The Constitutionnel contains the following :-

"It is stated that the Ministers of the Marine have not as yet received any direct accounts concerning the burning and shipwreck of the Cuvier, Steam-sloop. They only know that she left Algiers on the 23rd of January, and was expected at Toulon on the 25th of the same month, in order to convey their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess Joinville to Africa. The Cuvier, of 310 horse power, was the best steam-sloop in the French navy ; she was constructed at Lorient in 1842, but her engines were of English manufacture.

If the surmises of this catastrophe are realized, it will be a great loss to the fleet, and another deficit of more than 1,000,000f. in our naval inventory. The Cuvier was to have left Algiers on the 22nd, but her departure was postponed to the 23rd, on account of the bad weather. Her non-arrival at Toulon caused a great deal of anxiety as early as the 27th.

There is, likewise, much alarm concerning the fate of the Panama steam-frigate, which is coming home with troops. The Panama left Oran on the 9th of January, bound for Marseilles, but has neither touched at Palma, nor at Port Vendres. It is supposed that she has taken refuge in one of the ports of Morocco."

SG & SGTL Vol 5 ; page 146.

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