The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-09 00:00:00

A SUBMARINE VOLCANO.

(From the San rrancisco Herald.)
Captain C. H. Newell, of the whaling barque Alice
Frasier, gives the following description of the action of
a submarine volcano which sprang into existence in the
IStraits of Onnimah, in lat. 54 26, long. 165, on the 25th
of July last. There were five'or six vessels in company
at the time when the volcano burst, and threw an im-
mense body of water to a tremendous height; after which
it emitted lava and pumicestone on the decks of the ves-
sel. This singu'ar oceanic phenomenon is corroborated
by the masters of Vie whaling ships William Thompson,
Scotland, and Enterprise :
" Barque Alice Frasier, at Sea, Oct. 30, 1856.
" About the 25th of July. while passing in company with
some others through the Straits of Onnimah, I observed
many of the mountain peaks upon the adjscent islands
undergoing strong volcanic action, ejecting vast clouds of
dense black smoke.
" A few other whalers, in company with myself, had
just rounded the west point of the island, close to the base
of the volcano, upon that end of it, having been enjoying
the close view of its tremendous eruption, and listening to
the long rumbling roar as we underwent several successive
shocks of partial earthquake, when the wind suddenly died
away from a strong breeze to a calm, and left us entirely
at the mercy of the eruptions, close in with the land. After
several hours of various grades of action everything seemed
to grow for the worse. The throes of the elements and
groans of the sphere became rapidly more and more omi-
nous. It became perfectly calm—so calm that the dense,
black, unearthly smoke from the crater rushed headlong
into the heavens, without deviating to any point—an indi-
cation that there was a faint hope of a coming breeze for
us ; then gradually dissipated into cold grey couds, from
which fell showers of ashes, looking in the distance like
rain, though falling rather like snow flakes. At this stage
of things, after about 12 hours' calm, there sprang up a
light breeze from the south, seemingly about to rid us of
our dangerous companion ; and you may make no doubt
but we endeavoured to profit by it, even to the smallest
sail we could set.
" But then came the worst of all. The winds, acting
upon so dense a body of smoke, blew it flat down upon the
surface of the water, making it for more than 100 miles, as
I ascertained from others, an almost total eclipse, shutting
the land under it entirely from sight. The ashes rained
down upon us like a snowstorm, coverinc, everything from
deck to truck under one grey mantle of cinders, almost
blinding the people exposed, and growing dense and more
dense, nearly to suffocation, entil we began to conjure up
another scene of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and think we
should come off rather worse than Pliny's little fleet in the
Bay of Naples. As the breeze increased we worked our
way to the westward, leaving the scathing, suffocating
mass rolling away to the north upon the eastern board.
Once clear, we had a long job to get clear of the ashes—
washing and scrubbing in abundance.. I have visited seve-
ral volcanoes in their active stages, but that was a little
more of the coalpit business than agreed with my taste in
these matters.
" But the grand sublimity of the thing was all to come.
As the breeze built up into a dashing wind along came
four other ships. When, just as they got fairly in with
the north base of this mountain, gazing upon ,the grand
ebullition above them, there followed a long low rumbling
directly beneath them, and there sprang into instant exist-
ence simultaneous with the sound a vast terrific volcano
among the very fleet. First, the waters boiled and rose
tumultuously into chaotic waves ; then sprang, as by an
effort of some vast fountain, into a splendid column of
rolling waters to a great height. This gradually dissi-
pated. Then from earth to heaven, with a thundering
sound which rocked the very welkin, there sprang a burst
of smoke and flame as if earth's whole internal fires were
seeking a vent therefrom. Following this it commenced
casting up lava and pumicestone, from the size of a
pebble to that of a boulder, covering all the vessels with
lesser fragments of each, and keeping the ships' companies
in the most intense anxiety from fear of either being
blown into the air or crushed beneath the sea. These
grades of action continued only for a time the eruption
sinking almost as sudden as it came, when the waters rolled
into the vacated chasm with the rush of a whirlwind,
meeting in the centre from every direction, and whirling
into a vortex only equalled by the Maelstrom, uttering a
voice little short of the British Niagara heard from Table
Rock.

"The ships escaped, leaving the submarine volcano un-
dergoing a succession of changes of comparative quietude
and violent action, its throes assuming about the same
character as the first, -with unequal intervals limiting the
various stages it passed through.

" C. H. NEWELL."

