The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-29 00:00:00

SATURDAY EVENING,

gentlemen best acquainted with the feeling which
prevails in the United States with regard to the
Great Eastern think that any voyage there now
must prove a perfect failure for showing the
vessel, while, on the other hand, they are as
confident that if the ship starts for New York in
the spring she must realize between 600,000 doll. and
700,000 dots. clear of all expenses. How far this
estimate may or may not be exaggerated we c2.nnot
take upon ourselves to say; but there must, doubt-
less, be a wide and most important margin between
the receipts if taken this winter and those which
may be fairly expected next year. But in real truth,
as we have said, these speculations are quite beside
the question, when the plain fact remains that the
ship sholild not leave England till thoroughly com-
pleted, which at present she most certainly is not.
It is said that the berth chosen for her at Southamp-
ton is a perfectly safe one, and it is beyond a doubt
that that port offers such facilities for completing the
vessel as makes it imperative she should go there at
once. A great many rumours are afloat as to a pro-
gramme of winter voyages, but for this we believe
nothing definite has been settled. It is just possible
that before leaving England the Great Eastern may
visit Glasgow aneKingstown, but beyond such mere
plausible conjectures nothing whatever is known or
determined on.

On leaving this port on Tuesday or Wednes-
day the course will be made under easy steam
for the Scilly Islands, and a very general hope is
entertained that Captain Harrison will give them
a sufficiently wide berth to enable the Great
Eastern to try her power a little way down Chan-
nel, where at this time of the year a sea will cer-
tainly be met with. If such a route is adopted the
question as to the speed of the ship may be fairly
settled. It can never be tried in smooth water. In
justice to the captain, the shareholders, and the
contracting engineers, both engines should be tested
to their utmost speed, together and separately.
Until this is done, and the number of revolutions,
indicated horse-power and consumption of coal
carefully registered, no one can form a correct

estimate of what the Great Eastern is capable of
doing. If either screw or paddle machinery is at all
wrong, the sooner the fault is found the better. It
will never do to find out in a trial trip in the
centre of the Atlantic that the piston or air-pump
rods of the paddle engines are too weak, or that the
screw boilers do not generate sufficient steam to
drive the propeller at 45. We by no means intend
to say that such faults will be discovered,
but merely that it is as well that all matters
of this kind should be placed beyond a
doubt. As we have before pointed out the
Great Eastern is not in good trim for testing
speed. Her paddles have too little immersion,
and she ought to be a couple of feet more down
by the stern to put her screw blades fairly under
water. On ordinary voyages she must start with
at least 3,000 or 4,000 more tons of coal than is
yet on board, and this, with cargo, will bring
her down some five or six feet deeper than her
present trim. It must not, however, be forgotten
that with a deeper immersion there will be greater
bulk to drive, so that on the whole the gain in
rate of speed cannot be anything greatly beyond
what was attained during the late trial trip.
Her present displacement of water is a little over
a million cubic feet, to propel which through the
sea her nominal horse-power is only 2,600, or at
the rate of about one-horse power for every
tons.

It is most important that the daily consumption
of coal at full and easy steaming should be ascer-
tained as soon as possible, in order to afford a basis
from which the future expenses of the ship may be
calculated. As far as could be seen during the run
round from Portland, it appears very probable that
her average will not fall short of 300 tons a-day. It
is not easy, however, to tell off-hand the amount of
fuel required daily for a vessel which, when all her
machinery is at work has no less than 118 furnaces
blazing away together. Taking it at 300 tons the
consumption is very.small when compared not only
with the power developed, but with the consump-
tion of other fast sea-going steamers. 300 tons a
day is only at the rate of 21 cwt. per horse-power,
whereas the Persia consumes no less than 180 daily,
or at the rate of 4 cwt. per horse-power. For the
Great Eastern to consume at the same rate in pro-
portion to horse-power with the Persia, she would
have to burn upwards drso"o tons a day, and be only
capable of carrying fuel for a 20 days' run instead
of as now for a voyage to Australia of from 36 to
38 days. If the Great Eastern makes a long stretch
out to sea in going round to Southampton; so as to
get within scope of the swell of the Atlantic, a
very fair estimate of her consumption in a heavy
sea way can be formed, but till the test of driving
,her head on to a south-westerly gale is applied, the
estimate of her cost in fuel must be more or less
conjectured.
While at Southampton the ship will be thrown
open to visitors, though at the same time the work
of fitting for sea will be diligently pursued. Up to
the present, in spite of all that has lately been dote,
an immense amount of work remains to be accom-
plished during the winter.

