The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-03 00:00:00

THE MEDITERRANEAN.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's screw
steamship China, Captain N. Roskell, arrived at
Southampton yesterday afternoon, with the heavy
Calcutta and China mails. She brought 153 passen-
gers, £1,660 in specie, 738 bales of cotton, and 893
pkgs. of general merchandise.

The China left Alexandria on the 19th ult., Malta
on the 231, and Gibraltar on the 27th. Strong head
winds and high head seas were experienced between
Alexandria and Malta ; thence to Gibraltar mode-
rate and high winds and fine weather ; to Cape
Finisterre light southerly winds and swell ; across
the Bay of Biscay fresh north-easterly winds, with
high head sea, squally weather, and rain ; and in the
Channel fine weather with light easterly winds.
On the morning of the 27th a telegram was re-
ceived in Gibraltar of the wreck of the British steamer
Nile on Trafalgar Reef on the night of the 26th.
on shore, China stood in to within two miles of the reef
on the evening of the 27th, and observed the steamer
lying with her head to the S.E., quite up-
right, but apparently settled down on the reef with
mast and funnels standing • no boats visible. A
heavy surf was breaking around
nhallvid and offered assistance, but receiving:o-
answer, and seeing no person on board, the captain
of the China supposed her to be abandoned and pro-
ceeded
26thhis ult.c°urs course.
On
the on
the China spoke the schooner
Lancashire Witch, from the Canaries to Genoa • off
Gibraltar, the schooner Fruiter, bound to the west-
ward ; and on the 28th the screw steamer Munster,
standing to the southward and eastward.
Her Majesty's shipaVictoria, Hibernia, Caledonia,
Royal Oak, Phoebe, Racer, and Psyche were at
Malta ; and the Skylark and Redpole at Gibraltar.
The Terrible, Capt. Napier, six days from Malta,
arrived at Gibraltar on the 24th ult., and having
embarked invalids and time-expired men, left for
England at 7.20 a.m. on the 26th. The storeship
Supply, Master Commander Bawden, six days from
Plymouth Sound, arrived at Gibraltar on the 23d,
and left for the eastward on the 25th. The gun-
boat Icarus left for the westward on the morning
of the 21st.

The British steamer Roma, Capt. T. Livingstone,
10 days from Glasgow, for Tunis and Malta, arrived
at Gibraltar on the 21st ; the Limerick, Capt. H.
Spuring, 16 days from London and 1i from Lisbon,
for Toulon, on the 22d ; the lonia, Capt. W. J.
Tutt, 8 days from Liverpool, for Palermo, on the
23d ; and the Sanda, Capt. D. Ross, 11 days from
Glasgow and 1i from Lisbon, for Cagliari, on the
23d. The brigantine Shepherdess, from Middles-
borough ; the brigantine Emily Burnyeat, from
Newport ; and the bark ITmgene, from Liverpool,
arrived at Gibraltar on the 24th.

The brig Amphion, Capt. J. Connell, which ar-
rived at Gibraltar on the 25th ult. from Cardiff,
reported having met with, on the morning of the
4th, off the Bristol Channel, a derelict vessel, sup-
posed to be a ship, with mizenmast gone, being
under a lower fore topsail, foresail flying in ribands,
rudder unshipped, and stripped of all rope and other
material. Donkey engine and galley complete, with
part of name " Tress." The Amphion could not
take her in tow, the weather being squally. She
was laden with teak timber.

The latest quotations of exchange at Gibraltar
were as follows :—London, 90 days' date, 491 ;
Paris, ditto, of. 23c. ; Marseilles, 8 days' sight, Of.
14c. to 15e. ; Madrid, ditto, 14 to 2 dis. ; Cadiz,
ditto, 4 dis. ; Seville, ditto, ato dis.; Malaga,
ditto, dis. ; Barcelona, ditto, / dis. Premium on
5f,-pieces, 13, to 1:1- per cent., in demand.
The Spanish screw frigate Navas de Tolosa, which
has been prepared to convey the newly-appointed
Capt.-General (Lersundi) to the Havannah, left
Cadiz on the 22d ult. for Alicante to embark his
Excellency.

