SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. PORT OF AUCKLAND.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 4168, 22 December 1870, Page 2

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. PORT OF AUCKLAND.

limn WjLfKR Tuts Day. -6.29 a. in. ; G.ol p.m. SUNKISB AND SUNSKT T)IIS £>AY. — Morning, 4.43; evening, 7.13. WrND and Wevthkr. — BccGinber 21 : Wind : Westerly. Wcathcv, tine. Phase op the Moon. — New moon, 22nd December, at 11. 5S p.m.

Amuvals — December 21. Comcrang, p.s., 11l tons, Mundle, from Russell. Passengers— Mrs. Fdirburn, Mrs. Ooleson, Mrs. Keatley, Miss Bath bone, Messrs. Newman, Keatley, James, Barnai cl, Percion, Kemp, Booker, Bonncr, Wayte, Audun, Edwai ds, Barnott, Mrs. .Easlic ; and three in steerage.— W. J. Hurst and Co., agents. Oneliunga, schooner, CO tons, Captain WaLer, from Oamaru. -G. W. Binney, agent. Se.i Gull, brigantine, from the Fijis.

VnrAiiruKKh. Taimmga, for Tamauga; Golden Isle, for Levuka ; Sunbeam, for .Russell.

Impoui-> — Diiltmber. 21. Per schooner Onekuugi, from Oamaru : 79 bags ilour, 204 bag-* potatoes, 27 bags wheat, 70 bags potatoes, 150 bags ilour, 69 bags wheat, 300 bags Hour, 4'j bags wheat, 20 bags ci ashed barley, G AY. Blimey; 12 tons Hour, order.

ARRIVAL OF THE SE\GULL. The brigantme .Seagull ai rived last evening fiom Levuka, which place she left on the i26th ultimo. She did not clear the islands for five days after leaving Levuka, and for thnteeu days baffling -winds were experienced. The whole of the passage was made in the face of unfavourable winds. She brings 28 bales of cotton, li tona tobacco, consigned to J. S. Macfarlane, owner. Passengers : -Cabin: Messrs iStotfc, McLean; and one in the steerage. Before leaving the Oivwar 1 arrived at Levuka -with over fifty laboureis, and she will come on to Auckland with a consignment of cotton. The Seagull! brings files of the Fiji Times to the '2Gth ultimo, but they contain little of interest.

STEAMSHIPS AND STEAMING RULES. Mitchells Mur'dbnc lieyhhr of September 23, in an article under the above heading, comments at somo length on the case which was heard in the Police Court dome time ago, and iv which the master of the Williams was fined i.lOO on the information of the master of the Royal Alfied, for a breach of the regulations for preventing accidents at ,sea. After reviewingtheevidence, the Jif/hfcr bays:— "We do not see what object the master of the "Williams could have in steaming aoioss the bows of the Royal Alfred, where the space was erjual to the whole Fiith of the Thames, when the latter w.is a meeting ship in an opposite direction. Had the steamers here mentioned been pursuing the same course, and one overtaking anil passing the other, we could uuclei stand the force of the observations ; but unless it could be proved that the larger bhip, by standing across the bows OI XQG OLliei, did ou £<jl bli<= j/ni|jyoo o£ iotarding the latter's passage or disabling her, the comments were not applicable. Theie may, however, have been some animus existing between the masters of the rival ships, probably known to the colonial authoiities, and, if so, )t was their duty to protect the lives of those wiio took passage by the vessels of either line. To us at the Antipodes the report reads like a plain straightforward case, when divested of all antagonistic views. Talcing the evidence of the ships' crews as our guide, we rind that two steamers in a broad channel were approaching each other iv opposite directions «it night. By an Order in Council of 'he 30th July, 1808, the supplementary explanation of Articles 11 and 13, the simultaneous action of port helm is held not to apply by night to cases where the reel light ot one ship is opposed to the x-ed light of another, or where the green light of one ship is opposed to the green light of another, or where a red light without a green light, or a gi een light without a red light, is seen ahead, or where both green and red lights are seen auywhere but ahead. The rule of port helm, at night, to two meeting ships, applies only when the red and green lights of both are -risible. According to the defence adduced on behalf of the Williams, the green light only of the Royal Alfred was discernible ; and had this point been firmly established, by independent testimony, the Court could not, consistent with the .Rules, have pronounced against her master. _ There must,ho\vever, have been some prevaricating evidence to discredit the defendant's case, though we fail to see it in the minutes. The seaman who was on the look-out on board the Williams averred that the Royal Alfred Avas seen ou the starboard bow, and that, if she had held her course, she must have passed from 400 to 500 yards off. The red light of the Royal Alfred— if the ships were positively ou a line of keel — may have been obscured by some object, or badly screened ; if bo, the master of the Williams ia punished for paying attention to the strict fulfilment of the rules. When Captain Marks, the pilot of the Williams, saw the Royal Alfred coming round to starboard, under a port helm, he thought, it is said, the latter needed assistance, and so brought his ship round to render help, if necessary. Taking it for granted that the rival antipathies did not extend to the Bench, we fail to reconcile this judgment with the Regulations. We have always condemned the indefensible practice of running across another ship's bows, but Captain Marks, it appears, did not starboard until the pther vessel's helm was ported. In the lust instance, the Williams, having the Royal Alfred to starboard, was bound to give way, and the last should have held her course. If, however, those on board the Williams should have seen both side lights of the Royal Alfred, and could not, from some unexplained cause, gee but one, then the master of the former was clearly not in fauh. Starboarding, however, to a red light is not good seamanship, except under circumstances of emergency."