The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-25 00:00:00

THE GREAT EASTERN.

The impression that Southampton has been fixed
on as the port of al rival and departure for this ves-
sel is incorrect. During the past week Mr. James
Poole, Mayor of Bristol, has been in communication
with the directors of the company, and has laid be-
fore them resolutions passed by the Docks Commit-
tee and by the Society of Merchant Venturers, offer-
ing to forego their dues in the event of the Great
Eastern coming to that port. Almost simultanc-
ously a joint deputation, consisting of Mr. C.
J. Thomas and Mr. Charles Nash, town-coun-

cillors, Mr. James Bush, senior warden of the
Society of Merchant Venturers, and Mr. G. E.
Bevan, Mr. Mark IVhitwell, and Mr. Leonard
Bruton, of the Chamber of Commerce, had an
interview on Friday last with Mr. Campbell, Chair-
man of the Great Eastern Company, and Messrs.
H. F. Berkeley, M.P., and Magnus, directors.
It was stated that a sub-committee, called the Har-
bour Committee, consisting. of Messrs. Berkeley,
Magnus. and Cargill, has been appointed for the
purpose of receiving information and investigating
the respective advantages and facilities offered by
the different principal ports for the accommodation
of the Great Eastern. At this interview the chair-
man particularly wished the deputation to under-
stand that the directors deprecated the idea of en-
couraging the notion which had got abroad that the
Great Eastern was to be taken from port to port
for the purposes of exhibition. They had been
labouring fcr seven years to prove her success as a
commercial undertaking, and it they had wished
merely to make an exhibition of the Great Eastern
she might have been kept moored in the Thames,
where they might have netted £60,000 by her with-
out trouble and almost without expense. In taking
the Great Eastern to Portland, the directors had con-
sidered, under all circumstances, that that place was
the most convenient for the arrangements which
had to be made ; and on her removal to Holyhead they
had viewed that port as the most direct for a
voyage to Portland, United States, and had not sent
the Great Eastern there with any idea of her being
made an exhibition. They had, perhaps, been too
anxious to get her to sea, and to that anxiety the
present delay might possibly be attributed. The
consequence was that, after due inquiry, the com-
pany found that the Great Eastern was not now fit
to go to sea, and they also found that Holyhead was
not conveniently situated for making the necessary
alterations. The people of Southampton, who
possessed great facilities, had liberally offered
to afford them to the company, and the intention
now was to remove the Great Eastern to
Southampton, and when she was ready for sea to
send her on a trip in the Mediterranean. The
question of the port to which she would return
would depend entirely upon the resnit of inquiries
as to their relative advantages in the meantime.
From the fait of the number of shareholders
in Bristol and that district, and the exceedingly
favourable report which had been ni de of the
accommodation which could be provided at that
port, the chairman assured the deputation that the
Board would be most happy to take the Great
Eastern to Bristol on her first return vo3 age, if, in
the meantime, they received satisfactory evidence
that Bristol could offer a harbour where she could
go with safety, and where she would find those
facilities which such a vessel would require. In
reference to this subject, Mr. Bruton, Secretary of
the British Chamber of Commerce received the fol-
lowing letter on Saturday :
" The Great Ship Company (Limited), 11, King
William-street, London, E.C., Oct. 21.

"Sir,—You will be pleased to inform the Kia.yor
that the Harbour Committee of this company are
ready to receive and consider the request made
on behalf of Bristol, if you will give them all the
official information in your power as to the capabili-
ties and conveniences of your port to receive the
Great Eastern, so as to enable the Chairman to
reply to the letter of his Worship, a copy of which
I shall be happo to receive with other documents.
"I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" J. H. YATES, Secrerary.
" To Leonard Bruton, Esq., Chamber of Commerce,
• Commercial Rooms, Bristol."
Steps are being taken by joint sub-committees of
the Docks Committee, of the Town Council, the
Society of Merchant Venturers, and the Bristol
Chamber of Commerce, for supplying the desired
information. It was stated by the deputation, in
reply to the observations of Mr. Campbell at the
above interview, that their immediate object in
making the application was not to ascertain whether
the Great Eastern would make a temporary visit
to Bristol, but whether she was likely to make it
the permanent port of arrival and departure. Ex-
tensive improvements were now in contemplation
at the mouth of the river far the accommodation of
ocean steamers, and it would be material
to ascertain whether this extension should
embrace capacity for affording dry-dcck room and
other facilities to the Great Eastern if she sailed
permanently from this port. Mr. Campbell stated
that no decision could be arrived at until the faci-
lities offered by all the principal ports in the king-
dom had been duly weighed and determined, but
that the claims of Bristol should be entertained in '
an impartial spirit. The Bristol people are san-
guine that their port will become the ultimate des-
tination of the Great Eastern, the ground of their
hopes being the superior anchorage of Kingtoad,
and the proximity to the coal fields, by which it
asserted that a saving equal to 10s. per ton might
be effected on the enormous consumption of the
Great Eastern.