The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-15 00:00:00

1; nor was it without a

course of earnest and intense application, a tedious yank
of ev

rirnents, and a very considerable expenditure of mo-
I ney, that Mr. F. P. Smith was enabled eventually to bring

his invention before the pui
admirable state."

&c. of the Archimedes
ption of these

The build, construction, engines.
are thus noticed; but, as we furnished a des(
in July last, we pass to the subsequent'remarl
" We shall now proceed to point out to our

io we conceive to be the advantages of Mr. Smith's invention
over the old plan. For our part, we consider it of very
econdary importance, whether it produces, under ordinary
an acceleration of speed or not; we have no
is, and to an extent which will eventually ap-
pear very conspicuously ; and we think the clear and able

circumstances

doubt but it d,

of'Whitehaven, published in the Mechanics' Magazinefor
October, is conclusive ; but the travelling public will regard
this only as one of the minor merits of the screw-propeller.
We are of opinion that a steamer, even on the old construc-
tion, is safer at sea, in all weathers, than an ordinary sail-

ing vessel of the same size and trim, as long as the engines
and paddle-wheels continue in perfect order, and there are
plenty of coals to keep them going ; but when any circum-
stances occurs to stop the machinery, and render it useless,
we have no hesitation in stating that the common steam-
vessel becomes the most helpless toy that floats upon the

le crew and passer

. -
that moment critical and dangerous. We put it to the cap-
tains of sea-going steamers themselves, whether, under such
circumstances, they could ever gain one point to windward ?
and whether, in the event of a gale of wind, the utmost
efforts of human ingenuity could get the vessel out of the

probably do almost immediately
Erin was lost from this eireumstanec

It is notori

that tt

This unfortunate

lying in the trough of the sea (as it is nautically terme

and was reported off Milford, distance about twenty miles,
with signal of distress flying, the wind blowing at the time a
gale, at north-west; she must therefore, some hours before

she went down, have been within sight of land, with a fair
wind, of which no use could be made.
" When the Killarney also was disabled, she was some
miles to windward of Cork harbour, and drifted all across
its mouth, with a fair wind to run in. Even the loss of the
William Huskisson, last winter, (certainly that of the re-
maining passengers) may in a great measure be attributed
her complete helplessness, when the rolling

lie water

from the leak put the fires Out ; as she was sev,
distress, before Captain Clegg, with the Hudd

to her assistance; whereas,Thetween Liverpool and 'Dublin,
a fast sailing vessel, with a stiff breeze, is never above four or
five hours' run from a safe harbour, let the wind be which
way it will.

It was the knowledge of the fact, that the great shocks
to which the ordinary machinery is subjected in a heavy sea,
are very liable to put the engines out of order, and the great
danger to which the vessel would then be exposed, which
prevented for twenty years, any attempt to establish a regu-
lar steam communication with America; and even now,
although in such a castle at sea as the Great Western, with
such enormous power, and so amply provided with remedies
for almost every kind of accident to which she is exposed,

one might not feel very apprehensive, as long as the .provi-
sions continued abundant; yet we question whether, in the
event orher engines becominc, effectually damaged, the re-
nowned Hosken himself would not be very willing to ex-
change the commandership of this " mighty monarch of the
deep," for that of a snug little schooner, of no more than one
hundred tons burden, even in the midst of the " broad