THE LOSS 011 TILE I?OYAL CHARIER,

LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY.

No further intelligence of importance has been
received from Moelfra, the scene of the wreck.
Measures have been adopted by the authorities for
the protection of the property of the owners of the
vessel and cargo, and of the passengers, and also to
take care of the bodies as they are cast ashore. At
4 o'clock an order is given to clear the beach of
those who are led to the spot by motives of plunder
or curiosity by a strong force of coastguardsmen
and detachments of the military. With the ex-
ception of two, who were unable to leave owing to
injuries received, all the survivors arrived in Liver-
pool last night. It is stated that one of the crew of
the Royal Charter at the time she struck rushed to
the store-room and broke all the bottles containing,
spirits, fearing that his fellow-seamen might intoxi-
ego themselves. Many of the crew on the day after
the wreck expressed themselves to the effect that
the sad event appeared as though it had been a
dream.

and at the office of Messrs.
Gibbsthe,Brilngahtdnst
,iagn-dcago.e,,
some affecting scenes have
taken place among the relatives of those who were
on board the Royal Charte.r.

There appears some probability of another gale
to-night.
The following is an amended list of the saloon
passengers, as far as can be ascertained :
Save—W. H. Morse, F. Gundy, and H.C.Taylor.
Lost—Mr., Mrs., and two Misses Fowler, and
one servant; Mr., Mrs., and Master Murray; Mr.
Tweedale, Mr. and Mrs. Grove, Mr. Molyneux,
Rev. Mr. Hodge, of New Zealand, Mrs. Foster,
Mrs. Fenwick and six children, Mrs. Halton, Dr.
Hatch, Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard, two children and
servant, n s. Beams, J. S. Henry, La Fargol, Mrs.
Woodruff and child, Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins and five
sons, Mr. and Mrs. Davies, two daughters and two
sons, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce, child and servant, Mr.
M'George, Capt. Withers, H. C. Taylor's daughter
and nurse.

List of Saloon Passengers landed at Queenstown :
Mr. Gardner, Mr. M'Evoy, Mrs. Nahmur and child.
The following statements are published in t 4
local papers
"Numerous people in Liverpool had relatives on
board. 1)r. Churton had a son among the passen-
gers. A son of Mr. Walton, of the Theatre Royal,
was an assistant steward.

" The captain succumbed to a sailor's fate.
He was seen on deck from nine o'clock, exerting
himself to make all right, until he was exhausted.
Time after time was he knocked down by wave
And spar, and had to hold on by a rope. He
was seen giving Ordere-On deck, with a spar lashed
to him, so that he might be prepared to float. He
was again seen struggling in the water, laying
hold of a yard-arm, and it every now and then
being washed from his grip. On recovering his
spar by a deterniined:effort,he en two occasions cried
out cheerfully, " There is hope yet." After this he
and Mr. Dowie, the second officer, were seen on
the lee side of the ship, struggling to reach the
shore, when a boat fell from the davits and struck
them both on the head, after which they were ,seen
no more. One iceideLt is related, that when the
captain had been' struck prostrate on deck, ex-
hausted, he saw the water steal a child from its
mother's arms—a Jewess—and dash it about the
deck. He cried out to the chief officer, Mr.
Stevens, to give a hand there, and to lash the child
by a rope, no doubt expecting at that time that
help would soon be available. Not a superior offi-
cer was
.saved, neither a female nor child.
"The following is thenarrative of the boatswain's
mate, John Suaicar, which is given nearly in his
own language:-
- "' Oa Monday we left Queenstown in the after.
noon, after putting some passengers on board the
pilot-boat Petrel who desired to he landed. We
proceeded on with calm weather and water smooth.
We made Ballycotton light at half-past 7 p.m., and
Yvughal light, on the Irish coast, at half-past 8.
Reached the Menai light at 9, made the Nook light,
in half au hour, and sighted Tuskar at about half-
paA 11. On Tuesday morning saw Bardsey, at
which time the wind began to freshen. The wind
heading, we took in the square sails ; and at 10
a.m., the wind increasing, took in all the fore and
aft sails. In the afternoon made Holyhead at half-
pastdo
in 1, and
bndoua rt
alongside,Could
halt-past
a n4s
dee handed weret
right g
steamshiph to aheadn board
some
fGreatHoly-
head
Eastern. Off Burdsey the steam-tug United King-
newspapers, asking if we would give a free passage to
11 riggers, as we were going to Liverpool, and the
tug was not going until she got a tow. The
riggers