parative inexpensiveness, and freedom from vitiation of communicative properties.

I am happy to record that the experiments were made to the expressed satisfaction of the gentlemen who witnessed them.

I am, &c.,

To the Editor of the Nautical Magazine.

WILLIAM P. PIGGOTT.

[Although we have some doubts of the soundness of Mr. Piggott's views, arising from the mutual destruction of the agents which he employs, we leave his letter for the remarks of our readers.—ED.]

OCCASIONAL PAPERS OF THE NAUTICAL CLUB.-No. XXIII.The Disaster to the "Great Eastern"-First Trip of the "Warrior"-Report of the Royal Life-Boat Institution Secretary's Mems.

In again meeting his friends at the Club, the Chairman said that the addition they would now have to make to the records of their proceedings would be marked by disaster! It is not very long since, they would remember, that a man of war, the Camilla, disappeared on the coast of Japan. A short time before that the Perseverance was totally lost at the Cape Verd Islands; and to these may now be added that of the Driver, on a reef off the N.W. point of Isle Mariguana, one of the Bahama Islands, on the third of August. Happily, in this instance no life had been lost, but it was with regret he noticed these losses recurring in the Royal Navy in a time of profound peace. If they could not take care of themselves in these days what should we hear of in war, when so many more are afloat and obliged to risk danger of wreck.

The next event in importance was the breaking down, as it was called, of the leviathan, the Great Eastern, and a providential escape. had those on board-her four hundred passengers. She has at last got into one of those gales which put her powers as a sea boat to the test, and she came out of the fray in a miserable condition, as had been anticipated by some, himself among the number (as well as some more of us, observed Albert), but even then better than might have been expected, with loss of both paddles, six boats washed away and two others stove, and her rudder disabled, having been lying in a seaway helpless as a log for nearly three days. The state of confusion • on board all that time, and until she reached Cork, has been described as like that of a storm-tossed and disabled derelict, the passengers and crew expecting every moment that she would go down, and it will not easily be forgotten-certainly not by some twenty who, it is said, had limbs fractured and were cut and bruised by the materials and furniture thrown about on board during the time. However, he was happy to say that an official inquiry into all the circumstances would take place by the Board of Trade, from which a correct account of this disaster will be obtained.

NO. 10.-VOL. XXX.

4 C

And to swell the list of casualties-the term by which these nautical mishaps are known-continued the Chairman, one of those beautiful yachts for which this country alone stands conspicuous, has been run down at her anchorage at Ryde. Here, happily, no life was lost, although ladies and children escaping from their beds in such a transaction was something new. Her name is the Amazon, of 70 tons, belonging to a gentleman named Smith, who, it is said, claims £2,500 of the company to which the offending steamer (named the Prince Consort) belongs.

As if to contrast with the miseries of the iron mammoth ship, the Great Eastern, our first iron ship of war, the Warrior left the Thames, off Greenhithe, ran round to Portsmouth, and anchored at Spithead in the short space of eighteen hours; and her behaviour on this, her first trip seems to have met with as much admiration as the ship. To the great credit of all concerned in her there was no hitch anywhere; nothing went wrong-not even with the engines (1,200 h.p., by Penn) and those things which will get a screw loose sometimes. So easy was everything with her-so obedient was she—that she is said to be thoroughly under command in her movements, answering her helm with the most obliging readiness, and is pronounced to be 66 a model of good temper and obedience." This is a character which few ships have obtained. But new brooms sweep clean, as is well known, and she may be found hereafter not only to be endowed with those good qualities, but also to be crusty and hardhearted with those who would impose on her. She seems to have attained a speed over thirteen knots, and, for a new ship, had a good passage to Spithead (210 miles), anchoring there at eight on Friday morning, in twenty hours from Greenhithe.

