The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-22 00:00:00

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• HOLYHEAD BARB T 4.4
Netwithstandiag the discouragin ererect s ties
weather, the Great Eastern appears Bar' to excite
the interest of the public on this side of England.
Daily thousands of excursionists flock to this most
unfinished portion of the creation—the Island of
Holyhead—en route to the Big Ship. The weather,
up to within the last few days. has been extreme:y
fine ; in fact, there have occasionally been days
on which the heat of the sun was too great
to be pleasant, and thus far sightseers
have had a far more favourable opportunity of
inspecting the vessel than they could have reason-
ably expected at this time of the year. Since yes-
terdey, however, a change has come over the face
ofthe elements, and snow, wind, and-hail have be-
come the order of the day.
The whole of Yesterday morning the barometer
fell considerably, and the freshening breeze bee ime
suspiciously chilly, and towards the afternoon the
darkening sky seemed to forbode an " ugly night."
About five o'clock some heavy squalle of wind and
rain, accompanied by a succession of no less heavy
seas, commenced SlNeeping directly into the harbour
from the Irish Channel. As many of our readers
are aware, the harbour of Holyhead is not the safe st
place for a ship to lie in, for it is full of rocks, and
with the wind-blowing as it did yesterday from the
N.N.W., it becomes an exposed roadstead instead of
a harbour. It was confessedly an injudicious place
to bring the ship to at all, for even in the calmest
weather there is only just room for her to swing
clear of the dock, and the holding ground being of
the very worst possible-description, with a heavy
syind and sea from the N.N.W., not even Trotrnan's
,ssilschers would prevent her stern from getting on
the
shortly after
Thci's'Captain Harrison (who is fully alive
e insecurity of the ship's present posit-ion),
five o'clock ordered the visitors to
he dismissed, the decks to be cleared, and
the steam to- be got up in the two serviceable
boilers belonging to the, paddle engine, and, in
fact everything to be got ready fOr shipping
the cable and going to- sea.. But before this
could be done, the heavy sea which set into
the harbour, caused the landing bulks • alone-
side the vessel to show uatnistakeable symptoms of
breaking away. It was therefore deemed more im-
portant to cast them adrift, and have them towed
to a place of security up the harbour. At about half-
past six, the steam being ready in the padnle-
engines, the fore trysail was set for the purpose of
" canting" the ship's head. more towards the break-
water, which having been accomplished, the paddle-
engines were started, and she steamed slowly ahead,
something more than her own length, and then let
ao anether anchor, with 80 fathoms of cable. After
this the ship rode pretty secure, and there was every
reason to suppose would continue to do so through-
out the night, if the weather ger, no worse. But
nevertheless the steam was kept up in the paddle,
and the fires lighted in the screw engine boilers,
and in fact everything kept in readiness to slip the
cable and stand out to sea at a moment's notice.
This contingency at one time did not sce;n at all an
impossible one, for the weather looked so very sus-
picious that Capt. Harrison never left the bridge all
night. Towards 2 o'clock, as is usually the case, the
I wind inci6aSed considerably, but it got more round
to the north, !Seim which point the harbour is more
sheltered: But before the moraine. the warm but
bracing breeze whieh hail prevailed for some days
was changed into a keen and cutting wind, which
drove before it alternately clouds of hail and half
thawed snow, which it was almost impossible to face.
Throughout this mornie%); there have been some very
heavy falls of snow, which, though thawing as it
comes down in the valleys, has covered the mountains
se:th a thick white crust, which has turned the flue
scenery of the Snowdon district into a most barren
and wintry one. Notwithstanding the bitter cold,
no less than seven or eight special trains,. three
or four special boats, have brought their living
freights of Great Ship visitors to Holyhead from all
parts of the manufacturing districts, but their in-
spection of the ship is, as may be supposed, any-
thing but an agreeable pas idle.
As the public have already been informed, the
directors of the Great Ship_Comnany have come to
the wise decision of not sending their magnificent
ship to encounter the perils of a winter voyage in
the North Atlantic in her present unfinished con-
dition. That this determination is a judicious one
in the interest of the shareholders, no one who has
visited the ship can for a moment doubt. Within
the last few days the ship, by the desire of the di-
rectors, has been most carefully surveyed by Mr.
Joidan, of Liverpool, Mr. Benley, of London, and
Mr. Patterson, of Bristol, the builder of the Great
Britain. This gentleman, after having carefully
visited every portion of the Great Eastern, pre-
sented a report to the directors eto the effect that
the chip was in far too unfinished a state to proceed
on her voyage across the Atlantic.
In the hot weather there is no provision for ven-
tilation, and there is no protection whatever from
the severe cold, which the vessel is sure to en-
counter. The decks are reported to be disgrace-
fully bad, both with respect to material and
workmanship, and, moreover, to be so leaky
as to • let the water into the cabins and
saloons. That these defects exist is no fault of the
company, for they certainly took every preeauti in
to obtain a good contract, and in as far as they
could, to see it properly carried out. However,
within the next few days the vessel will proceed
to Southampton, where, in all probability, she will
be thoroughly completed by the company, under
the direction of the engineers, Mr. Brereton and
Mr. Jocomb, the inresentatives of and the succes-
sors to the late Mr. Brunel.
It is to be hoped that during the run round to
Southampton the directors will allow Captain
Harrison to put his ship through several of the,
trials which the non-compliance of the engineering
contractors put a stop to during the voyage round
to Holyhead.