The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-20 00:00:00

Rumoured Lozs of the Atrato.

During the last few days some little uneasiness
has been felt in the City with respect to this vessel,
one of the Royal West India Mail steamers, in
which Mr. Russell Gurney, the Recorder of Lou-
don, and Mr. Malik, two of the Jamaica Commis-
sioners, with other 'persons of note, sailed for
Jamaica about a fortnight ago. We have forborne

to refer to this subject, although the circumstance
which appears to have given rise to the anxiety has,
been known for the last three days, being loth to
cause needless apprehension to any one, and we
only notice it now to show on what a slender ground
the uneasiness rests, and, if possible, to allay the ex-
isting feeling. The Atrato, which is a paddle
steamer, sailed from Southampton on Tuesday, Jan:
2, under the command of Capt. Jellicoc, an expe-
rienced navigator, and with about 126 passengers
on board, bound for Jamaica. On that night she
encountered a great hurricane, and the weather
continued to be so - tempestuous that she
could not land her pilot until the next
day, which she did at Dartmouth. The
vessel then continued her voyage, and, if
all has gone well, she may have by this time reached
St. Thomas, a port in the group of Virgin Islands,
about a -week's sail from Jamaica, and at which
the West India mail steamers ordinarily touch. In
that case she may be the first to bring the tidings of
her own safety on the return voyage t o England,
about a month from this time, unless, indeed, which
is possible, she may be spoken on the outward trip
I,by a returning English or. French mail steamerfrom
he West Indies. Until lately printed notices,
framed and glazed, had been hung up in the com-
panions of the Royal West India Mail Company's
vessels, prohibiting under a penalty of £lOO passen-
gem from carrying with them gunpowder, lucifer-
matches, or any other inflammable material, but
such notices had -been discontinued, except in a few
cases. On the 9th of January one of those printed
notices, so framed and glazed, was picked up at
Harlec, in North Wales, about five miles from Port
Madoc, and delivered to the Receiver of Wrecks at
the latter place. It has since been forwarded to
London, and now lies at the Royal Mail Company's
offices in Moorgate-street. The company have
identified it beyond doubt as one of the notices at
one time in use in their steamers, but there is no-
thing whatever, beyond a mere surmise, to connect
it with the Atrato, nor to show that it ever belonged
to her. From inquiries which they have instituted
they find from Captain Vincent, their Superinten-
dent at Southampton, that though the notices in
question have been discontinued in most of their
ships, he is under the impression that there was one
in the Atrato's fore companion, which was taken
down towards the end of December last, a few days
before she sailed on her present voyage, while the
companion was being repainted, and not put up
again. Four colliers, he adds, were alongside until
the evening of the 29th of December, coaling the
Atrato as she lay at Southampton, and the maho-
gany frame containing the notice, being old, may
have been thrown on board one of the colliers, or
stowed away in some corner and thrown overboard
after the ship got to sea. If the latter supposition,
which appears reasonable, be true, there is an
explanation at once of its having been washed on
shore in the track of the vessel, and entirely con-
sistent with her safety. It is certain that she en-
countered bad weather, and the frame might have
been lying about the deck and washed overboard by a
sea. Besides, as Captain Vincent justly argues, if
anything had happened to the ship, some of the
boats' oars, masts, and the like, all of which are
legibly branded with her name, would probably
have drifted in the same direction with the maho-
gany frame, and, like it, been picked up ; but one
looks in vain through the shipping lists in which the
minutest circumstance as to casualties at sea is re-
ported at Lloyd's from day to day, for any notice
of anything of that kind having been found, and it
is from the one solitary fact of the frame having
been picked up, with which there is nothing what-
ever really to connect the vessel, that doubts have
arisen as to her safety. The supposition, however,
that it may have belonged to the Atrato caused her
premiums of insurance to advance to 20 guineas on
Thursday at Lloyd's,; but, towards the close of yes
terday, we believe, they had fallen to as low as
10 guineas. A telegram was received yesterday at
Lloyd's that the ship Rhone, belonging to the
Royal Mail Packet Company, which left South-
ampton a week later than the Atrato for Lisbon,
was spoken on the 13th by the Saxon 50 miles
south-west of Vigo, and that she had suffered much
in a heavy gale, having lost all her boats on the
port side, and appeared to be going slowly. The
Recorder of London is accompanied by his wife.
There are besides among the passengers many per-
sons who have gone out expressly in connexion with
the approaching inquiry into the circumstances
attending the insurrection, including four special
correspondents, at least, of the London press and
two Government shorthand writers.