The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-24 00:00:00

MR MALTA AND ALEXANDRIA

SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH.

The English screw steamer Rangoon, Captain
Atkins, arrived on Monday night from Ras-el-
Millah, on the north coast of Africa, having safely
laid the cable she had on board to within 10 or 15
miles of that place. On the evening of the sth inst.,
at 6 o'clock, the shore end of the cable was disem-
barked at Alexandria from the Rangoon, in the
paddle-box boats of her Majesty's corvette Scourge
Commander Jones, escorted by other boats of that
vessel and the Medina, Capt. Spratt, C. 8., the
Mohav k, Commander E. H. Howard, having been.
previously Sent on the same morning to lay down
buoys for the guidance of the ships. The Rangoon,
having on board Messrs. Canning,Clifford, Dr.White-
house, De Santy, and a staff of electricians on the
part of the contractors, and Messrs. Forde and
Laws on the part of the Government, started on
the following day at 6 a.m., preceded closely by
the Medina, with the Scourge on the starboard
beam. In this order they proceeded till nightfall,
the Rangoon paying out the cable all the while,
when the signal was made by Captain Spratt to
anchor. They started again next morning at five
in the same order, with the Mohawk still ahead
laying down buoys. On the evening of the second
day, the depths varying considerably within short
distances, the Rangoon was ordered to remain at
anchor while the Mohawk and Medina proceeded
slowly ahead sounding and marking the course.
On the third day, about noon, the Rangoon weighed
anchor, and the ships proceeded in the same order
as on starting. Little progress was made during
the Bth and 10th inst., on account of the variable
depths. On the 11th the squadron passed the
Ishilah Rocks, and at five the same evening had
paid out all the cable on board, electric communi-
cation with Alexandria being perfect. Here the
end was taken into shallow water, hermetically
sealed, and buoyed. In no spot, we understand,
was the cable laid in more than 100 fathoms water,
but for the mcst part in about 50, and at an average
distance of four or five miles from the coast. The
weather was fine, with a light north-westerly
wind and smooth water all the way till the morn-
ing of the 11th inst., when a swell-set in, and the
wind freshened from the north-west. On the same
evening the Rangoon parted company for Malta,
and arrived there at half-past nine at night on
the 15th inst., having encountered rough weather
from the north-west on the 12th and 13th, which,
had it occurred during the laying of the cable,
would have endangered the success of the operation.
The Medina was to continue sounding along the
coast preliminary to submerging the last sections
of the cable expected from England, to connect the
two ends. Mr. Fordo proceeded in the Scourge
for Bengazi and Tripoli, and may be expected here
in that vessel in a week or ten days. The Rangoon
left early yesterda.7 morning for England.—Malta
Times, July 18.

A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA.

