Star.
London, England, 1824-11-11 00:00:00

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itr. 01;9 Vs.
, .
r the following description of this vessel is, is 'our
leaders will perceive, by a Nautical Gentleman i—This
vaunted Colossus of the beep is at length accessible
to the investigation of the ctarrousiihowever timid-they
say be, and the ldvers or sight-seeing may gratify their
whim and fantasy without encountering a heavy sea, a
fearful lee-shore, or bide water banyan days. Thanks
to branch pilots, steakta-boats, warps, and the capstans
the Columbus is now off Folly House, in Blackwell
leach, where she is likely to be easy in her berth with-
out moorings or even a kedge. Her arrival has excited
so much interest and conversation, that though we have
already given her dimensions, the nature and quantity
Of her cargo, and some account of her appearance, and
low she behaved at sea, we are induced to recur to
the subject, and speak from " ocular demonstration."
:..-The Columbus is extremely deceitful in her appear-
ance, especially whekshe is seen end nn; she scarcely
looks half her site. She is like a wedge forward, has
rro cutwarer, is w all-sided, carries her beam, we should
imagine, to abaft the second mainmast, for she has four
masts, and has a square tuck. Her run is very gradual,
and from her length she looks extremely lean. From
deck to keel, we believe, she measures, about 35 feet,
and as she draws above 22 feet, she sits low in the water.
A tolerable sized light West Indiaman, or a 38-gun
frigate in cruising trim, appear almost as lofty in the
hull when you are alongside. At a broadside view
from a distance the Columbus looks a tremendous
length, and though seemingly hog'd or broken-backed,
and very much under rigged,there is something sneaking
and dangerous in her skew. As you approach her, how-
ever, she looks as she is—an immense mass of timber
knocked together for the purposes of commerce,without
any regard to beauty, and little attention to the prin.
pies of naval architecture. She has two sets of beams, the
upper ones which sustain the deck, project through
the sides. She has also an inner frame, for the
better security of the cargo—to prevent any starting of
the timber. Her blocks were laid in October, 1823;
she is perfectly fiat bottomed; and her shell was com-
pletely built before a plank of her cargo was stowed.
Previous to her being launched, however, 4000 tons of
timber were run on board by horses, through the bow
and stern ports, and she drew about 13 feet when she
first sat on the water. Unlike large ships, her galley
and bitts are above deck; and between the foremast
and the first mainmast there is a fore hatchway, and a
cable tier and messing place for part of the crew, which
look like a rude gap made in her cargo after it had
been stowed. The -height from the timber on which
the cable is coiled, and where the men have two or
three berths, is about six feet; so that there must be
even there about thirty feet deep of timber. But from
the first mainmast to the second, the cargo runs from
deck to kelson. And haft the latter mast, close to the
wheel and wizen or treysail mast, where the binnacles
sand, is a place built for the accommodation of the
Dificers and the rest of the crew. The provisions, we
believe, are stowed abaft the treysail mast. Her rudder
is hung like that of any other ship, but its head comes
above the taffraikand the is above deck.

