The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-27 00:00:00

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PIUF 41). STAMPF,D. h 1)•

the west coast of South America. Our forces are
about as follows; •
The Ganges, 84 guns, about 700 men.
The Tribune, 31 guns, Captain Hornby. She is a screw
steam-frigate, of 300-horse power.
The Pylades, 20 guns, screw steam corvette, Captain De
Conroy, 300-horse power.
The Satellite, 20 guns, screw steam corvette, Captain
Prevost, the Water Boundary Commissioner.

The Plumper, surveying vessel, 60-horsr. power, Captain
Richards.

These vessels would muster about 1,145 men in
sailors, and about 900 marines. There are also of
Royal Engineers and Royal Marine Light Infantry
a body of about 300 men, already for service—
picked troops.

- Colonel Moody came down from British Colum-
bia yesterday with 54 Marine Light Infantry, who
are to be posted at Victoria, for the defence of the
place, in case of an attack by the Americans ; and
measures are to be immediately taken to form a
militia and other means of defence.

The Americans did not count the cost of insulting
or of attacking us. They forgot their old enemies
the Indians, who are burning with revenge, thirst-
ing for their blood. Let it once be known that
the English are no longer friendly with the
Americans, and slumbering feuds will break out ;
but let it be known that they are at war, and
100,000 Indians will attack the Americans unasked.
They require no instigation.
Sir Edward Lytton, in his instructions to Colonel
Moody the other day, promised that

The colonists must not be left to suppose that against ex-
ternal aggression Great Britain would not render them the
aid due to the dignity of her Crown and the safety of her
subjects in every part of her Majesty's dominions ; for
wherever England extends her sceptre, there, as against the
foreign, enemy, she pledges the defence of her sword.

I now call upon the present Government to re-
deem this pledge.
Tho news from the mines very good.

271 E GREAT EASTERN STEAM-SHIP.

WEYMOUTH, SEPr. 25.
The repairs necessary for fitting the Great
Eastern for sea are daily going forward with the ut-
most diligence and rapidity. Mr. Crace's artists
are busy redecorating the grand saloon. Carpenters-
and fitters are incessantly at work removing the
traces of the late explosion, and restoring the
cabin.; as they were before it happened. The
new funnel has been put together on deck
and is nearly finished, and the injured wrought iron
beams and bulkheads have been cut out and prepa-
rations made for replacing them with others. Yet, '
in spite of this activity and the progress that has
undoubtedly been made, we should be deceiving
our readers if we held out the least hope that the
Great Eastern will be ready for sea on the Bth of
October, or perhaps even during the mouth of Oc-

ober at all. Mucli of this delay is of course due to

he destructive effects of the laie accident, the da-

mage occasioned by which, though not more exten-
sive than was at first supposed, is of a peculiar

nature, and will necessitate the removal and re-

fitting of a good deal of iron work. This work can-
not be hurried over. In London, and with the im-

mense facilities offered by the great shipping yards
on the Thames the whole affair might be easily

managed, but this, of course, is not the case at
Portland, and restoring things to their former

order is therefore likely to occupy much more time
than was originally anticipated and agreed for in
tho contract. But these causes only partly account
for the delay which it is now almost certain must

be incurred before the vessel starts. The others arc

due to the fact that the fittings of the ship and all
matters connected with her sea-going equipment

are now entirely in the hands of the Marine De-
partment of the Board or Trade. With a passen-
. .

ger ship of such gigantic magnitude, and which
when complete will go to sea literally with a

