This day week an accident happened to the Iron Duke,'
near Plymouth, which has been very variously reported, and the official account of which, published on Thursday, if it tells the whole truth, does not bear out the alarm at first expressed. As we have else- where shown, however, there is no little reason to believe that the official account of Thursday passes over the " bad quarter of an hour " with very little notice, and dilates only on the much better quarter of an hour which followed it. However, it is not ques- tioned that the steam-condenser of the Iron Duke' got too hot, that sea-water was admitted to cool it,—that the weakneswor certain valves admitted this sea-water into the bilge, and so that the iron ship was rapidly getting a dangerous amount of water into her. The doubt is as to the delay, if any, in discovering the cause- of the rush of water and in closing the valves which admitted it. In the meantime, the 'Iron Duke' had not taken- her powder on board, and had no means, therefore, of firing distress shots ; nor' was the signal " for immediate assistance " soon seen by her con- sorts ; indeed, there might have been no consorts to see it. The signal appears to have been annulled before any assistance came.
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