The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-16 00:00:00

The Atlantic Cables and the Screw

Propeller.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

have read with much pride, as all other
Englishmen must have done, your almost daily re-
ports and leading articles on the progress and final
success which has been achieved in the laying of the
Atlantic cable of 1866, as well as the recovery and
restoration of that of 1865, which was so generally
considered to have been for ever lost at the bottom

le ocean.

Next to the gratification experienced by all
classes at the completion of so huge a task, in the
face of innumerable difficulties and in direct opposi-
tion to public opinion as to the feasibility of raising
the 1865 cable, comes the public announcement, at
the Atlantic Telegraph banquet. at Liverpool, on the
Ist inst., of the honours which her Majesty the
Queen had been pleased to confer so promptly and
graciously on the gentlemen who in their respective
departments have contributed so much towards the
accomplishment of one of the greatest, if not the
most important, feats of the present age.
All England does, no doubt, and all the world
should if it does not, join in one big vote of thanks
to every gentleman officer, man and boy, engaged in
the recent cable-laying expedition.
The promptitude, however, with which these acts
of justice have been performed to the persons whose
names must for ever shine with electric brightness in
the history of submarine telegraphy, serves to mark
with greater force the tardiness and neglect with
which the name of Smith has been so far treated.
Francis Petitt Smith, I mean—he man to whom
the world is indebted for the benefits conferred on

its maritime interests by his successful introduction
of the screw propeller.
More than a quarter of a century has now elapsed
since I saw his first screw ship, the Archimedes, ex-
perimenting at Portsmouth, and having, like many
other officers at the time, looked upon her as a mere
toy, and predicted a total failure of the principle
when tried on a larger and more practical scale, I
cannot now think of or overlook the wonderful
changes which have been effected in the sister ser-
vices of my country without a blush to own, and in
this way give publicity to the fact, that this veiy
Smith, who expended the best twenty years of his
life, at first in overcoming endless difficulties, and
latterly in beating down with all superhuman per-
severance, the prejudices commonly opposed by
vested interests to the introduction of anything new,
is at this moment scarcely known or heard of be-
yond the precincts of a small salaried office in the
machinery department of the South Kensington
Museum.

Surely, sir, this is not the way for a great and
prosperous country to repay such labour, such an
expenditure of ti.ne and capital.
The Archimedes of 1840 was the immediate parent
vessel of the Great Britain, admitted to be the most
successful ocean steamer that ever rounded Cape
Horn ; from which and others came the queen of
cable-laying ships, the Great Eastern. Add to these
leviathans 476 ships in her Majesty's service and
912 vessels in the merchant service, which, accord-

ing to the latest Admiralty and Custom-house re-
turns, have been fitted with the screw. What
stronger proof can be given or required of the value
and importance of Mr. Smith's past services ? Who
in this country at the age of threescore years can
be more entitled to honours, who, after a life of toil
and anxiety, more deserving of retirement and a
proportionate compensation for paving the way to
a peaceful old .age ?
It would be a well-timed act indeed if Sir John

Pakington or Sir Stafford Northcote, or perhaps
both, as the heads of the two marine services of the
country, which have been alike benefited, were to
unite in recommending Mr. Smith's long-forgotten
claims to the favourable notice of her Majesty.
AN OLD NAVAL ENGINEER.
Portsmouth, Oct. 12.