population equal to that of many towns, it has
been felt that no possible precautions which the
greatest experience and most jealous vigilance
can suggest should be neglected. In this matter
the directors and Captain Harrison are en-
tirely agreed, and have, we believe, asked the
Board of Trade t) make any suggestions which
they think can in any way conduce to the safety
and convenience of the vessel. Several suggestions
will, therefore, doubtless be offered at once, and, as
a matter of course, complied with to the letter by
the executive on board. Some of the most promi-
nent of these suggested improvements are already
known, one beir, that the coal bunkers should all
be well ventilated and fitted with pipes through
the centre, as is the case with line-of-battle ships,
to enable the temperature of the coals to be tested
and registered at certain intervals throughout the
day. The Great Eastern will always carry the
best Welsh coals, which, even when stowed in large
quantities, are seldom if ever known to heat.
The Great Eastern, however, will carry no less
than 10,000 tons, a quantity which, we need not
say, has never yet been put into any vessel, and
therefore it has beer, thought rightto guard against
even the possibility of accident from this source.
Another matter which will probably be altered is
the means of feeding the boilers with water. Until
the present massive engines were constructed it
has always been the rule to make them self feeding,
the auxiliaries being used merely as a stand-by in
case of any of the puraps breaking down. The
machinery of the Great'Eastern was made entirely
dependent on its feed water being supplied by
the donkey engines—a rather objectionable
arrangement, as in the case of the donkeys
getting out of 'order, which it has been seen
they may do, the machinery must come to
a standstill. Feed and bilge pumps will now
most likely be fitted to both screw and paddle
engines, and the donkeys retained only as a pre-
cautionary measure. Two boats, in addition to
those already at the davits, will be carried by the
Great Eastern when she starts for sea. Each of
these, in capacity, will be almost equal to small
schooners, as they are to be upwards of 50 feet long,
and 13 feet wide, quite capable of taking off at least
100 persons. These, with boats of the same de-
scription which have already been made, and those
now alongside, will be equal to taking eff at least
1,200 crew and passengers. Among the other alte-
rations which will soon be carried into effect is
fitting a different kind of stern wheel, and also
making a second tiller in the lower deck connected
with, though independent of, the upper one. The
passage round from the Thames showed that the
heat in the stoke holes of one or two of the small
auxiliary engines was too much for the firemen.
Sliding iron doors will, therefore, be cut in the
bulkheads, in order to give them the most complete
ventilation. To the auxiliary engines for turning
the screw it is intended to attach pumps for pump-
ing water out of the ship or on deck in case of fire.
There will thus be two powerful fire engines in the
ship, independent of the donkey feeds or feed and
bilge pumps, capable in all of throwing upwards of
30 tons of water per minute in case of accident.
Another suggested alteration is the removal of the
indiarubber packing. between the flanges to which
the cast iron mast is bolted and filling in with
ledges of hornbeam. This will, of course, neces-
sitate the slackening down of the maih shrouds, a
work both of time and difficulty.
Now that all the wreck has been cleared away
from the lower deck in the immediate vicinity of
the scene of the explosion, the amount of damage
which has been sustained by the boilers and more
substantial fittings of the ship can be readily ascer-
tained. The massive iron main-deck beams which
were so curiously doubled and torn by the force of
the explosion have been cut away, together with
the tattered remnants of the lower portions of the
funnel and jacket which still remained attached to
the upper part of the boilers, and altogether the
space has been cleared so as to allow the work of
restoration to proceed with all due celerity. Upon
minute examination it was found that the forward
boilers had not been injured to the extent which
was at first imagined, ner yet escaped entirely
without damage. The copper plates of these two
boilers, upon which the funnel and easing rested
are very much dieted in, and many of the iron
stays in the interior are either broken or very much
bent. Some of the hot air tubes have also been
damaged, but not to a serious extent. The replac-
ing of the stays and such of the tubes as it will be
necessary to remove will soon be accomplished, but
the restoration of the two damaged boiler plates
must occupy time. A few days will suffice to re-
store the injured iron supports of the main and
lower decks. Thus it is to be hoped that the
substantial portions of the ship will be com-
pletely refitted in the course of a comparatively
few days. But with regard to the erection and
equipment of the demolished cabins on the lower
deck and in the saloon it would be impossible to
speculate on so speedy a completion. Even should
the cabins not be touched for six months to come it
will not in the least degree prevent the ship from
going to sea, as there is ample berth and cabin ac-
commodation in all the remaining saloons. At the
same time there is every reason to believe that this
one department of repairs will be immediately put
in hand and completed by the Bth proximo. The
three men, Tait, Yoxon, and Sparkes, who were
badly injured by the explosion, are now progress-
ing steadily and favourably, and no doubt is enter-