The Spanish screw sloop Concordia, with the
Chilian bark Alice Ward in tow as a prize, arrived
at Cadiz, after a passage of 18 hours from Algesiras,
on the 22c1 ult. The crew of the bark were landed
on the 24th, and remained detained. Both vessels
are stated to have subsequently left for Carraca,
where a formal investigation would be entered upon.
In reference to this capture the Gibraltar Chronicle
of the 24th ult. says :
" The Chinni bark Alice Ward, which on the 20th of
February last sought refuge in this port from the danger
' of capture by Spanish cruisers, and has been lying here
ever since, has fallen into the hands of her enemies in a
singular manner. Between midnight on Saturday and
daylight on Sunday morning she dragged her anchor, and,
the wind being east, drifted out of British waters and
across the Bay till her anchors again brought her up in
Spanish waters between the two rivers, and she was quietly
taken possession of by the boats of the Spanish gunboat
anchored in Orange Grove Bay. There are a variety of
rumours afloat respecting the occurrence, but the only au-
thentic information is that contained in the depositions of
the second mate, who was in charge of the vessel at the
time, the master being on shore, and of a boy on board the
Alice Ward. These two left the vessel in a small boat when
the Alice Ward was in the middle of the bay, and pulled over
to this side. It appears from the mate's statement that he
went to his berth at half-past 10, leaving orders that he should
be called if anything particular happened. One look-out
man, relieved at intervals of one hour and 20minutes, formed
the night watch. The Alice Ward was lying in four fathoms
of water, riding at a single anchor with 30 fathoms of chain
veered out. About 3 o'clock the 100k-out man called up the
mate, saying he thought the ship was adrift. The mate im-
mediately went on deck, and his own observatioa confirming
the man's report, he turned out all hands, veered out 50
fathoms of chain to the port anchorby which the vessel had
been riding, let go the starboard anchor with 60 fathoms of
chain, and tried to find bottom with the lead and 20
fathoms of line, but without success. Tho extralchain
did not cause the anchors to hold, and thethevevessel at
con-
tinued to drift. As the mate
this time to be about half way
between
eetnhe bank on this
Algesiras, she must have drifted farc from
oe
of her anchors
side, and there was, therefore, Doer
the
bows the mate dis-
touching bottom. On looking
covering
ovttdhiraecir elni.
need dhtsAioti I the
tbaehanet,nboslad;e:sleoleoy'crimantoe this boat were examin-
ing orscampavia with
T.hewpiethop
lanthorns. On being asked
18 men anad
ing the sides of the shteirp
the vessel was in, the reply from
by the mate what water
li t there was plenty of water - mean-
ing,Slpa4
nanirssh.gutu•dacostaleorvoinw-
the scampavia was t a
ship
in
deep water, and
Spanish. The scampavia after this
that the waters were . .
in the direction of the Spanish gunboat pulled away
an-
chored at the Orange-grove, and we may suppose, there-
fore, perhaps, that the was Very
amrak which the tvheessSePanish Government had or-
that her crew, by the aid of her lanthorns, had ascer-
tained finding that she was
watched, hastened to give the intelli-
gence to the gunboat believed to be charged with that ser-
Sapandnaisbhobyogatotbeinintog
the
onagsbipiles
small boat and pulled over to Gibraltar. The ship con-
tinued to drift until her anchor brought her up in the shoal
water on the opposite side. At daylight she was seen riding
at anchor between the two rivers ; at about a quarter be-
fore 6 boats from the Spanish gunboat in Orange-grove
Bay boarded her, and shortly afterwards the Spanish flag
Was hoisted over the vessel. There is nothing in all this
to cause any surprise except the circumstance of the ves-
sel's dragging her anchor when it was not
blowing hard,
although there *ere occasionally stiff squalls froml the
e enough
at when all the other ships in the bay lay
at their anchorage The cause of the
unfortunate
by the tion in the case of the Alice Ward
is
vessel had been au-
thorities of the port to be this :
III': ise known that such
rid-
ing some time at a single anchodr.seeure excel,-
with danger. The flow
or variable winds cause
calms, their anchors. The chain
aanpdraecbtibce
of
fn
the
eis
tide
ert
aisndattende
vessels to swing round and
theo
slightest puff of wind caus-
inggs the anchor out of the
vesselthe
e cdrags. Curiously enough, precisely
ground, and the foulsathsetraantnchuopor,
nand thennodubrings
days Colu-
mbia, a few moderate ago to an Italian bark, the Colueast wind dragged her anchor
bia, which in
a Spanish shore. Such an accident,
the same accident that has happened to the Alice Ward
and drifted over to the
has
th9ugh of small importance to any other vessel,,proved
fatal to the Chilian bark, which has drifted into the hands
of a national enemy."