The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-15 00:00:00

THE NEW YORK " LINERS"

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY.—Two marine disasters have
been announced this morning, in both instances in re-
ference to members of the magnificent New York
liners. The following are the details :
Shortly after eleven o'clock this morning, the
packet-ship Guy Mannering, Captain Edwards, in
leaving the Princes-dock, for the purpose of proceed-
ing to New York, grounded astern on the north edge
of the dock gut, near the outer gates. Captain
E a-
wards had the water in the casks started, and every-
thing removed to lighten the ship, but although four
steamers were made fast and tugged at her till the
tide began to recede, she remained firmly fixed. The
position in which she lies is a very dangerous one, the
after part of the ship resting on the stone edge of
the gut, which is about three feet above the
level of the = basin, and the fore part in the
basin, thus leaving the waist, or centre of
the ship, wholly without support. The Guy
M mnering is full of merchandise, and had a
large number of passengers on board. her draught
of water aft was stated to be 21 feet, while the depth
of water on the dock-sill was marked at over 22 feet,
but it is supposed that the strong south-east wind has
in some degree prevented the tide flowing to its esti-
mated height.
The following letter announces the loss of the
packet-ship Hottinguer

" Wexford, Jan. 12.
" The ship llottinguer, Captain Burnley, from Li-
verpool to New York, got on Blackwater Bank this
morning, at six o'clock. Part of the crew have landed
at Morriscastle. Vessel expected to be a total wreck
Crew saved.

" Wexford, Jan. 11.
" The lugger Adilli, Borgot, master, from Nantes
to Liverpool, came on shore last night, about ton
miles south of this place, and went to pieces. Four
of the crew lost; the master and two others lost.

Cargo, wheat and flour. A part of the latter saved,
but damaBed."

THE LATE LIEUTENAINT WAG-

HORN, R.N.
This gallant officer, whose sudden and melancholy
demise we announced a few days since, was born at
Chatham in the early part of the year 1800. At
twelve years of age he was appointed a midshipman
in her Majesty's navy, and sixteen days before he had
attained seventeen he passed in navigation for lieute-
nant—the youngest midshipman that had ever done
so. At the end of 1817 he was paid off, and went
third mate of a free-trader to Calcutta. Returning
home in 1819, he got appointed to the Bengal marine
(pilot service) of India, where he served till 1824,
when he volunteered for the Arracan war, and re-
ceived the command of the East India Company's
cutter Matchless, and a division of gun-boat.,, in con-
nexion with that army and flotilla. He was five
times engaged, and saw much service by land and by
sen, and was once wounded in the right thigh. He
returned to Calcutta in 1827, having received the
thanks of all the authorities, kith a constitution then
undermined from the baneful f-ver of Arracan, where
s. many thousands 'died. Pestilence reduced the
farces in six months to one-fifth of their original
number; but from the indomitable perseverance that
had marked his course, Lieutenant Waghorn rallied
to the great project he had secretly at heart, namely,
3 steam communication between our eastern
sessions and England. He communicated his plan to
the officials, including the then Chief Secretary to
the Bengal Government, Mr. C. Lusiington, now
M.P. for Westminster, through whom he brought
home letters from Lard Combermere, then Vice-
President in Council (Earl Amherst, Governor-
General, being on a tour in Upper India), for the
East India Company, in London, as a fit and proper
person to open steam navigation with India via the
Cape of Good Hope. On his arrival in England,
Lieutenant Waghorn advocated this object in Lon-
don, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham,
&c., as he had previously done at MadraF, the
Mauritius, the Cape, and Sr. Helena. Bat her Ma-
jesty's Post-office, at that time, was opposed to ocean
steam navigation; and so, unfortunately, were the
East India directors (except Mr. Loch), although
Lieutenant Waghorn proclaimed its usefulness to all
for two years. However, in October, 1829, he was
called on by Lord Ellenborough (President of the
India Board) and Mr. Loch (Chairman of the Court
of Directors) to go to India, through Egypt, with
dispatches for Sir J. Malcolm, Governor of Bombay,
&c. ; and to report upon the practicability of the
Red Sea navigation for the overland route. On
that trip he got to Alexandria in twenty-six days ;
and so rapidly was his journey to Trieste accom-
plished (nine and a half days through five kingdoms)
that an inquiry was then made by the Foreign-office
respecting it. Lieutenant Waghorn'a orders were
to join the Enterprise, first steamer from England to
India, at Suez, on the 6th of December, 1829. Owing
to an accident she did not appear, and as he had im-
portant Government dispatches, Lieutenant Wag-
horn had no resource except to return to England, or
go on in an open boat down the Red Sea. He pre-
ferred the latter as a matter of duty, and sailed down
the centre of that sea without chart or compass, the
north star being his guide by night and the sun by
day. Suffice it to say that he arrived at Juddah,
620 miles, in six and a half days, and there first
learned that the Enterprise steamer had broken her
machinery on the way from Bengal to Bombay, and
was not coming. From what Lieutenant Waghorn
observed in this trip, he felt convinced that for every
purpose of interest, politically, morally, and com-
mercially, between England and the East, this was
the route ; and it were a waste of time to say with
what ardour, perseverance, and firmness he worked
it to completion. Lieutenant Waghorn received the
thanks of three quarters of the globe—viz.,
Europe, Asia, and Africa, besides numberless
commendations from mercantile communities at
every point where eastern trade is concerned. Un-
aided (except by the assistance of the Bombay Steam
Committee) he built the eight halting places on the
Desert between Cairo and Suez, the three hotels es-
tablished above them, in which luxuries are provided
and stored for the passing traveller, and rendered that
hitherto waste the wonder of every traveller. When
Lieutenant Waghorn left Egypt in 1841, he had es-
tablished English carriages, vans, and horses, for the
passengers' conveyance across the Desert (instead of
camels), and placed small steamers from England on
the Nile and the canal of Alexandria. The " Over-
land Mails" to and from India for two years (from
1831 to 1834) were worked by himself; and he
summed up his labours by carrying letters to Eng-
land from Bombay in 47 days in February, 1834,
without any steam from Alexandria to Landon. In
1847 Lieutenant Waghorn showed that England pos-
sessed another way to India as well as the route
through France, the Gallant officer having in the
winter of that year effected a saving of thirteen day s
in the journey via Trieste. He, moreover, explored
a mail route through the Papal States, via Ancona,
between England and India; and another route by
way of Gmos. Each of these routes is now open
(Trieste, Genoa, or Ancona) for such purpose when-
ever Government may think proper to order mails to
and fro between England and India by either. The
remains of the gallant officer were privately in-
terred yesterday at Snodlands, near Rochester.