The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-03 00:00:00

fourteen guns, the boi and stern being long 32-
pounders.

- With so large a forcti I have not commented on
the individual zeal orlallantry of any particular
officer ; there was piety to do for the who!e of
them, and your Excellncy is the best judge of how
they performed their city. I have not contented
myself with enclosing a list of the steam, gun,
boom, and other boas, with the names of the
officers who commandd or served in them ; and I
might venture to remsk that, with such material,
failure would almost &pear to be impossible.
I have not had an oportunity of ascertaining the
amount of injury sustined by all the steam, gun,
and other boats of ay divisions, but the Hung
Kong was hulled eleven or twelve times,
the Plover, Starling, and Haughty gun-boats
were struck, the Calcuta's launch was swamped,
and several others rauh damaged. •
I have the honour t enclose a list of casualties,
which, fortunately, is lot so large as might have
been expected from thi nature of the service.
I have also endeavalted by a rough sketch to
explainy
the second division of the
em
met with our temporary
enatthetphoesittimione o,
w
check.-1 have, drc.,

. -
(Signed) HEM' ly KEPPEL, Commodore.
To His Excellency Rea--Admiral Sir M. Seymour,
ttc-) &C.) 004mander-in-Chief.

THE ATLAN!'IC TELEG.R,iP.Er.

(PEENSTOWN, JULY 30.
The entire squadroe, consisting of five magnifi-
cent ships of war, nowabout to proceed to the con-
summation of this great enterprise are at this time
anchored in the harbsur of Qneenstown. They
consist of the Niagara, Captain Hudson ; the Sus-
quehanna, Capt. Josbta Sands ; the Agamemnon,
Master-Commander IVeddal ; the Cyclops, Captain
Dayman ; and the Leo?ard, Captain Wainwright..
The Agamemnon arrved this morning only, hav-
ing been engaged during the trip from Greenwich
in the very valuable service of testing practically
the form and suitability of the machinery to be
used for paying out the cable.
Mr. Charles Tilston Bright, the engineer-in-chief
of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, having joined
her at that place, she bore away for the Irish coast
at half-past 3 o'clock on Monday morning last.
To Mr. C. T. Bright is committed the entire
control and responsibility of depositing safely in
its ocean bed this wondrous example of the united
power of science and industry.
During the progress of the Agamemnon to the
Downs the mechanical appliances for regulating the
delivery of the cable into the cea were kept con-
tinually in motion by the small engine on board
which is. connected with them ; the sheaves and
gearing. worked with great facility and precision
and so quietly that at a short distance from them
could scarcely be heard.
theirThesottrieonegth
of
the girders which carry the bear-
ing of the entire apparatus, and whi:h to the eye
.of a person unskilled inane practical working of
this description of machinery may seem at first to
-be unduly ponderous, was' found to contribute
greatly to the easy motion and satisfactory steadi-
ness of this most important agent in the success of
the undertaking.-
So soon as the Agammemnon had passed the
track of. the Submarine Company's cable between
Dover and Calais, in order to avoid the possibility
-of its being injured by the laying or hauling up of
another line at right angles to it, the experiments
commenced. A 13-inch shell was attached to the
end of a spare coil of the Atlantic cable, for the
purpose of sinking it rapidly with "a strain upon it
to the bottom, and iwas then cast into the sea,
drawing after it a sufficient quantity of slack to
enable it to take hold of the ground and so set the
machinery in motion.
The paying out. then commenced at the rate of 2,
3, and 4 knots an hour respectively. The ship was
then stopped and the cable was hauled up from the
bottom of the sea with great facility, by connect-
ing the small engine to the driving pinion geared
to the sheaves.
When the end was brought up to the surface it
was found that the shell had broken away from the
loop, by which it had been fast, red for the pur-
pose of lowering it.
The cable, when recovered, was found to hive
been cleaned as bright as the specimens which have
been so freely distributed among the friends of the
enterprise, and which are so generally known.
The exterior coating of tar had bees completely
rubbed off by being drawn through the sandy bot-
tom of the sea, and attached to the iron coating of
the cable were some weeds and several small crabs
which came up with it to the surface.
~ On the following day a length of cablekwas run
out and hauled in with perfect success opposite the
Isle of Wight, attached to an anchor.
The speed way increased in this case to five knots.
During the afternoon of the same day a length
wag run out having fastened to the end of it a log
of timber, and after having been towed with a mile
and-a-half of cable was coiled in again with success.
On Wednesday about half-way between the
Land's End and the coast of Iceland another length
was run out at the rate of o;x and a-half knots rer
hour and subsequeniy hauled in. The Agamem-
non then s'earedfor Cork, and reached Queenstown
Harbour at four o'clock on Thursday morning, all
on board being more than ever satisfied at the
success of the enterprise.
Some highly sucJessful experiments were also at
the same time p?rformed with an electrical log in-
vented by Mr. Charles Bright for the purpose of
whichcontinuously
the
sb ascertaining
sailing,
with accuracy the rata at
and thereby of enabling
him to give corresponding directions as to the r tte
of paying the cable so as to prevent the possibility
of any unnecessary strain being put upon it. The
log is suspended in the Pea from the ship's quarter
by a line, carrying within it a wire insulated by
gutta percha, which is in connexion with a battery
and electro magnet contained within an indicating
instrument on deck. Tbis is so arranged that at
each revolution of the wheel below an electric cur-
rent is broken, and by the deflection of a magnet
which forms part of the circuit a step by step move-
ment is communicated to a register which indicates
the distance run and rate made by the vessel.
The following directors of the company, accom-
panied G. Seward, the secre•ary, have ar-
vived Queenstown to be present at the sailing
opfanthied esaqbt Queuadron :—Mr. T. Brooking, Mr. Sampson,
and
Mr. Pck
Mr.
eTiWeri Brett, of London ; Mr. Croseie
and ng, of Liverpool, and Mr. Logie,
and Professor Thompson, of Glasgow.
The most kindly interest has been evinced for
the success of the undertaking, The chairmen
and directors of the Southern and Western Rail-
way have shown the greetevi alention to the re-
Pr
e-eanl etanttiia.ve s and will accompany them from Cork
to Valencia.