Naval and Military Intelligence.

H.M. steam troopship Urgent, Commander Phillips,
arrived at Spithead yesterday morning from the Mediter-
ranean, last from Plymouth.
H.M. steam blockship Pembroke, 60, Capt. Fraser,
leaves Spithead to-day for Leith.
H.M.S. Amphitrite, 25, was undocked at Portsmouth
yesterday. See is intended for Coastguard service.
The Dee steam vessel was taken into Portsmouth
steam basin yesterday to discharge boilers and machinery
fur the D►adem, &c.
The Alban, 3, steam vessel, Lieutenant-Commander
Blaquire, left Portsmouth yesterday afternoon for the
west ward.
The Trident, 6, Commander Close, was taken into
the steam basin at Portsmouth on Wednesday to have
defects repaired.
The Algiers, 91, is to be docked on Monday at Ports-
mouth, to be refitted for further service.
The paldlewheel frigate Furious, 12, will be undocked
at Portsmouth to-murrow, and forwarded for further
service.
The screw steam ship James Watt, 91, Captai❑ T. V.
Anson, sailed from Plymouth on Tuesday, and the screw
steam frigate Shannon, 51, Captain W. Peel, on Wed-
nesday, both for Lisbon.
Commander Gordon and 20 of the crew of the paddle.
wheel steam vessel Hecate, 6, being on the sick list with
fever, she has been ordered off the coast, and is probably
at Ascension.
The funeral of Captain A. J. B. Hambly, of the
Chatham division of the Royal Marines, took place yes-
terday.afternoon, and was conducted with all the military
honours usually observed on the occasion of the burial
of an officer of rank. The deceased officer, who had
been 20 years in the corps of the Royal Marines, died
at his quarters in the barracks, from which his body
was subsequently removed to Melville Hospital, where
the funeral procession was formed. In addition to the
officers of the Royal Marines a large nu►nbtr of naval
officers belonging to the ships of war lying at Chatham,
with the officers of the Provisional Battalion and the
Royal and East India Company's Engineers, attended.
Captain Hambly entered the corps of Royal Marines in
1837, his commission as second lieutenant bearing the
date of August lof that year. He obtained his com
pany in 1851. Iu 1842 the deceased officer served in
the Chinese expedition, where he was severely wounded.
He also served on board the Monarch in the Baltic dur-
ing 1854, and afterwards on the Pacific station until
invalided home in May last.
The Southampton, 50, Captain E. P. Charlewood
(1855), left Chatham yesterday in tow of the African
and Adder steamers for Sheerness. She is to be sta-
tioned at Harwicb, where she will be employed as the
guard-ship of the Coastguard.
Another discharge of troops from the army took place
at Chatham garrison yesterday morning, consisting of
159 non-commissioned officers and men selected from
various regiments. Nearly 2,000 troops have been dis-
charged from Chatham during the past three months.

INTERESTING DISCOVERY.—The last accounts received
from the Danubian provinces mention a discovery very
interesting to archmologists, which has just been made
in a convent of the Bukowina. There has been found in
the convent of Putna the tomb and crown of Stephen
the Great, sovereign prince of Moldavia, who ascended
the throne in 1498, and died hi 1504. This prince, who
was a, great a warrior as he was a governor, extended the
mita of his states, and supported numerous wars against
John, Albert, Alexander 1., and Sigismund 1., Kings
of Poland, and in which he was always the conqueror. In
1496 in the plains of Buko wins, which then formed part
of his government, be gained the battle of Suczawa, over
a Polish army, 80,000 strong. He took 20,000 priso
ners, whom he afterwards employed in tilling the ground,
and to whose labours historians attributed the magnifi-
cent forests which still c,iver the country and constitute
its riches. Stephen the Great resisted the Turks as wets
as the Poles, but after his death Moldavia, which hail
under his reign acquired so brilliant a position, lost hoer
independence. His successor, Bogdan IV., submit Ad
to the Sultan Selim. Since that period Dilolda.fa has
remained under the suzerainty of the Forte, whic . some
years after assumed the right of nominating the saverrign
chief of the province. The discovery just made in the
Bukowina has awakened the glorious souvenir of Stf3phen
the Great. A commission has been formed at Jail 3y for
the purpose of raising a subscription to erect a monu-
ment and a statue to his memory, and the idea h 9 ,s been
well received by the whole of the inhabitants,