It would appear that we are now pledged to iron ships of war,the wooden walls of old England are to a large extent to be superseded by iron. He confessed that he was not without his misgivings on this subject, for he was inclined to stick to our wooden walls; but where they are insufficient to resist an Armstrong shot, or bolt rather, he was inclined to believe that the French were right, and that their system of cuirassing or plating them with armour, like the Warrior, would turn out to be the best. The great weight of the iron ship was really dead weight-there was not that lively obedience to the lifting action of the sea in them as in our old wooden ships in rising to the passing wave; they were stiff and unyielding in their movements, to which their length also contributed, and the consequence would be that in a seaway, by not rising to the sea, the sea would rise on them, and this would be found something more than inconvenient when ports were required to be open in action.

This, however, was a subject on which much more could be said than was fair to go into at present. But there is no doubt that the Warrior has passed through this, her first ordeal, in the most masterly manner. Her powers at sea have yet to be tested. She has yet to look about for a good heavy gale,-one even more than the Great Eastern has just succumbed to, one which will try her "good temper

and obedience," not only her's, indeed, but the temper of those on board of her, and that, it is satisfactory to know, she will not be long waiting for at this time of the year.

The Chairman then asked the Secretary what he had to report of the proceedings of their truly National Lifeboat Institution. Before, however, he had a reply he wished to make a remark why he had laid some emphasis on the word National. The Lifeboat Institution was in every sense of the word a national one, and not a mere London Society. The metropolis was its head-quarters, but the representatives of the institution itself were to be found in every place where it had a lifeboat; and these boats were now found, he was happy to say, at the extreme North of Scotland as well as at the Land's End.

The Secretary then stated that at the last meeting of the institution, Captain Sir Edward Perrott, Bart., in the chair, the following rewards were made:

£6 10s. to the crew of the Cahore lifeboat, belonging to the institution, for putting off to the rescue of the crew of the Spanish barque Primera de Torrevieja, from Liverpool to Havana, which, during thick and foggy weather, and in a heavy sea, went on Blackwater Bank, on August 7th. The barque was found with her rudder disabled, one of the pumps choked, and making water rapidly. The master and fourteen men left the vessel in their own boats, and, after one boat had been swamped, succeeded in landing at Ballinamona. One man had been, however, inadvertently left on board the ship. At two p.m. information of the wreck was sent to Cahore, when the lifeboat was immediately launched, and proceeded to the bank. Meanwhile the barque had worked off, and, with the one sailor on board, drifted out to sea. As soon as this was observed the lifeboat bore down to the ship, which she succeeded in overtaking about five miles N.E. from Cahore Point. The crew of the lifeboat, finding on getting on board of the vessel that the water was rapidly increasing in her hold, thought it advisable to run her for the beach near Arklow, which was safely accomplished.

Also, £8 to the crew of the Lizard lifeboat, which likewise belongs to the institution, for going off in reply to signals of distress from the schooner Hurrell, of Penzance, which, during a dense fog and a heavy ground-swell, was found to be in a dangerous position near the Old Lizard Head. The schooner was found by the lifeboat in a very critical situation, within a cable's length of a precipitous cliff ahead, and on either side high and dangerous rocks. Her crew, four in number, had collected their clothing and were about to leave her in their own punt, when the lifeboat arrived alongside; had they done so, they would not, in all probability, have reached the shore alive, as the passage between the scattered rocks and the shore is most intri. cate. At the request of the master the lifeboat remained alongside during the night, and at daylight succeeded in warping the vessel clear of the rocks, and anchoring her in a secure position.

To the crew of the institution's lifeboat at Penmon, Anglesea, also £8, for putting off in reply to a signal of distress from the smack

Pink, of Chester, which, during blowing weather and heavy rain, was seen in a dangerous position about a mile from the lifeboat station. On arriving alongside the smack she was found to have carried away her main boom and to have only one cable out, which the master said he feared would give way every moment, and his vessel be driven on Puffin Island. At his request the lifeboat remained alongside until eleven o'clock p.m., when, the weather having moderated, the vessel fortunately got out of danger.

Also, £13 to the crew of the lifeboat of the society stationed at Wicklow, Ireland, for putting off in the night in a heavy sea, with the view of saving life from a wreck, which was, however, from its sudden disappearance, supposed to have foundered before the arrival of the lifeboat.

