Captain Warner's experiment was successfully performed, at six o'clock this
evening, off the battery at Brighton, in the presence of a vast multitude, who thronged the cliffs, the shore, and the windows of the houses. The ship, of 300 toes burden, had been anchored off Shoreham, and was towed by a steam-tug with a long hawser to nearly opposite the battery and about a mile and a half from shore. A signal was given by hoisting a flag at the battery ; and after a short time it was answered by Captain Warner on board the steam-tug, who lowered the Union jack that was flying at the mast-head. After about five minutes of anxious expectation, a large volume of white smoke rose from the centre of the ship ; the masts were seen flying in the air ; and when the smoke cleared away, the ship presented the appear- ance of a perfect wreck, her foremast and part of the hull alone remain- ing : she floated for about two minutes, and then sank. The explosion was accompanied by a dull sound under the water, scarcely to be called a report. The agency by which the destruction was effected, with such quiet celerity, was probably not supernatural, but it was invisible. As the vessel disappeared, three cheers were accorded by the specta- tors ; among whom were Lord Ingestre, the Marquis of Douro, Lord Brougham, and many other magnates and Members of Parliament, who bad gone to Brighton for the purpose of witnessing the wonder.
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