The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-01 00:00:00

THE GREAT EASTERN.

During the first three days of this vessel's recent
voyage to New York she encountered very heavy
weather, the wind blowing from the south-west
with almost the violence of a hurricane and a tre-
mendous beam sea on. To this the Great Eastern
rolled very heavily, so much so as to capsize and
knock about all unsecured tables and chairs below
and break the stays of some of the fore and aft try-
sail booms, which dropped over so much from side
to side with each lurch of the ship that it became
necessary to lower them. This was a work of great
risk and difficulty, and while accomplishing it one
of them fell, smashing the skylights of a saloon and
fractured the boatswain's leg. The gale lasted three
days, and at last rose to such violence that the
course was obliged to be altered and the 'vessel kept
head to wind, at half speed, for 41 hours. While
thus, though the sea was exceedingly heavy, there
was scarcely any motion in the vessel. The rest of
the passage across was through calms and dense
fogs, the whole journey, in spite of the unfavour-
able and thick weather, being accomplished in nine
days 131 hours, one of the shortest ever made.
During the whole run both screw and paddle
engines worked easily and well, the latter averag-
ing a little under 10 and the former about 37 revo-
lutions per minute. The consumption of coals on
the whole voyage was only 1,444 tons, or about 116
tons a-day. The number of knots run during each
day during the 91 days was respectively 208, 332, 342,
335, 340, 215, 325, 350, 300, 270. The greatest run
therefore was gurin g Thursday,the 9th,when the ship
averaged for 24 hours a speed of little more than
142 knots, or very nearly 17 miles an hour. The
lowest run was 215 knots, or just 9 knots an hour.
During the greatest day's run 119 tons of coals
were consumed, and during the slowest 103 tons.
The average pressure of steam in the
throughout was 2111 b. The density of the water
in the boilers was 11 ; the vacuum in paddle
.en-
gines, 25k ; in the screw, 26. All tinwjeeactroirns
worked well, and there was no perceptibleember of the screw shaft bearing. The total number
first to
engines
re-
volutions made by the paddle engines
a thege was considered
is ex.
51 feet,
or diameter of the paddlewheel was
As far the machi-
neryor 160 feet each revolution.
last was 133,000, and of the screw 525,276. The
in the highest degree satisfactory, and it •
taken the run of the Africa,
fair
days. As
is concerned the whole
eathveoryreturn will be
made in little over a comparison
ex-
pected that vvithfael
be
one of the best boats of the Cunard Company. This
vessel left Cork on the afternoon of Sunday, and the
eatGret Eastern passed Cork on the evening of the
to this trip out may
hdy following, yet the Africa only reached
New York on the 10th, and the Great Eastern on
the morning of the 11th, thus beating the Africa
by 21 days, both vessels having met, of course, with
very similar weather. At the weekly meeting of
the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, held on
Thursday, leave was given to lay down moorings
for the purpose of securing the Great Eastern in
the Mersey, where she is expected to arrive at an
early period of next week. The moorings are to
be at New Ferry, and to be arranged to the satis-
faction of the engineer' and also to be removable at
the pleasure of the Board.

Letters from Pais assert that Baron Seebach,
the Saxon Minister to the French Court, has proceeded to
St-. Petersburg, charged by the Credit Mobilier to negotiate
terms on their behalf for the completion of the Russian
railway system. Some persons, however, on the assumption
that it would be anomalous for a diplomatic personage to be
thus employed, fancy that the journey must be for other
purposes.

Baron Adolphe Rothschild, the head of the
Naples house of Messrs. Rothschild, arrived in London
yesterday, and it is inferred that this visit is in connection
with the projected financial operations of the Italian Go-
vernment.