SHIPS AND THE SEA OCEAN TOWAGE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 122, 21 November 1908, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA OCEAN TOWAGE.

'Ocean towage is always a difficult and risky job, and lately those engaged in such work have had bad luck. The great floating dock for Callao, which, states Syren, broke away from two powerful tugs, and which was with difficulty recovered and towed into the Thames, is one case in pointl Another is the big crane barge specially built by Messrs. Vickers, Maxim for the Montreal authorities. She left Barry in tow of the tug Oceana. When about 300 miles off the West Coast of Ireland heavy weather was met with, during! which thte hawsers parted. The tug unfortunately failed to pick her up, and the captain decided to temporarily abandon the structure and put back to port for repairs. When these had" been effected the tug again steamed out to try and pick up the barge, only, to find that she had been forestalled by two trawlers, which picked it up, and, after tremendous efforts, succeeded in towing it to safety. As the barge was rapidly drifting on to rocks, it is probable that the salvage reward will be a handsome one. The loss would have meant \ a paying out of £24,000 by the underwriters. The highest rate paid to reinsure was 50 guineas. A TERRIFIC STORM. An American correspondent of a London journal in describing an experience, in a terrible storm recently, of the large Cunarder Mauretania, says: — "The wind was blowing sixty miles an hour, and the liner was steaming at 20 knots, when one of the blades of a starboard propeller snapped. The engines stopped, the vessel swung broadside to the seas, and big waves dashed over her. Most of the passengers were in their cabins. The saloon passengers -were jerked a foot into the air by the shock of the waves. In the second cabin passengers were thrown from their chairs to the floor, while fourteen stokers were buried under a pile of coal. The masts bent like trout rods, and several stays parted. There was no panic. Not a little of the credit of this was due to Miss Alice Lloyd, the popular music hall artist, who was travelling to America to fulfil a two years' engagement in the States. •In the first class saloon, crowded with frightened women, she stood up and sang. Beginning witb Over the Hills and Far Away, she sang for over aa hour, till confidence was entirely restored. After half an hour's delay the Mauretania resumed her passage with ! two propellers, making nineteen knots." Commenting ot> the above, Syren remarks that the correspondent in question let himself go with an abandon which is unusual even in American journalistic circles. Continuing, the aamo journal says : "Note the nicn graduations which Father Neptune observes in his treatment of the various classes of society. Saloon passengers ne merely jerked into the air ; second-class persons he throws to the floor ; common stokers he buries under coal. The ship herself 'seemed to sway and shake with a sideways twist.' " Steam has not yet abolished sailing vessels, the total number of the latter craft in. the world being nearly double that of steamers. There has just been erected on the Bass Rock, the precipitous island in the Firth of Forth, off the Haddingtonshire coast, a now foghorn which has cost £40,000. It will be interesting to note the effect of the hooter on the nerves of the sea birds, of which thousands of one kind and another are to be found on this desolate spot. At dusk the captains of the passenger steamers in passing generally sound their whistle or siren for the amusement of their pas. eengers, and it. is a sight not easily forgotten to watch myriads of sleepy birds') fly a short' distance and then return, after uttering their , protest after^ the manner of the owl in; Gray's elegy. The aew foghorn will give three blasts every two minutes. It has been announced that the Mexican Government is to spend a large amount of money on port works on her Pacific coast. The first work will bo done on the port of Mazatlan, where it is intended to make the shipping facilities of the first order. The work will approach in. importance that at Salina Cruz, the Pacific terminal of tho Tehuaa. tepee National railroad. What, asks Syren, would our grandfathers have said, had they mceived s\ | u>py of a little pamphlet just issued wherein is provided a list of Vi tours, including two round Africa and five round* the world. The cheapest of these latter works out at £147 10s, first class throughout, and the itinerary is as follows : London to Beira, whence visits may be paid (railway fares included) to the Victoria Falls via Umtali, Salisbury and Bulawayo ; thence to Cape Town, by way of Mafeking and Kimberley. At Cape Town tho passenger takus stearuer to Sydney or New Zealand, travelling thence to Honolulu, and home via | Vancouver and Montreal or New York. Other world tours include China and Japan and India, and the only drawback to these cheap trips is that the man who has beea round the world can no longer feel that he is one of the minor heroes, as those who lived in a less enlightened age could do. The decline in the Dominion of Canada's shipping tonnage, which has been in progress for thirty years, has now been apparently arrested. Although 452 vessels were stricken from the registry list in 1907, there waa a net gain. New vessels to the number ot 392 were built, valued at 1,728,450 dollars, and others were bought abroad. The total value of Canadian vessels last year was 20,960,640 dollars. The London "Shipping World," in referring to the recent shipping disaster at Christmas Island, says:— "The long dela> in advising the loss of the Aeon is likely to have a good effect in hastening the proposal to link up the Islands in the Pacific by wireless telegraphy. The scheme at present is to connect Ocean Island and Pleasant Island, of the Gilbert Group, irom which large quantities of phosphate are now shipped to Australia and Europe, with the mainland of Australia, and gradually to bring the various groups of islands in the Pacific into connection. The suggested system will probably include ten or twelve circles, the largest having a vadius of 1250 miles. Each station will require an engine of 60 horsepower." There is under construction at the present time (says Engineering) a wortregarding whfch little is known by engineers in general or by the public, but which is unquestionably one of the most important pieces of engineering of the tune* (t comprises the "enlarging" of the existing Erie Canal, owned by the State of New York, which is the only water route, except the St. Lawrence River, between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic. Practically, it means the construction of an 'entirely new system of canals, aggregating 442 miles in length. The First Lord of the Admiralty has slated, in reply to a question, that 50 ships were sold out of the navy service in 1906-7, the total sum realised in this way being 33240,565. The total original cost of theso vesßela was £4,075*918.