In this connection it would seem that even the employment of steel as the constructive material affords safety to a vessel in circumstances which would almost prove fatal to a ship built of iron. The remarkable experience which befell the first steel ocean-going steamer—the _Rotomahana_, belonging to the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand—may here be recounted. While steaming between Auckland and the Great Barrier Island on New-Year’s-Day, 1880, this vessel struck upon and ran over a sunken rock. She had a large party of pleasure seekers on board, and but for the fact that she was built of such a ductile material as mild steel, the commencement of the year 1880 might have been clouded by a catastrophe which would have spread gloom and sorrow throughout New Zealand, if not over a wider circle. At the earliest possible moment the damaged vessel was docked for examination. The results are effectively summarised in an extract from a letter referring to the accident, written by the managing director of the Company. He says:—“This experience has clearly shown the immense superiority of steel over iron. There is no doubt that had the _Rotomahana_ been of iron, such a rent would have been made in her, that she would have filled in a few minutes.” The starboard bilge for over 20 feet of its length was more or less indented, one plate especially being greatly misshapen between two frames. This plate was removed, hammered, rolled flat again, and replaced—after the frames which had been bent inwards by the force of the grounding had been straightened. No new material except rivets were required for the execution of the repairs. The _Rotomahana_, as if to show her ability to “laugh at all disasters,” has grounded twice subsequently on the rocky and treacherous coast along which she plies, yet has come out of the ordeal with immunity from positive danger. Her remarkable experience may safely be taken as most convincing evidence of the suitability of mild steel for shipbuilding. Other cases are not wanting, however, in which the same thing is exemplified. One which recently astonished everybody concerned with shipping was that of the _Duke of Westminster_, a vessel 400 feet in length, built of mild steel by the Barrow Shipbuilding Coy., which lay bumping for a week on stony ground near the Isle of Wight, without making a drop of water. The bottom plating of the _Duke of Westminster_, as she appeared in dry dock, was corrugated between the frames for more than half the length of the vessel, and yet not a single plate was cracked, nor a rivet started. Another case of an equally striking character is that of the British India Coy.’s steamer _India_, built by Messrs Denny, of Dumbarton, which went ashore near the mouth of the Thames in December, 1881, and was left high and dry at low water. Her bottom, although forced up about 3 inches over a length of about 40 feet amidships, did not give way, and the vessel, during the