THE GREAT EASTERN AS A SEA-BOAT. (From the Times' Correspondent.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVI, Issue 1274, 29 November 1859, Page 4

THE GREAT EASTERN AS A SEA-BOAT. (From the Times' Correspondent.)

During the passage down the river only the speed had been ascertained, and this was shown in a way which, when her trim was taken into consideration, must have surpassed the most sanguine expectations. But as the night fell on Thursday, after anchoring at the Nore, there seemed a fair chance of seeing next day now she would comport herself in a smart sea down the Channel. The glass fell as the wind and sea rose. The scud began to fly across the moon, * misty sleet drizzled at intervals, and the tightened shrouds began to hum with a clear sharp noise as if the very rigging was wakening up for a conflict with the elements. Gradually the sky grew overcast, not with clouds, but uniform thick tint, as if the sea, sky, and air were painted a dull slate colour. Taken in the aggregate, there were -the premonitory symptoms of a " dirty night " in the Channel, and there was reasonable expectation of a still "dirtier" day. The dawn disappointed no one who wished to know how the Great Eastern would behave in a seaway. The anchor was got up, and the run down the Channel commenced, the Girdler Sands being passed soon after 10. The breeze kept freshening, till it amounted at times to a gale, and the old .music among the shrouds and rigging became louder and louder. Margate and Ramsgate and the North and South Forelands were passed in that hazy watery scud, when the sea and sky are so mingled together that it is hard to tell where the spray ends and the clouds begin. In the Downs the wind freshened considerably, coming dead a-head, and for the first time a fair comparison of the Great Eastern with other ships could be made at sea. A heavy swell was running, and large vessels were lying-to under close-reefed topsails, pitching deeply to the sea, and sending the spray in clouds from their bows. At this time the Great Eastern was as motionless as. a rock. Now and then heavy rollers passed her, but their size and action could only be known by observing their effect on other ships. A number of the passengers went forward to the extreme end of the bows, and remained -watching the stem of the vessel by comparing it with the line of the horizon to detect a movement. Only by such a rigid test as this could it be discerned that the Great Eastern was moving gently now and then, scarely more than a foot along her entire length, as the waves rushed under her. Off Dover a sharp quick steamer, very much resembling the handsome boats of the Dover packet service, came out to see the "big ship pass." Quickly aa she went, and with the advantage of a long stretch' down from land, she made no sign of coming up with the Great Eastern ; on the contrary, as it opened towards the swell she pitched and 'flew about like a cork, taking in green seas over her bows, and making such bad weather of it that after a half-hour's waiting race, she seemed glad to go round on the other tack and run in for Dover. Shortly before this, Lord Alfred Paget's yacht Resolute, which, in spite of the weather, had held her course in a manner that well became her name, was obliged to part company and bear up for Margate in the best way she could. It was calculated that the surface of the Great Eastern opposed to the wind was equal to an adverse pressure of upwards of 1200 tons, and made a difference of between three'and three-and-a-half knots an hour in her speed. Yet, with her paddles only going six or seven revolutions,.and her screw from 26 to 30 (which is eactly what is called half-speed,) the mean average of her pace gave more than 12 knots an hour. After passing Dover the weather began to clear, and the afternoon became so fine that some of the passengers, as I have already stated, were tempted up from dinner to look at the coast near Hasting. It was only off Beachy Head, when the tiller-ropes broke, and the vessel, left to itself, began to move to the swell, that those on board became for the first time aware that she was really moving like another shp. The motion, however, was slight, and of course stopped the instant chains were rove through the tiller and the steering resumed.

On Wednesday Mr. Scott Russell appeared before the coroner, stating his willingness to give every facility for the inquiry ; that he was at issue with the company on certain points ; but all he wished to know was who the man was who shut the cock off which caused the explosion. The inquest was formerly adjourned until Saturday. The repair of the damages inflicted by the explosion has already commenced, Mr. Scott Russell having contracted to restore the whole for £5000. If it should turn out that either of the forward boilers has been injured, £5000 will scarcely suffice for the entire restoration. From the fact of their having been no escape of steam from either of the boilers at the time of the explosion, when there was a pressure on each of 22 Tb., it is believed that they have escaped without material injury. The mere joinery of the cabin fittings and the redecora'tion of the grand saloon can, and doubtless, will, soon be completed. With the iron-work, however, it is a different affair.' All this must be executed in London from the working drawings of the vessel and sent down piecemeal by rail to Weymouth, where it can be bolted together on board the ship. Mr. Scott Russell's contract is to finish the whole ship, in her former state as she left the river within three weeks. The Great Eastern win, notwithstanding the statements which have been "made to the country, sail from Holyhead on her first trip to America. It is announced that she will leave Portland on the trial trip of Saturday, the Bth October, and that she will sail from Holyhead for Portland, United States, on Thursday, the 20th of October.