Our readers may have observed recently among
our maritime extracts the copy of the contents of a
slip of paper found in a bottle some weeks ago on
the western coast of Uist, in the Hebrides, and for-
warded to us by our agent at Stornoway. The
paper in question, apparently the leaf of a pocket-
book, used in the hurry of the moment, was covered
on both sides with pencil marks, from which the
following was with difficulty deciphered :—" On
board the Pacific, from L'pool to N. York. ship
going down. (Great) confusion on board. Icebergs
around us on every side. I know I cannot escape. I
write the cause of our loss that friends may not live
in suspense. The finder of this will please gee it
published.—Wm. Graham." If we are right in
our conjecture, the ship here named is the Pacific,
one of the Collins line of steamers, which vessel left
Liverpool on January 22, 1856, three days before
the Persia, and has not since been heard of; and
this slip of paper, three inches by two, is probably
the only record of the fate of that missing ship, We
have n t come to this conclusion hastily. On re-
ceiving the frail record from Stornoway we at once
published it, as the best and most expeditious modes
of placing it before those who might possibly be in-
terested in the fate of the vessel named. The Pacific
is by no means an uncommon appellation, more espe-
cially among the shipping of the United States,
and we did not despair that some light would be
thrown upon the " message from the sea" which
had so singularly been preserved and placed in our
hands. After waiting for some time we received
communication from Messrs. Zerega, of New Yorks
stating that their ship Pacific being in port at the
time, of course the record had no reference thereto,
but they much feared it might, notwithstanding the
difference in the names, apply to the Baltic, which,
had left Liverpool in January last, and has not since.
been heard of; and we were requested at the same
time to communicate with Messrs. Zerega's agents
in Liverpool. This we have been careful to do, and.
at the same time we directed a search to be made
amor.g the lists of passengers and crews, both of
the Baltic and of the Pacific of the Collins line.
We have ascertained that no person named Graham
was on board the Baltic when that vessel left Liver-
pool last on her passage to New York, but it appears
that a man of that name did ship as helmsman in.
the Pacific in January, 1856. It is true he shipped
by the name of Robert Graham, whereas the slip
of paper is signed "Wm. Graham." This, however,
is a discrepancy which will not count for much
with those who are acquainted with the careless
manner in which seafaring people frequently give
their names, and the facility for such a mistake pre-
sented by the ordinary mode of entering the names
of a ship's company. From the facts elicited so far,
we come to the conclusion that the vessel lost, and
to which the frail memorandum before us refers,
was a ship named the Pacific, The writer was
evidently some person accustomed to the perils of
the sea, for it is difficult to understand how ass°
person whose nerves had not been hardened by
the presence of frequent and appalling dangers;
could have written with such manifest coolness in
the immediate presence of death. This self-posses-
sion at once negatives the idea that the person who
could exhibit it in a moment of such supreme peril
could possibly have mistaken the name of the vessel.
whose loss he has recorded. Then, again, we find.
from the records of the lost Pacific that a person
named Graham sailed in her from Liverpool on her
ill-fated voyage, and, in all human probability, was
on board at the time she was lost with all hands.
This is the strongest point in the entire chain of
evidence, for it connects the writer of the memo-
randum directly with the lost ship, and the ship
with the writer. Lastly, since the memorandum
has been given to the worid—now some weeks—
we have had no intimation that any ship named
the Pacific, sailing from Liverpool recently, has
been lost, or is even missing. The ship in
question must have left that port so long ago that
all hope of her recovery has been abandoned. Some
interest might possibly, even at this distance of
lime, have been felt in the fate of the Pacific, but'
the company to which that steamer belonged ne
longer exists. The remaining ships of the Collins
line have been some time since disposed of, and are
employed. we believe, or were recently employed,
on the line frofn New York to Panama. To sum
up, we have the fact that a man of the same sur-
name as he who signed the slip of paper found in
bottle on the shore of the Hebrides shipped as
steersman in the Pacific in January, 1856, and the
presumption is every way strong against his hav-
ing mistaken the name of the ship in which he
sailed, and was apparently lost. We also know
that the Persia, which sailed three days after the
the Pacific, narrowly escaped destruction from ice-
bergs on her passage out. The announcement of
the finding of the memorandum and its contents has
now been some weeks in our columns, but, with
the exception of the communication already refer-
red to, it has produced no response, which is
utterly unaccountable, except on the supposition
either that no vessel named the Pacific has
been lost, or that she belonged to parties who
have ceased to have any interest in her fate. The
ifisr sqtuhypothesis
lis
able c o nwt
tahr yt t
h eo t
fhe ac
tf a
tcht the
the second
vesselat
referred to in the memorandum is the Pacific
steamer, of the late Collins line, and ne other. We
leave the extraordinary voyage of the bottle which
contained Graham's memorandum to the considera-
tion of those who, like Captain Maury and others,
have mode the phenomena of winds and currents in
the ocean their peculiar study. When this bottle
was thrown overboard from the Pacific, that vessel
was surrounded bl
lhi c recordmountains
obliterated of
oafm
allca magnificent
tinyfrom
all
the
vessel ship
escaped lo of
tw thei
ty h
e'
crash
of mites on the ice, and was, was carried )o
probability
,
only released
when the ice melted in the tropical
sun- There —the nresumption is not a violent one
this fra2ilo McBf:engcr was swept by the Gulf
strcam, f)nd carried along the course nearly to the
extreme verge
atreatu to which, as we are told, the Gulf
propagated. The bottle was found on the
western shore of the II: brides, where it arrival
under the mysterious guidance of those influences
which have of late years so earnestly engrossed the
attention of scientific geographers.—Slapping and
Mercantile Gazette.

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE LANCASHIRE AND
YORKSHIRE IiAILWAY.—At about eight o'clock yester-
day morning, a goods train which was proceeding up the
line to Liverpool, on its arrival at Maghull suddenly left
the line and dashed against the stone bridge. The guard
was literally smashed to atoms ; the engine-driver and
stoker. were much injured, and the rails were torn up for
above 100 yards. The traffic on the lino is temporarily
'Puspeuaed, •