A pecuniary reward also to Mr. W. H. M'Kay, of Wick, N.B., in consideration of his laudable and prompt service in wading into the sea and rescuing, at some risk of life, the master of the brigantine Nymph, of Greenock, which, during stormy weather, had been wrecked near Loch Inchard, Sutherland. It appeared that the poor man had perseveringly clung to his vessel's boat, which had previously been swamped, until she was amongst the breakers close to the shore. Here M'Kay rushed to his help, and succeeded in bringing him safely to land.

Secretary's Mems.

The Dons looking up. The Spanish Admiral Pinzon, with four ships of the squadron of instruction, it is said, will form the escort of the King Consort on his approaching visit to Barcelona.

Arrangements are now being made at the Thames Iron Shipbuilding Works, Blackwall, for the immediate construction of a new iron-cased screw frigate for the Admiralty, of 6,815 tons, the cost of which will amount to about half a million sterling.

The wrought iron roof and domes for the Great Exhibition Building of 1862, are now rapidly progressing at those works.

MORE BOTTLES.

U.S. Government Observatory, Washington, 10th August, 1861. Lloyd's Agent for St. Michaels (Azores) has forwarded to this office a note found at sea, 1st July, 1861, by one of the island traders. The bottle containing it was picked up in lat. 38° 24′ N., long. 28° 2′ W. A copy is subjoined :

"American ship Senator, from New Orleans for Liverpool, 31st October, 1860, lat. 38° 22' N., long. 58° 12' W. All well. The

finder will please forward to the Superintendent, U.S. Observatory, Washington, and oblige Roland F. Coffin, Master."

The distance of the point at which the bottle was found from that where it was thrown into the sea is 1,417 miles in a line E. 30° S. 243 days having elapsed, its average speed was 5.83 miles per day.M. Gilliss, Superintendent.

This, which appeared in the Shipping Gazette of 26th August last, is interesting as having followed the direction of a bottle from H.M.S. Newcastle, in 1819-20,-a due East course made good.

The next, although far away from the limits of our bottle chart, is no less interesting as showing the effects of the counter-currents setting eastward to the southward of the great continents.

It appears by a paragraph in the American papers that a portion of the cargo of the American ship John Gilpin, lost off Cape Horn in January, 1858, has drifted ashore at or near Bunbury, a small settlement on the East coast of Australia, having floated nearly 8,000 miles. The following is the item referred to:

A letter dated Bunbury, New Holland, February 18th, states that two casks of oil had been picked up off the coast, not more than 150 miles from land, which came out of the ship John Gilpin, of Boston, sunk off Cape Horn, on the night of 29th January, 1858. One cask was marked V.Y.D. (Vineyard, of Edgartown), and the other Kutusoff. They must have drifted there in about three years, from long. 70° W. to long. 111° E.

The whaleship Congress, of New Bedford, at Bunbury, also picked up, between Cape Leuwin and Ball Head, a cask of oil covered with barnacles, marked Kutusoff, shipped at Honolulu by the John Gilpin. The cask was picked up January 1st, 1861, having drifted a distance of about 7,780 miles in a nearly E.b.N. course, or a yearly drift of about 2,600 miles.

The following has taken the usual drift of the Atlantic over to the coasts of Europe, confirming the courses of several other bottles on our chart in the same latitude.

The ship Albert Gallatin, on one of her outward voyages to New York early in the present year, experienced very severe weather, and when in lat. 49° 30′ N., long. 42° W., the captain (Delano) threw a bottle overboard containing a memorandum to the effect that the vessel was suffering from a violent gale, and requesting any person who picked up the bottle to report the circumstance. The memorandum was dated February 9th, and on the 7th March the Albert Gallatin arrived, in a leaky and distressed state, at New York. On August 19th the bottle was picked up off the island of Iona, North of Scotland.

It has made good a course of E. 28° N., with a progress of seven miles per day; which may have been more, from the time it may have remained unobserved.