SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 18, 20 July 1907, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

The growing American practice of perforating sails in order to increase the speed of a sailing vessel is» interesting. The idea is that in a square-rigged shin tho wind escaping through the holes of the sails from one yard strikes the sails on the yard of the next mast forward, but even in the fore and aft sails the holes have proved an advantage 'n making the canvas draw better. Soiie captains provide Jittlo sandbags, which can bo pulled through the peiforations in the sails when it is deemed an idvantage to close the xioles, but this is rarely done. The British four-masted barque, Port Jackson, has logged 345 knots in twenty-four hours with perforated sails. Even th 3 big coastwise, schooners in tho American trade are he ginning to adopt the Idea. Comparisons are not always odious (says the Otago Daily Times), and apropos of a discussion at a quite recent meeting of the Dunedin Harbour Board concerning the emoluments of pilots it is interesting to note the conditions pro* vailing in perhaps the moat elaborate pilot service in the world — the Hookhli. A pilot is a man who twists an iron leviathan Ihrough tortuous passages as if it were v toy; and on tho Hoogli it is no uncommon sight to sco big liners from from Sunderbunds 1 to Calcutta with their bows just grazing a quicksand and the ensign staff rattling against the bamboos on the bank, ?s the, pilot swings her into a fresh channel at a bend. In the Hooghli service a lad of ninteeii joins as a "leadsman" at the equivalent to £150 a year ; then he is mate, master, and finally branch pilot at a salary equivalent to £1200 and a psnsion of about i! 600 after so many years' service. Of course there is the climate to be considered. Also the fact that Calcutta is about one hundred and fifty miles from the Heads, instead of eighteen, as is the case with Dunedin. Pilots arc of opinion that without them there would be fewer seaports, and those who know • them and their work believe thai, at any rate^ they cam their money. Fair Play has received some particulars of a unique vessel called the Polcirkeln, which has recently been constructed in Sweden by the Lyndholmens Shipbuilding Company, Gothenburg, for account of the Grangesberg Oxelocunds Company, of Stockholm. The vessel was built exclusively for the iron ore trade, which fact alone explains the remarkable circumstance that while she carries 3,400 tons deadweight her net register is only 741 tons. The dimensions of tho vessel are : 294 ft by 40ft by 22ft 4in. Tho type of construction, originated by Mr. Welin, managing director of the latter company, is not dissimilar to the turret deck, and has also some slight resemblance to the trunk deck. The engines are placed aft, and thei'o is a double bottom for water-bal-last. A peculiarity in the construction in which the ship differs from all others is this, that from the upper portion of the trunk there are longitudinal bulkheads going straight down to the ballast tanks. "By this arrangement a trunk about 20ft in width is given, leaving a space of about 10ft in each wing, which is used partially for water-ballast and partially for crew space. The sailors and firemen are berthed in two-berth otate-rooms, and I understand they are particularly anxious to excel each other in keeping them clean and orderly. The •vessel has altogether eight hatches, but tho cargo is loaded only into four of these, the others being used for discharging so that tho cargo can be got at from below. As the discharging takes place by cranes, from the shore, tho vessel is only provided with two winches, which are, nowevor, so spaced that in csss of need or accident they can deal with her cargo, as well as serve for working the ship. It is claimed that this typo of construction gives for the particular trade in question in many respects a superior vessel to the ordinary type. For instance, in cass of collision the. ressttl"would be protected by the double skin in the sides; moreover, her logitudinal strength is very materially incroassd by the two logitudinal bulkheads which are well tied to the sides. The hold is absolutely free of stanchions ancj frames, and is ideal for working cargoes of this type. Captain J. Walker, lately of the barque Dunblane (now Joseph Craig) who is rctirinjr from the sea after being in command for forty-four years, has lyid asingularly successful exp&rionco afloat, and 'is reported to have met. with no accidents during this career. He does not appear to be above middle age, and should havo many years before him as a master, bukhes has decided that with the sale of his barque Dunblane, he will retire from the sea, and soEtle down with his family at Adelaide. In September, 1863, Captain Walker kft Melbourne for New Zealand in command of tho brig Nile, an dremained in her until 1871, when he took charge of the barque Fleur do Maurice. Ho was master- of her till 1894, when sho touched on Natal bar while in charge of a pilot, and was afterwards condemned. Captain Walker returned to Adelaide in the sam* year, and bought the barque County of Ayr, which, he soldi in 1901. He then visited England, and purchased the barque Dunblane, which he brought out to Adelaide, whence he has traded ever since. Captain Walker sold the Dunblane recently to Messrs. J. J. Craig, of Auckland,, and her last trip from Edithburg to Lyttelton was her final one und-3r the old name. Captain Stuart has now taken command of the barque, ' which is renamed Joseph Craig, and Captain Walker left for Melbourne last night by the Monowai, en route to Adelaide. Before his departure he was entertained by some Lyttelton friends and presented with a greenstone tiki foT himself and a handsome greenstone brooch for his wife. — Lyttelton Times. A letter in a recent issue, of ths Mercantile Marine Service Reporter, from a shipmaster in Japanese employ, is worth careful notioe. He says that the scarcity of junioT officers may shortly extend to the "Land of the Rising Sun," but he warns any Englishmen against accepting offers which may b& made to secure their s-srvices. "The Japanese merchant navy," he says, "is no service for a. British officer ; they merely want to get. British officers to fill up the places they are unable to fill with their own Japanese officers, and also to act as an advertisement, more or less, in order 'to obtain European patronage in passengers and cargo." The life, the letter continues, of a British officer in Japanese ships is not an enviable one by any means. A little later on the correspondent expresses regret that England should have- been hypnotised by Japan. "You will find that, Englishmen, or other foreigners-, who have resided in Japan many years, and had omployment under them and had business relations with them, have never been hypnotised by the Japanese because they know them to r.ome extent. All of which is put forward as a prologue to th* final warning to young§teTS to avoid Japanese service. We havo to admit that there is nothing very now in this (says an English paper), but, unfortunately, the events of the past few years havo permitted the real state of affairs to bo overlooked. It is not nt i all unlikely that experience will eventually show the world San Francisco not to have been so very wrong after all in its unti-Jup crusado. Woods' Groat Poppermmt Cure for Coughs and Colds never fails. Is 6d. — Adrt