MISCELLANEOUS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3573, 31 December 1868, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The clipper barque lamay, 422 tons, Captain Campbell, has bee a laid on from Liverpool to this port, and was to leave at an early date. The Royal Alfred. — The p.s. Royal Alfred will make two trips to the Thames to-morrow, leaving Auckland at 6 o'clock in the morning and 5 o'clock ia the evening. Return tickets at reduced will ba issued, available till Monday. Th« brig Our Hope, Captain Garth, from Melbourne, hauled alongside the wharf yesterday, and will commence her discharge to-day. The schoouer Argo, Davies, master, sailed yesterday for Whangerei, with a small general cargo and eight passengers. A New System op Sea. Signalling. — A. trial was recently made in the Mersey of a new apparatus invented by Mr. George Read, chief officor of coastguard, for managing ships' lights, so as to indicate clearly to vessels meeting each other the exact course which eich intends to take, and thus lessen the danger of collision. Mr. Read's plan is to connect by a selfacting* apparatus the helm of the ship with the starboard and port lights during the night, and with a Sag or ball signal during the day, so that any movement whioh is given to the helm ia at once correspondingly indicated to an approaching or following vessel. If the helm is put the wrong way, as is often the case, the officer in charge of tbe ship will be able to check the helmsman in an instant, or a ship approaching or following will detect the mistake and act accordingly. The invention has its own application, also, in naval tactics ; for when th ) hulls of ships are enveloped in smoke the motion of the rudder can be indicated by the signals made at the fore, main, or mizen royal truck, and thus, taking in succession, ships would be able to follow each other accurately either by day or night. Captain Mends, R.N . and other naval officers have warmly encouraged Mr. Read's plans, Captain Meudu being ! of opinion that, whether the invention is adopted by the Board of Trade for tbe high seas or not, it will assuredly be of service in narrow waters. The trial ■ appeared to all the experienced men who witnessed it to be entirely satisfactory. A second trial was made in the evening after dark, with the same satisfactory results, the only difference between that and tho day experiment being that the lights were more conspicuous. The dry dock at Hunter's Point, San Francisco, capable of accommodating the Great Eastern, has been completed, and is a magnificent success. It is excavated from the solid rock, and was engineered by A. W. Yon Schmidt, with great skill and ability. The San "Franciscans have bow probably the finest dock in the .world, and oan furnish accommodations unequalled elsewhere. Failure oe the German Arctic Expedition". — The Germania, with the German Arctic Expedition on board, has recently oast anchor before Bremen. Altkough prevented by solid masses of ice from approaching Greenland or Gillisland, both of which they subsequently tried, the expedition boast of having penetrated to the highest degree of northern latitude ever reached by ship. They first endeavoured to effect a landing on the eaitern shore of Greenland. Between July 24 and August 10, three attempts were made to reach the coast, clearly risible in the distance, but in vain. The first at 75Jdeg. N. lat. and!2de2. W. long.; the secpnd fit 744deg. N. lat. and 14deg. W. long. ; the third at 73deg. 23min. if. lat., when they actually got up as far »3 17£deg. W. long. But even in this last inntanoa, which seemed to proinioe so well, further progrew was eventually rendered impracticable by an icefield 40 feet thick. Ag the reader will perceive, though at each successive attempt they were driven further from the north, they jet sontinn§d making way to the west, although, alas! not far enough.. Then giving it, up as. a bad job, and making for Spitzbergen, they entered Hinlopen Strait, sighted Gillisland from Thumb Point, bat by their old enemy, the ice, were' obliged to turn back at C&pe Torrellr It wftf vhifc sailing north of Spitzbergitj

[ th it Iht-y rmdo tbo lii^heftt JatiLudeever attained, arriving a fc 81deg. smin. when at -16deg ' east longitude. The expedition, which found the (tea blocked up even wore couipl tfly than is ordinarily the ca^e, is sud to hare re^bifieil the chatt3 in many points, and made other observations. 'I here is * prospect of its baing repented next year Many 1 shipowners nrrd scientific men taking au earned interest in the frigi'l projecb, it is not impossible that voluntary con ributiout* sufficient to cover the expense necessary will ba raised.— Panama Star and Herald.