The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-04 00:00:00

THE BItAGANZA STEAMER.

We have received from the Directors of the Peninsu-
lar and Oriental Steam Navigation Company a counter
statement to the letter which was recently published in
The Sun by some passengers in this vessel when she was
forced back to Falmouth.
This document is in the form of a letter from the Se-
cretary of the Company; the following facts, extracted
from it, will sufficiently answer the object in view:-
1. It is stated that previously to the publication of the
passengers' statement, some of those whose names appear
to it had made claims on the Company, accompanied by
threats of publication, under the head of tavern expenses,
&c., which, being altogether unusual under such circum-
stances, the Directors refused to accede to.
2. That the boilers of the Braganza were not defec-
tive; that they had only been in use 18 months (the
average duration of boilers being four years); that the
accident was occasioned by tho breaking of some of the
stays which secure the boilers, and, was caused by the
violent pitching of the vessel in the heavy gale which
she encountered; that the boilers are now being secured,
and the vessel will be in an efficient state for service in
the course of a few days.
To refute the statement of the deficiency of the boilers,
official Reports and certificates of the Surveyors of the
Admiralty, and of the engineers and Marine Superin-
tendant of the Company are given. And ire contradiction
of the assertion that this Company were in the habit of
sending to sea vessels " wholly unfit," and that "an effi-
cient con trol over the proceedings of this Company" is want-
ing. a clause in the Company', contract with the Govern-
ment is quoted, to the following effect :
And that the said Commissioners shall also have full
power, whenever, and as often as they may deem it re-
te, to survey, by any other of their officers or agents,
ail and every the vessels employed, and to be employed
in the performance of this contract, and the hull thereof',
the engines, machinery, furnicure, tackle, apparel, stores,
and equipment of every vessel, the said vessels to be
opened in their hulls, whenever the said offieers may re-
quire." •

The Secretary then proceeds with his statment, as
follows :

No vessel can be, or ever has begin, placed in this ser-
vice, even for a temporary period, without having been
previously submitted to the examination of the Admi-
ralty surveyors, and approved of by the Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty. In lamenting, therefore, the
want of " an efficient control over the proceedings of this
and other Companies,"it is tolerably clear that these pas-
sengers were offering an opinion on a matter of which
they knew very little ; and that this control, combined,
perhaps, with the very obvious motives which the Direc-
tors of the establishment have for maintaining the repu-
tation of its vessels in the public estimation, has not been
ineflictual in guaranteeing both the regular performance
of the mail service and the " personal security" of pas-
sengers, the two following facts will, I have no doubt,
convince every unprejudiced mind :
The. vessels of this Company have been employed
four years and three months in carrying on the mail
service between England and the Peninsula. They
have had to start punctually on a certain day every
week, and in all seasons of the year, and have to
make their passages, both going and coming, across
the Bay of Biscay, so long noted hitherto for
its dangers. They have, during this period, which in-
cludes five winter seasons, made 444 passages, forming
a total of near 700,000 miles. Out of these 444 passages
there have only six instances occurred in which the ves-
sels put back ' • two of them were in consequence of hull
damage, and four from damage to machinery, and none
of them were productive of any injury further than the
interruption ofa week in the regular course of the mails.
This is my first fact. The second is, that since the foun •
dation of this establishment as the " London and Dub-
lin Steam Company," which subsequently extended it-
self into the " Peninsular Company," in 1837, and since
September, 1840, has been incorporated as the " Penin-
sular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company" for ex-
tending steam communication to the East Indies, the
original proprietors continuing still to be the largest
holders of its stock, and retaining a full share in its di-
rection, upwards of 200,000 passengers have been con-
veyed in their steam•vessels without the loss of a single
or causing a personal injury of any kind by acci-
dent. Can any land conveyance produce a parallel to
this ? The two cases of the Wilberforce and Itoyt.l

Tar, to which these gentlemen refer with an apparent air
of triumph, may be very shortly disposed of.
The Wilberforce, a vessel approved by the Admiralty,
encountered last winter a tremendous gale Of wind on
her outward passage, and was in consequence thereof;
together with an attempt of the Commander to succour a
vessel in distress, detained at Vigo for repairs, and was
therefore a week longer in arriving at Lisbon, but whence
she took home in regular course the return mail. The
Royal Tar, in her last homeward passage, having also
sustained the violenee of the heavy gales which have
lately been so prevalent, both on her outward and home-
ward passages, sprang a leak, but of so unimportant a
nature that only two passengers and the Admiralty agent
on board, beside the Commander and officers,•were cog-
nizant of it ; she brought the mails in regular course.
The story of the passengers baling out the water with
their hats is really too ridiculous for grave notice. The
Royal Tar is nearly 800 tons burden, and her depth of
hold being 18 feet 4 inches, it would require each
hatful of water to be brought up a 19 feet ladder to
reach the deck, thence to be carried to the ship's side fbr
ejection, and to descend again by the same lengthy
process for repletion. It has been reported that an " old
sailor," at Falmouth, stated this by way of " hoax." I
do not know that such was the fact, but I mention it
from its probability in accounting for so absurd a state-
ment, and in extenuation of it, although-this, and the
mixture of hardihood and ignorance evinced by the
assertion that the vessel was going fire knots an hour,
against a head gale, with only seven revolutions a minute,
together with the repeated reference to the working of
the pumps, and which was merely to put water into the
boiler, scarcely admits of an excuse.
This Company, so far from having shrunk from the
due execution of their snail contract, which was obtained
by them in the face of a public competition, have actu-
al-1y furnished vessels of an aggregate power of 500 horses
over and above what their contract requires—five vessels
of 140 horse power each, in all 700 horses, whereas the
power of the vessels employed amounts to 1,200 horses.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
JAMES ALLAN, Secretary.
Peninsular and Oriental Steam-Navigation_Dec._Company's.
offices, No. 51, St. Mary-axe, London, 23.

------
A CASE OF DISTRESS.—I visited a distressed
family the other night, brought to destitution through
the man being out of employment. As in many otaer
cases, the bailiffs had taken all they had. They mere
living in a damp cellar 'with a large collection of stagnant
water at the dour. There was the man, his wife, and
three children; but one stool was their only furniture; a
few crusts of bread, which the woman had begged, their
only stock of food; and two bundles of straw on the floor,
without a shred of a sheet, blanket, or cover, was the only
bed for the night.—The Struggle, a spirited little Anti,
Corn-law paper publishe4 at rre4tOnt