A great deal of the timber she has on board was, we
understand, fresh hewn—it now looks extremely wet—
it is principally red pine, and, like most Canadian
timber, it runs large and long. The rigging of the
Columbus was naturally a minor consideration with I
her owners, and though it has answered the purposes for
which it was intended, it presents nothing worthy of
commendation to the eye of a seaman, and nothing
striking to that of a landsman. The masts are ill pro-
portioned for beauty, and injudiciously so as far as the
labour of the crew is concerned. The lower masts are
too taunt—there is-too much of them above deck,
and this necessarily gives the courses a tremendous
drop. One of the crew, an intelligent sailor-like
man, said the fore-sail had fifty feet leech. The bow-
sprit and jib-boom are but one spar; they steeve
little, and the hoist of the jibs is consequently great.
—The topmasts and top-gallant masts are also in one.l
They are exceedingly short, and a royal can only be set
on one of the mainmasts. She is not more square-i igged
than she is taunt ; her fore-yard does not measure above
70 feet. The only studding sails she cart ied were top-
mast ones on the first mainmast. Her topmast rigging
is rove through holes in the cross trees, and is set up
with lanyards to a grummet round the lower mast.—
There ate, therefore, no cat.harpings ; and the rest of
the rigging is of the same temporary speculative descrip-
tion. Her hemp cable measures 26 in. in circumference,
and the chain is in proportion. She crossed the Atlantic
with a single bower anchor, and a kedge of about seven
cwt. It is said she worked easily and surely ; that she was
perfectly under the government of her rudder ; that the
was in general steered pith facility by a man and a
boy ; that she went from nine to ten knots or miles an
hour when sailing free, and that at six points and a
half from the wind she went six knots, and made but
little lee-way. In a sea-way she was of course heavy,
and shipped much water, as she could not rise, from
her great length and want of beam. In fact she could
have been but as a log of wood in a short chopping
sea, one of which might have broken over her mid-
ships almost without anybody forward or aft knowing
of the circumstance. We are, however, rather sceptical
as to whether we should conclude that she is actually
possessed of all the good qualities attributed to her.
We cannot believe that she ever sailed at six points and
a half, or at even seven points from the wind, or that
she ever went nine or ten miles aq hour. We do not
think that a square-sail in her would stand at six points
and a half, and she has no buttock for running. On
the whole, however, she is an extraordinary piece of
workmanship, and thoagh vastly inferior to a first,
second, third, or fotlrth-t ate man of war in beauty and
capacity, the Columbus is well worth visiting. We
think, however, that a bear and stbab, if not a holy storte,l
would improve the appearance of the deck extremely.
We may also mention that some of . the visitors are
even more curious and amusing than the sight of the
vessel. One of them, we suppose from its being the
hunting season, sported his boots and spurs,' and in-
finitely diverted some of the crew. He evidently had
ieatcl that there were such things on board of every
ship as horse:, bridles, stirrups and martingales, and
that the Columbus was a complete forest, for be asked
most anxiously what live animals they had on board ?
aid was much chagrined on learning that they had only
one fox and a cat, both of which had stowed themselves
away. His astonishment however was indescribable
when he heard one of the crew speak tolerable English—
" Damn it," he exclaimed, " how odd; they speak
our language. Why, where did you learn English
He then proceeded to interrogate the sailors as to where
they oame from? &c. audit palpably required the exer-
cise of all his faith in man to believe that this was not
their first trip from the Antipodes. Another visitor, a

stout gestleinan, who lookect of tbo comfortable a ro-
tundity and unruffled a temper, ever to have existed on
,salt Junk, on being informed that the ship's pnmps and
pump-well, which are on the starboard side of the Co-
lumbus, were a midships in all other ships, begin to
commiserate the fate of the unhappy midshipmen, whom
he concluded were condemned to serve six years in
such 'a hole of bilge water and foul vapours.

MR. GREEN'S AERIAL ASCENT FROM

CHICHESTFII
--asw—_

CHSCIIESTEIL, TUMMY EVEIMIG, Nov. IL
This afternoon Mr. Green ,made his twenty-fifth
aerial ascent, from the gas-vall ks, Southgate, in pre-
sence of an immense crowd of spectators. At two o'clock
the aerostatic machine was completely filled, aid every
thing being ready to cleave the airy sky, Mr. Green, in
order to afford every person an opportunity of seeing
him ascend, delayed it till six minutes before three
o'clock ; when the signal-gun was fired, the stupendous
machine was let loose, with its einerprisinf master in a
car below, the Sussex Militia Band playing GOD save
the King: it ascended steadily for a short space, and
then soon began to make rapid way to the North Gate,
till, getting above the current of the air, when about due
east it appeared stationary; it then approached a long
ridge of clouds, and for about two minutes and a half
was obscured from the view; this was the only time it
was lost sight of for nearly three quarters of an hour,
till it wholly disappeared. At ten o'clock at night, Mr.
Green arrived in a chaise and four, when he stated
that he made a safe descent in a field at Henfield.