The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-14 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, WEDNESDAT.—We have much plea-
sure in announcing the selection of Captain William
Honyman Henderson, C. 8., K.S.F. (1838), to suc-
ceed Captain Austin, C. 8., in the command of her
Majesty's ship Blenheim, 66, at this port, and the
superintendence of the steam squadron on this station.
Captain Henderson is peculiarly qualified for the above
appointment, having bad considerable experience in
the command of steamers, his last having been the
Sidon frigate. Whilst the officers of the Blenheim
regret the loss of Captain Austin, their regret is tem-
pered with satisfaction at the appointment of such a
successor, whose experience, zeal, urbanity, and hos-
pitality are so well known and properly estimated.
The Sphynx steam-sloop, Commander C. F. N.
Chadwell, is manned within a couple of dozen sea-
men, and will be ready to leiive by the end of the
present month for the East India station, touching at
Rio de Janeiro, to which place she will probably carry
a mail.

Captain Ramsay, late of the Terrible steam-frigate,
is named as likely to have the command of the Ajar
block •ship, now ready for commission.
This coast has been visited lately by some boistrous
gales, which only abated last night. Many ships have
been driven in here in distress, among them the Dutch
ship Immagonda, with a valuable cargo ; a large
French merchant ship with loss of anchors, having
dragged from Spithead nearly to the Woolsners, a
fatal shoal.off Langston harbour. Lloyd's own ves-
sel, the Navarin, was driven ashore on Southern-
beach, but happily without loss of life, and was ulti-
mately got off without much damagebelow. These
are only a few of the casualties that hare occurred
from the tempestuous state of the weather. Her Ma-
jesty's ship Hercules, 72, Master-Commander Fulton,
was the only vessel off this port that held on without
drifting, which is owing to her anchor
draggingbeing
a patent
on e.

APPOINTMENTS.
WOOLWICII, FEE. 13.---Captain William H. Hen-
derson, C.B. (1838), to the Blenheim, 56, steam
guard-ship, at Portsmouth, Tice Captain Horatio T.
Austin, C. 8., appointed to command an expedition to
the Arctic regions.

Assistant-Surgeons George Gordon (1846) and
Edward W. Pritchard (1846) to the Asia, 84, flag-
ship of Rear-Admiral Phipps Llornby, C. 8., on the
Pacific station.
Midshipman W. B. Edwards to the Sphynx steam-
sloop, at Portsmouth.

PROMOTIONs.
Mate the Hon. H. A. Moreton (1849), at present
serving in the'Vixen, 6, steam-sloop, on the North
America and West Indies station, to be Lieutenant.
Mate Gwinniett Tyler (1849), at present serving
in th
e Sc
nan Scourge steam-sloop, •on particular service, to
be Lit.
William Moyse to be Acting Carpenter.
John Robertson to be Boatswain.

COAST GUARD.
Lieutenant John H. n
—rang (1840) has been ap-
pointed to serve in the Coast Guard.

THE NORTH- WEST RESUMED SEARCH.
GUTTA PERCII BOATS.
There have been so many jimcraok and flying..
kite inventions (some of them, indeed, more ingenious
tban useful) offered and submitted to the Admiralty
to be employed on board the ships sent out to search
for Sir John Franklin, that we are loth to add
another that may perhaps be also considered in the
same light.

However, we are so much impelled with the notion
that gutta percha boats might be used in the forthcom-
ing expedition with great advantage and utility, that
we cannot help earnestly calling the attention of Capt.
Austin to this matter. A
gutta percha boat appears
to us to possess every desirable qualification for use in
the northern regions, The most intense cold and
frost renders gutta percha so firm and tough that it
will withstand the hardest usage (fire excepted).
Nothing injures it. It possesses great buoyancy,
comparatively with a common boat would be exceed-
ingly light It is impervious to water and damp—is
quickly dried after being wet. It is not liable to
k
crack or break; and should any accident occur to
it, it is easily repaired by a solution of its own
substance prepared
tibywouhledat.
lightness. its
Portages might easily
be invaluableln bro brokenm
ice
boat of this d
be made by carry-
ing this boat over the ice from one open stream of
water to another. When a common boat would be
nipped or crushed by a pressure of ice, this boat
might be lifted and saved. A blow from a floating
piece of ice, that would stave in and destroy a com-
mon boat, would only make the gutta percha boat re-
bound.

Had Sir James Ross possessed boats of this de-
scription, and placed them on light runners or sledges,
his exploration parties would have been able to have
proceeded as far again as they did, and his men would
not have suffered so much from fatigue as they did,
as they would have had much lighter weights to have
dragged over the rough ice and snow. From the
above considerations we have no hesitation in endea-
vouring to draw Captain Austin's attention to the
services that might be derived from the use of a few
gutta percha boats in his north-west expedition.
We hear that the vessels to be used on this oes
casion are to be purchased vessels, and not men-of-
war, and that they are now being selected. One,
however, will not he a searching vessel, but will remain
at some safe port in Baffin's Bay, to be pointed
out by Captain Austin, where she will remain a,
a refuge vessel, in case any accident happening to
the searching vessels that the crews in their boats
may have a refuge to fall back upon: Had a third
vessel accompanied Sir John Franklin in his voyage
to the north-west, we should in all probability have
known in what direction to have searched for his
missing ships, and not betn in our present predica-
ment, groping in the dark.
We have great faith in Captain Austin's energy
ald exptrience. We believe he has been actively em-
ployed at sea for 32 years, and has always served
with great ability. We hope he will not be fettered
with .qualified or unqualified Admiralty orders.
Livwever well meant, they frequently hamper and