SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 16

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Whilst torpedo boats were practising shooting with new war torpedoes in Seally Bay, Victoria, a week or two back one of the weapons wa.« lost, owing it is balieved to something having gone wrong with the mechanism. Divers are searching the sea bottom for it. The torpedo ia valued at £425. 'It is reported from Rio de Janeiro that the Lloyd Brazileiro intends to eGtablish a cargo-boat service between Rio and the principal European ports, with calls at ports in North Brazil. A meeting of the committee of the Marina Society (Warspite training ship) was held at London during August to consider the question of continuing the ocean-training scheme as carried out last year on Messrs. Devitt and Moore's four-masted barque Port Jackson. It was unanimously agreed that Messrs. Devitt and Moore's offer should bo accepted, and that 50 Warspito boys should fee sent for an Australian voyage on the Port Jackson, which will sail from the Thames, in all probability, towards the end of September. The tramp steamer Vermont, from Pugcfc Sound, discharged 2,853,000 super feet of sawn timber niTd 600 tons of ganeral cargo in seventy-two working hours at Sydney. This is claimed to be a record for the port. An extensive survey of the north and north-west coast of Australia is being carried out by H.M.S. Fantome, and two hitherto uncharted submerged rocks harve been discovered. It is also reported that a highly magnetic submerged rock has been discovered doss to the northwest coast of Western Australia. It is said that there are onjy two or three such rocks charted in the world. Captain T. E. Parker, the oldest shipmaster in the British merchant marine service, sail or steam, died suddenly recently on the ship Holt Hill when the vessel was struggling against galas off Cape Horn, on a voyage from Greenock to Vancouver. The Holt Hill took 60 days to round the Horn, owing to storms. Captain Parker was 80 ycaro of age, had b-sen in command of vessels for 61 years,' and was known as "Commodore of the World's Merchant Marine." Bruges has become "a port of the first rank, accessible to all vessels," the Eort and tha sea being officially blessed y the local bishop. Some centuries ago Bruges was a harbour for the ships of all nations. Its river silted up, and it became stranded, like eomo of ths Cinque ports. Now, at the comparatively small cost of two millions, Bruges has cut a canal, six miles long, with a width of 230 feet, and a minimum depth of 26 feet, which links her to the new port of Zeebrugge, supplied with a breakwater a mile long. At the end of seventy-five years Bruges will own the canal and docks, and the Government will take over the port For the present, the whol© undertaking will be run by a company. Capt. Hood, New Plymouth harbourmaster, in his last report says that in the five weeks lending 18th September there were 56 steamer berthings at the wharf, _ the aggregate gross tonnage amounting to 52,296 tons. Imports were 6195 tons, including 987 tons of railway coal and 1014 tons of private coal. Exports wore 899 tons, making a total of 7094 tons of cargo handled. During this period very boisterous and wot weather had been experienced, .causing ! delays to dredging operations, but no j delay to tho shipping. The dredge only ! worked on 17 days, making 203 trips, removing 12,180 cubic yards of sand from off tha spit. A fsw months ngo the first cargo of Japanese lumber ever chipped to Australia was landed in Melbourne and met with such a ready market that a naw shipment was made at once. There now ssems every probability that a permanent market for Japanese lumber will be establishsd in the colonies. The cargoes thus far sent consist of pine, oak, ash, and basswood in logs of various sizes, squared by the axe only, and it is said they can be landed in Australia at a lower figure than other imported lumber. Two British vessels vcere reported lost through floating mines since the beginning of the late Ri»so-Japanese war. Two London steamers also were damaged by floating mines. Nine neutral vessels, of which three were British, have been reported as missing on voyages in the East, but ths. causes of their loss were, of course, purely matters of conjecture. It is reported that there is a dearth of seamen in Canada and 6ome vessels are unable to sail on account of lack of crows. The new twin-screw passenger steamer for which tha Union Company has contracted with Messrs. Alex Stephen and Sons, Linthonse, is to bo 450 feet in longth, 57 feet in breadth and 35i feet in depth, with a speed of about 17 knots, and is to have accommodation fov about 220 first, 160 second, and 100 third-class passengers. She is to be delivered in about twelve months, and will bo suitable for either the intercolonial service or tho Vancouver route. The boat will cost somewhere übout £200,000, and will be tho most expensive vessel in the Company's fleet. The excavating work in connection with the widening of the North Sea and Baltic Canal will probably be put in hand next year, and about 100,000 cubic metres of earth will have to be moved. Jn tho meantime the technical preliminaries, and the expropriation and purchaso of land, are being proceeded with. Any hindrance to tho traffic during the widening operations will, us far as possible, be avoided. Tho yacht Hildogarde, built in 1874 foi" tho Princo of Wales (now King Edward VII.), is boing broken up in a shipyard in Now Jersey. She originally cost £167,000, and was 'bought at the close of 1905 for about £1400. On the afternoon the flagship Powerful left Sydney for Colombo, carrying the time oxpirad crews of the Australian station a great crowd, says the Sydney Morning Herald, gathered to see the cruiser off, and Jack's sweethearts were well in evidence, with waving handkerchiefs and in some cases, wot eyelashes and sore hearts, as the band upon the great, gi'ey ship struck up "Rolling Home," a chantey well known to tho er,«wß of every "wind-jammer" and 1 meat steamer between ths Horn and the Nore. At Colombo tho Powerful will pick up the relief crews for* the Australian station. Two ships have just arrived at their respective destinations from Australia after a very close race home. The ."hips referred to aro tho Herzogin Sophie Charlotte, of Germany, and the Scotch ship Arctic Stream, belonging to Glasgow. , Tho Horzogin Sophie Charlotte (a training-ship with a crew all told of about 100) left Sydney on tho 20th ! April, bound for Bremen, and the Arctio Stream left on tho 23rd April, bound j for Rotterdam. Tho German ship reached the Channel three days before tho Arctic Stream, so that from Australia to the Channel tho time was tho j same, but the latter ship got to Rotterdam on the «amo day as tho German ship reached Bremen, thus beating hoc t from port to port by three days. Tho L time on, the pnssHUQ was 97 days. ,