The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-16 00:00:00

THE PRESIDENT STEAM.SHIP

Although we have yet no intelligence of the President, we
by no means despair of her safety. It is admitted on all
bands that she was faithfully constructed, and of the best
materials ; and her captain and officers men of talent and
experience; and we cannot but entertain a strong hope that
she will yet make her appearance. Numerous have been the
speculations put forth respecting her, and we have ourselves
suggested some probabilities, which have been caught up by
our contemporaries in the metropolis, as well as in the pro-
vinces. Fayal, Madeira, and laterally the Bermudas, have
been pointed out as points to the southward, to one or two
of which she might have borne up, after a breakage in her
machinery or steering gear, or any other casualty that might
have befallen her, during gales that prevailed on the western
side of the Atlantic, soon after her departure from New York.
We must in candour state that had she reached either of the
first-named places, we should in all probability have learned
the tact before now, the wind having prevailed from the
westward, and vessels thence being in frequent transit to
this island, and to ports on the European continent. With
respect to Bermudas, which is in about the same latitude as
Madeira, (36 deg.) we think it improbable that she would
make, or endeavour to make, that cluster of small islands,
inasmuch as it is much further west than Fayal or Madeira,
and, with the prevailing west winds, (supposing them to
have been met with,) after she had made a considerable
offing from New York, St. George's would have been
a precarious, because somewhat of a windward port.—
We must now look at a brighter side of the question.
—We yesterday conversed with a nautical gentleman,
well versed in ocean steam navigation, and who has
sailed in an official capacity in the President, and he
has it from good authority, that Captain Roberts had stated
to a brother captain, that in his homeward voyage he would
take the northerly or direct course, in the assurance that he
would not be at so early a period of the season interrupted by
the ice. It has, however, occurred that the ice in the north
sea, has broken up this spring earlier than usual ; and he
thinks it likely, particularly as the British Queen has
thereby been disabled and obliged to put into Halifax, that
the President had encountered bodies of ice, which damaged
her paddle-wheels and boxes. Captain Roberts would then
be thrown upon his sails, and if the sea were heavy she
might, from rolling, have lost one or more of her spars,
which she could not readily replace even by a jury mast. In
such a case she might tumble about amongst the ice, almost
helpless for a considerable number of days before she could
extricate herself, and that, too, without actual danger to
those on board, and without meeting with any vessel that
could convey to us any knowledge of her temporary predica-
ment. The same argument would hold true if she had car-
ried away her rudder. Moreover, as we feel bound to notice
every incident which may allay the public anxiety, we extract
the following from the Dublin Evdning Mail of Wednesday,
and hope that the inference which is drawn by our contem-
porary may prove tole correct : -