The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-16 00:00:00

sinus; and, after remaining th

days at that anchOra

to proceed to join Rear-Adiniral Dundas, the commander-
in-chief of her Majesty's ships and vessels in the Mediter-
ranean, off Cape de Gatte, and remain under his orders for
three weeks, for the purpose of being exercised at various
evolutions with his squadron. Captain Robertson is espe-

cially ordered

shell may have on the machinery, and to -try the four

steam-vessels on every point of sailin

HUNTER'S PATENT ANCHOR.—The form of the palm is
nething like an inverted plough, the concavity being in

front ; so that when the ship draws upon the anchor, it is
more inclined to penetrate deeper, than to be drawn
through the ground parallel to the surface. But the
chief feature is the stock. Until very recently, the stock
has only answered the purpose of " canting,' or placing

-
anchor in a position for entering the ground. Now,
as the stock lies at right angles to the line of traction, it
seems evident that it might be adapted to the purpose of
holding ; but the great difficulty in effecting this object,
arises from the inability to construct anything at this part
of the anchor that would not foul the cable, and, also, not
have the very great disadvantage of increasing the weight.
This the patentee expects that he has accomplished by
making the stock of iron plates, hollow, convex next the
arms, and concave on the other side; so that it acts like a
short arm, extending from one side of the stock to the
other, and thus becoming a most efficient and powerful
auxiliary to the arm, and adapting the anchor for either
hard or soft ground.
STRANGE FORETROTIGIIT.-It is a saying in the Navy,
" the French build fine ships that the English may
1," and there is a curious instance of a settled
conviction on the point. When the Great North Dock, at
Plymouth, was under construction, George 111. and
Queen Charlotte visited Plymouth. The King paid par-
ticular attention to the works, and comparing the en-
gineers' work with the working plans, observed that the
dimensions of the former had been exceeded, and desired
to know the reason. His Majesty was told that the dock
had been planned to receive the largest first-rate in the
British Navy (at that time the Queen Charlotte and Royal
George of 100 guns and 2,280 tons each,) but the French
were then building, at Toulon, a ship of such unprece-
dented size, that if the original plan had not been exceeded,
there would be no dock in England to receive her. The
King was so much amused at the impudence of construct-
ing a dock at Plymouth for a ship building at Toulon,
that he called the Queen to enjoy the joke. To complete
the story, this very ship, the Commerce de Marseilles, of
120 guns, and 2,747 tons, was the first that entered the

take then:

new dock.

UNSEALED COREESPONDENCE.—Among other expe-
dients adopted to avoid the present high rates of Ocean

-6e, is the practice of sending letters across the sea by
private hands unsealed. A person may convey a port-
manteau full of letters in this way without charge upon
them for the transit service. A gentleman recently returned
from a long residence at Port Natal, Africa, thus describes
the extent to which this pract"- •3 by •

ice is carnet. —le inha-
bitants of the colony :—" To show their disposition to
correspond, I will mention the fact that whenever a ship
was about to sail with passengers home—for such the
emigrant still looks upon Old England —they were pressed
to take charge of numerous letters, and post them on their
arrival

It was so on my leaving the colony ; and if the
anxiety shown by the emigrants to get their letters ready
for me could have been witnessed by the inhabitants of
this their fatherland, it would have aroused sufficient
feeling and determination to abolish this unwise tax on
their correspondence. To avoid it, and still communicate
with those they hold dear, I placed under my care num-
bers of letters unsealed, and written on sheets of paper
without being folded, and the money given me to pur-
chase the penny stamp and post them to their various
destinations. Now, who could or would refuse to do this ?
Only reflect for a moment the secrets of family corres-
pondence to be thus exposedr ather than lose an opportu-
nity of sending a line home ! Now, had there been an
Ocean Penny Postage, I should not have been solicited
to bring a single letter ; it would have been thought an
imposition."
BETTELEY'S RorAL Twrx ANcirom—The main quali-
fications which recommend Messrs. Betteley's anchor to
general adoption are great holding power, combined with
simplicity and lightness of construction, and cheapness ;
the holding power not being dependent upon the nature of
the ground into which the anchor is cast, but reliable in
all cases from the fact, that the anchor does not sink ii the
bottom by its own weight and momentum, so much as it
is driven into it from its peculiar construction, while the
more powerful the strain, the deeper is the hold which it
takes. When the shape of the twin anchor, which those
who have not seen the models may have a general idea of,
by placing two ordinary fish hooks back to back, is consi-
dered, it will be seen that this formation of the arms na-
turally tends to an easy and rapid entry, which is still
more facilitated, even in the case of the hardest ground,
by the shape of the pees ; while in soft or loose ground the
anchor is prevented from dragginff° by a "mushroom," or
concave plate, placed at the stock end of the shank, the
concavity of which, as the mushroom sinks into the sea
bed, has really the utility of an additional anchor. The
stock is composed of strong iron bars, curved to such an
angle that the anchor is quickly canted. The stock, also,
is moveable, can be attached and detached in a few minutes,
affording thus an opportunity to stow the anchor fiat on
deck, if requisite. It is a lighter anchor, too, than those
ordinarily employed, and, consequently, is more easily
handled ; while we have the assurance of the inventors,
that in the important matter of price, it has the virtue of
being the cheapest in the market.