SHIPS AND THE DSEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1908, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE DSEA.

A group of Chinese mandarins is taking measures for establishing a eteam navigation company for furthering ths Chinese shipping trade. They will be subsidised, and first operations include America, Japan, and Polynesia. * i It would appear, says tha home ship- i ping authority Fair Play, that tho dis- 3 tinguished record of Captain Simnson, ( of the Aberdeen liner Moravian,' has \ been certainly eclipsed in regard to ( length of service b"y that of Captain ] John W. Jennings, R.N.R., of tho | White Star line. In brief, the record ; of this navigator was 64 years at sea, ] and his retirement took place in ,1894. , His commands included the Asiatic, j Gaelic, Oceanic, Baltic, Celtic, andAclri- \ atic, predecessors of the present named j ships. Captain Jennings circumnavi- , gated tho globs <30 times, and having attained a venorable age is living in re- i tiroinent in ths south of .England. ] The whaling barque John and Win- ; throp, on a voyage from Okotsk Sea to San Francisco, had a remarkable ex- ' porience of storms, and the invaluable ' use of oil in times of peril was demon- | stratpd. Tha firet gala was of three days' duration, muck damage being done, and many sails lost, but oil was ; liberally used, and ths ve&sel escaped. ! Hor second experience- wa3 more serious, and occurred on 9th November, when sho was repeatedly thrown on her beam ends by hurricane' blasts. Throe boats on tha port side were smashed, and cabins were flooded. For two days tho barque floated in a sea of oil, which proved her salvation. Just as all hope- was' about to bo aoandoned for the safety of the barque Borrowdale, which sailed from Bunbury, Western Austrlia, with a cargo or timber on 6th August for Falmouth, news has been received that she was sighted off th ; 3 coast of England. The voyage occupied the extraordinarily long period of 105 days. % As may be readily understood, the attempts of most, people to pronounce tho name of the Norwogian barque Hafrsfjord have ended disrstrously. During the sojourn of the vessel in Melbourne, thereforo (according tc a local paper), it ha 3 been tho practice among port habitues to evade ihz, difficulty by describing her as the General Roberts, which Utle the old ship bors for many years when sailing under the British flag, and prior to her passing into foreign hands. This barqus has taken hor departure from Hobson's Bay ,for bouth Alrica, with a full cargo of grain. . She is in splendid' order, and should make a gcocl trip. , It is reported that Mr. J. Pierpont I Morgan has obtained control of the various coastwise steamship companies j managed by Mr. Charles W. Moore, j i which wore 'included in the Consolidated j I Steamship Lines. Ifc is stated that Mr. i Morgan obtained control of 'the Con-'j ' solidated Company, which was capital-' i ised at 60,000,000 dollars, for 3,000,000 dollars. Loud complaints aro still 1 being made by shipowners and agents in regard to the insufficiency of coal-loading^berths and '■ appliances r.t Newcastle. Not only are ; heavy losses being weakly experienced, i ! but the poTt is quickly coming into disj repute in the world's centres of p.hipp'mg activity as a. place which continues to lag behind the times. In referring to the proposal that ihe new P. and 0. liner Salse'A'i should bs j constructed on the turbine principle, j Sir Thomas Sutherland, at (h> (Jnoetmg of tho P. and O. Company, said that after maturo consideration, it r}as been decided not to adopt tho system, The reasons for this were that to equip tho vessol with turbines wovld increase, the prime cost of i the ship, and also tho consumption of fuel. Scaing that tho cost of coal between Aden and Bombay, where the Salsotto is to run,' was 2t)3 per ion, this was a very important rr.at,tcr of economy, The fclalsstto, which is to have & speed of 19 knots, will therefore be driven by reciprocating engincii. Thore is a somewhat curioiis feature in connection with the inter-colonial trado between Bombay and China. The great extent of that trado consists in the shipment of cotton yarn, which is manufactured now in Bombay, as if Bombay were a second Manchester. The trado has beßn Gomcwhat dull in China during the past year, and, for the first time in history, 50,000 bales of Bombay cotton yarn havo uhis year found their way into Europa.- Now, it is a matter of somewhat curious specu-' latio.n to tli3 philosophic mind whether this circumstance is a niera incident or whether it is a prophetic ■ note of , tho influence of cheap labour in tho Ear East, and of which we may hear a great deal later on. The French Government has decided to build a training-ship for the formation of officers of the mercantile marine. The barquo Kate Tatham, which foundered in tho North Harbour, Newcastle, N.S.W., on 4th November last, has been raised and taken Up on the slip on Stockton, for survey, overhaul, and ropair. The barque was found to bo in very good condition, tho lower plates especially proving sound, very thick, and thoroughly good, and after she has passed through the repairers' hands thoro t3 cveiy reason for couficleneo that she will be again a useful. vessel, capable of being worked profitably. Much perseverance was displayed in raising her, peculiarities of the tideway in which sho was submerged, and particularly in the formation of the, bottom on which" filio was grounded, making the operation exceptionally difficult. As she lay athwart the stream, resting upon newly-made ground, which was practically a quicksand," the rip of caen falling tide made a scour, where, checked by her bulk, it scooped out a hole, on tho up-stream sido of her, into which she slid at the rising of the next tide. This process was repeated tide by tide, and left alona she would have nearly buried herself in a very few weeks, but hung on to by pdntoon lighters, she was checked from so sinking. Made fast to these floating supports a little was gained on each flow of the tide, till at last her purchasers were rewarded. Elderslio Rock, for years a terror to Clyde navigators, has at length been removed by years of blasting operations, involving an expenditure of nearly £100,000. It proved to be a b«d of whinstone 900 ft long and 300 ft broad, and hard as adamant. At first it was only covered by Bft of water at low tide, but vessels drawing 28ft can now pass over it with safety. Australians are hoping some day to build big ships on their own account (says- an English paper). Meantime those constructed in British yards are deemed quite good enough to go on with. Recently there was launched on the Clyde a twin-screw passenger boat ot 6100 tons gross, which has been built for <ho A.U.S.N. Company, an enterprise that holds a prominent place in tho inter-State trade. Tho vesrel in named the Wyreema, and is eoiuo 400 ft long between perpendiculars, with h beam of C4ft. Shs is a type of boat which suggests that a great advancehas been made of late years in the passenger steamship that now finds favour in Australasian waters. In point of speed sho is also likely to mark a step forward. Australia and New Zealand have lately made some very useful demands upon our shipbuilding yards t