The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-13 00:00:00

WHALERS.

French, 6, measuring 2,371 tons, with crews of 183
men, and laden with 10,200 barrels of oil, estimated at
106,040 dollars.

American, 59, measuring 19,556 tons, with crews of
1,728 men, laden with 106,200 barrels of oil, wort
1,567,800 dollars.

English, 2, measuring 580 tons, with crews of 57 men,
laden with 1,800 barrels of oil, worth 25,000 dollars.
Total, 67, measuring 22,517 tons, with crews of 1,968
men, laden with 118,200 barrels of oil, to the value of
1,698,940 dollars.

MERCHANTMEN.
French, freighted by merchants, 3, measuring 667 tons,
with crews of 42 MC% ; value of the cargoes, 360,000 f.
Vessels, freighted by the State, 3, measuring 1,220
tons, and with 55 men.
American, 3, measuring 840 tons, and with 39 men ;
value of the cargoes, 293,000 piastres.
English, 8, measuring 975 tons, and with 80 men ;
value of the cargoes, 176,000 dollars.
Danish, 1, measuring 77 tons, and with 9 men ; value
of the cargo, 16,000 dollars.
Hamburgh, 1, measuring 127 tons, and with 9 men ;
value of the cargo, 18,000 dollars.
Total, 19, measuring 3,906 tons, and with 234 men.

COASTERS.
12 vessels, measuring 302 tons, and with 61 men.

The Hull and Gateshead papers give encouraging
ac'ounts of the prosperity of the shipping interest.
EXPERIMENTS IN WOOLWICH MARSHES, SEPT. 12.
—Lieut.-Col. Dansey, C. 8., and Lieut.-Col. Chalmer,
with a detachment of the Royal Artillery under the
command of Capt. llennis, assembled in the marshes, at
half-past one o'clock, P.M., to carry on experiments with
Mr. Marsh's concussion shells. There were fifteen shells
fired on this occasion, five of them 68-pounders, and ten
32-pounders. Two of the 32-pounders burst on entering
the bulkhead, six in the mound immediately after passing
through the bulkhead ; one exploded at from 40 to 50
feet high, having taken an upward direction after striking
the base of the mound, and one did not burst, having en-
tered the mound to a considerable depth. The first 68-
pounder shell went through the bulkhead, and burst im-
mediately after, in the mound ; the second burst in the
bulkhead; the third burst in the bulkhead; the fourth did
not burst, having entered the mound without touching the
bulkhead ; and the fifth burst with tremendous effect in
the bulkhead, tearing to pieces the iron bolts, three-
quarters of an inch square, which held the timbers to-
gether, and throwing forward two feet six inches at one
end of the bulkhead, and six inches at the other end,
seven strong pieces of oak made to represent the side of
a ship, each piece twelve inches square and thirty feet
long. The range was peculiarly favourable for practice;
the experiments did not occupy above three-quarters of
an hour, and the loading and firing less than twenty
minutes of that period; but the destruction was awful,
and greater than any. we have ever witnessed, show-
ing that it would be impossible for ships to resist the
destructive power of these missiles. The experiments
were made to ascertain if Mr. Marsh's invention of at-
taching caps with marine glue would carry a long range
of 800 yards, and proved that they could be made avail-
able for any distance with certainty of effect, and no
danger to those using them.
Among the numerous English travellers who are
now passing through Paris, led towards Madrid by the
comparatively quiet state of Spain, is Mr. C. Cochrane,
the gentleman whom our readers may recollect as having
performed some years ago the chivalrous undertaking of
making a tour through England with hi§guitar in guise
of a Spanish minstrel, the proceeds of which he handed
over to the fund for the relief of the Spanish refugees,
at that time raising in London. For this handsome gift,
amounting to 60/., Mr. Cochrane received a letter of
kindly acknowledgments from her Majesty the Queen
Regent on behalf of her exiled subjects.—Galignani.
THE CLERKENWELL IMPROVEMENTS.—Yesterday
twenty more houses adjoining the area from which fifty
houses have been removed above West-street, Smithfield,
and which are to be taken down to make way for the
new street from Farringdon-street to the Sessions-house,
Clerkenwell, will be sold by auction, by order of the
Clerkenwell Improvement Commissioners. The street
will be about 1,450 feet in length (leading from West-
street to the back of the Sessions-house, Clerkenwell-
green), about 60 feet in width, and the houses on either
side will have a depth of about 50 feet.
ROYAL ARSENAL, WOOLWICII.—Within the last
fortnight, a number of hands, to the extent of about
twenty blacksmiths and a similar number of men for the
carriage and the laboratory departments, have been en-
gaged to work from four to six months certain, to com-
plete the works in progress for rendering the vessels of
war, and war steamers, and works at the outports in a
perfect and efficient state, according to instructions
emanating from the Lords Commissieners of the Admi-
ralty, and several workmen in these departments are
still required to complete the order within a limited
time. A report prevailed at the latter end of last week
that the nineteen brass howitzers said to be missing, had
been recast without being entered ; but a printed bill,
subsequently issued, offering a reward of 1001. for in-
formation leading to the detection of the parties guilty
of breaking them up or abstracting them from the
Royal Arsenal, must remove any impression that they
were recast for Government purposes without being
entered on any of the books of the departments. The
nineteen howitzers of 21 cwt. of brass or gun metal are
not the only articles unaccounted for, as four Coehorns,
a species of ordnance of the same kind of metal, and
weighinweighingcwt each, were abstracted from the wharf
of the Royal Arsenal some time ago, and although
every search and inquiry was made relative to them, no
information could ever be obtained to lead to their
restoration, or the detection of the parties who must
have removed them, whether for an innocent or felonious
purpose.

PERILOUS ADVENTURE. -On Saturday morning
Last, a party of twelve individals, two of whom were

women with children, set out from this harbour in a

small boat, for the Lady Isle, where they intended to
wind up the festivities of the race-week with a pic-nic
on that fine little island. Here, according to their own
account, they spent the day so pleasantly, that the shades
of evening were within an hour or so of closing around
them before they thought of steering their course home-
I wards. Having ultimately left the island, the fog be-
i came so dense before they had proceeded any distance,
that they lost all knowledge of their track ; and, after
trying in vain to make the shore, they eventually gave
themselves up to the mercy of the wind and waves. After
beating about for several hours, in a state almost bor-
dering on distraction, they caught' a glimpse of Pladda
Lighthouse, which they succeeded in making after a
good deal of exertion. They were most hospitably en
tertained by the keepers ' • and as the wind was unfit-
' vourable during the whole of Sunday, they were obliged
to remain there till Monday morning, when they set sail,
and reached this about mid-day. Their non-arrival on
Saturday night created great sensation ; and a boat was
dispatched to the Lady Isle on Sunday in search of
them ; but as it returned without having learned any-
thing whatever about them, the anxiety of their friends
and relations became most intense. Indeed, before their
all hope of seeing them alive was en-
tirelyarriN
given tup ; and when it
.at lengsh became known
that a likelbyoeasterday'
that in which they set out was observed
in the bay, the crowd that collected along the quay to
witness their arrival was immense.—Ayr Observer.