The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-13 00:00:00

SCE W STEAMING TO A USTI..eiLLA

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The Melboorne Argus c-IV-Ains the f.-llowirirr in-
. teesting letter from the Fey. J. L. laTie,
&sot ibi•,g the trip of the screw steam ship Royal
Chat t r from Liverpool t- Me bourne
" The at rival of the _Royal Charter, after her
second voyage from England, is an occurrence of
such interest to tie Australian cqonies that a f,,w
obs<-Irratious from a passenger relative to the in-
ciden's the voyag, may not be unaoceptskde t 9
your rod.ers.

"We steamed out of the Mtrseyagarist awesterly
wind on Thursday evening, the 2d Oct. We ;Int
.
our plot on hoard the barque Benin, bound f:7lr
Liverpool, on tho I,rerroon of the 4th, about 21.1
mils to the wetward of Wwerford. We had head-
inds and calms till the 13th, when we passed the
island of Maleira. We got the north-east trade on
the 16,11, in lat. 24.52 N., and lost it on the 19th.
We crossed the equator on the 27th, in long. 26.38
W., after being 24 days out.

During the whole- of this first part of the voy-
age the winds were either light or contrary, thus
causing an unexpected deman f on our steam power.
The screw propeller was in action every day except
th ee, and such was the strength of the wind against
which we had to contend Vie second day after start-
ing that we only made 108 miles in the 24 hours.
" Ti:e imporiariee of the screw as regards the
health of the pa-.,.sengent was vu y apparent when
pass:rig through the calms to.the north of the equa-
tor, with upwards of 600 people crowded, as they
must neci-s,arily be, within the limits of a single
vessel, carrying a Lrge cargo bts;des. We sh.'uid
have been in great danger of epidemic disease bad
we been detained long in those hot and unhealthy
lalitudes; as it was, only slight symptoms of ill-
ness had t;me to manifest thems4vea among the

I chiliren, of whomthe-ewete upwards of 60 on
board. Two, of very delicate constitution, died
during the hot weather, and one at a later period of
disease caught at the same time. The tiree were all
very young. We had an excellent run from the
Equator to the He,:cls, and only required t) steam
i on four separate days.
' "On the 18th Nov. we saile'l 325 geographical
mile' allowing 29 minutes for the difference of ion-
' gituds ; VI is gives 383 statu' e miles in the 24 hours,
tor at the rate of 16 miles an hour. In three come-
! cutive days, including the 11th Nov., we ran,
making the same allowance for difference of longi-
' tnde' 957 nautical miles, which gives about 13i
knots an hour, or 1,108 statute miles, with an
average velocity 0f15.4 miles an hour.
" Our greatest run was on the 3d Dec., which,
after allowing eight miles from 8.12 difference of
longitude, gave 360 nautical miles in the 24 hours,
or exacily 15 knots an hour ; changing it into sta-
tute miles we have no less than 417 as the re-
sult of this day's sailing—a speed of nearly 17i miles
an hour. At one time upwards of 17 knots ran off
the reel, showing a velocity of 20 miles an hour,
the ship all lie while carrying royals and studding
stile, the summer season, too, when the winds are
from laf. 23.30 south, lung. to Cape Otway.
The distance by the route we followed is 8,964 nau-
tical miles ; this we accompli-hed in 34 days, and in
light winds. This exceeds the cel-btated run of the
Lightning in the corresponding part of her voyage
in the winter of last year, when she completed
8,146 miles in 33 days, or an avetige of 247 miles
per day, or 10 knots an hour, whe!eas the Royal
Charter's average was 2641 nautical miles a day, or
11 knots an h..ur.
" A remarkable phenomenon presented itself
Then ruening between the parallels of 43.31 and
45.3 south latitude, and 40.27 and 57.32 east len-
-1 gitude. For 'hree days, and over a spare of 700
mi!eN the sea was quite changed, and had the dull,
i to bid appearance which is so well known to mari-
-1 ners ashen in soundings. Some parts were more
laffected in this way than otters, but the whole was
manifest y different from the ordinary colour of the
ocean.

" Captain Boyce informs me that he observed
the same change last voyage, but only for 150
mils, and when his course lay about 130 miles
further soutf', and that, though be has re;,eatedly
soiled over ti .e same wound, he never saw o beard
of it before. Had circurnA tric a admitted of it, it
would hive been hiL:hly int,rest.ng :o a,certain
whether we real), wtra in s .undings, a subject of
inquiry peculiarly d serving tie at el, ion of future
navigators, as connected with ihe ge logii;nl ques-
tion of aI o sible rie (1 the subjacent laud. The
same arrangement with refe.ence t) the compasses
was adopted in this as in the pr,ceding voyage,
and with th,i same ii'glily satisfactory re,ulti. The
comp -i.-Fi, fixed by copper fastenings at an elevation
of 42 fret to the rnizenmast, we found to act with
ti e knit st mcuracy, and altogether free front the
disturbing action of the iron ship.
" As a practical pr, of of this, as well Ata of the
excellent , of our chronometers and the r-gularity
and i.recision with which the ob .ervatif 'nil were
taken, 1 may mention that the first laud we dia-
titie'ly am was a rock called Gough's island, rising
precipi• onsty in the inidit of the South Atlantic to
the height of. 4,000 feet in 44.19 south, 9.41. w,stx,
We sight. d this at the very lout that had been pre-
dicted to myself the day before by the cap ain, and
last night when the loom of the Australian land
be. to appear, and, above all, when the beauti-
ful light on Cape Otway first disclosed itself, at the
very time we bad been led to expect, a thrill of
emotion passed through all on Loard, caused not
more by the thought of having at length got within
s'ght of our destination than by admiration for the
triumph of science and art which had so strikingly
signalised itself by our arrival at the given hour
and place after a voyage of 13,000 miles through
the trackless ocean.

" The feeling or distrust which, for a consider-
able time and with too much reason, attached itself
to iron sh.ps on account of the irregularity and un-
certainty in the action of the compasses has now
disappeared—a cir rumstance of no small moment,
when iron is so rapidly displacing wood in the naval
arsenals of Europe.
"The great drawback in the present voyage as
compared with the previous one has been the un-
favourable west' er we experienced as far as the
line. We lost six days on this part of the voyage.
Our average speed, chiefly with steam, was rather
under seven knots.
"Flom the line to Australia, on the other hand,
this voyage bears a decidedly advantageous corn-
par:son with the last. In tote last the run was
made in 41 da3s ; in this it has been done in 40
days, with the important difference that we lost
several days by being thrown by adverse winds
more towards the coast of South Americ t., and had
therefore a course fully 1,000 miles longer to de-
scribe.
" The combing' ion of moderate steam power with
first c 1 45s sailing qualities is undoubtedly the true
solution of the problem of the Australian voyages,
as alone disperning with the necessity of eallin; at;
intermediate ports' and at the Ertme tine providing
effectually against the inevitable contingencies of
calms and unfavourable winds.
" I Cannot conclude th's htter without paying a
well-merited compl,ment to Captain Boyce for the
quiet energy and assiduous attentiou, as well as
pr:-fesional skill, N‘i,h which he discharges his im-
port tut and highly responsible duties. Such a
man is undoubtedly in his right place when com-
manding the Royal Charter."