and banks, who have
been the principal means of creating this surplus
of ill-adapted screws, are for the time done for, but
the legitimate trader will go on gradually and
profitably developing steam navigation, using his
experience, and, what is of equal consequence to
success, his own money, in constructing the best
description of vessel for the particular trade she is
required for, until, in the progress of time, a new
generation of directors and their dupes get up
steam navigation companies, raise prices 50 per
cent. in all building yards, pay sham dividends,
build in twelve months what ought to have been
spread over ten years, spoil legitimate trading,
finally, go out in bankruptcy, and glut the steam•
boat market as it now is.

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