SHIPPING.

Evening Star, Issue 11890, 19 May 1903, Page 6

SHIPPING.

HIGH WATER. n-imm. Taiaroa Head: 8.26 a.m., 8.69 p.m. Port Chalmers: 9.6 a.m., 9.39 p.m. Dunedin: 9.51 a.m., 10.24 p.m. TELEGRAPHIC WEATHER REPORTS. The following weather reports from New Zealand stations were received this mom. mg , Cap® Mam Van Diemen.—Wind, S.W. fresh; ther., 60; bine sky; tide good, sea neavy awelL AucklMd—Wind, N.E., light; bar., * ther ‘, £7.5 ]>tae sky; tide moderate. Gisborne.—Wind, W.. bar £°Si2K" ,kTi moderate, bar smooth. _ Wellington —Wind, N.W., light; bar., mod?S >er '’ 52; blae sk s r ’ c^onds - tid ® Nelson.—Cabn; bar., 29.99; ther., 46; *s®, donds; tide moderate Westport.—Wind, E., light; bar., "•”7» ther., 66; blue sky, clouds; tide moderate, bar moderate swell, on A« aley ;“ Will ' d » 8.W., light; bar., ther., 41; blue sky, clouds; river

Lyttelton-—Calm; bar., 29.88; ther., ; blue sky; tide moderate. -.Timaru. —Wind, N.E., breeze; bar., 549.98; ther., 47; clouds; tide moderate, sea swell

o Oamaru—Wind, N., light; bar., 29.91; ther., 42; blue sky, clouds; tide moderate, sea smooth. Port Chalmers.— Wind. S., light; bar., 29.86; ther., 49; blue sky, clouds; tide moderate, sea smooth. Dunedin.—Wind, N.E., light; bar., 29.83; ther., 60; blue sky, clouds; tide moderate.

Clyde.—Calm; bar., 29.90; ther., 44; blue sky, clouds; river falling. Queenstown.—Wind, N., light; bar., 29.80; ther., 46; clouds. Baldntha.—Calm; bar., 29.82; ther., 40; blue sky, clouds; river low. Nuggets,—Wind, N., light; bar.,29.95; ther., 46; blue sky, clouds; tide moderate, sea calm. Invercargill.—Calm; bar., 29.95; ther., 40; bine sky, clouds. Bluff—Wind, N.W., light; bar., 29.95; ther., 48; Hue sky, clouds; tide moderate, sea smooth. SAILED—May 18. Ovalaa, s.s , 76' 7 tons, Clift, for Sydney via Oamaru, Timaru, and Auckland. May 19 Aparima, s.s., 3,684 tons, Co nr barren, for Timaru, Sydney, and Calcutta. EXPECTED ARRIVALS. Corinna, from the North, May 20. Monowai, from Melbourne via Hobart and Bluff, May 20. Victoria, from Sydney via Wellington, May 23. Waikare, from Sydney via Auckland. May 24. Wakanni, from London via Northern ports, May 25. Medea, from Liverpool via Wellington, left January 20. Kildalton, from Glasgow via Wellington, left January 31, Johns Palm, from Glasgow, left February 14, Rapallo, from New York via Australia and Northern ports, left March 19 (at Melbourne May 14). Louise Roth, from New York, left March 31 Europa, from Liverpool via Wellington, left/April 4. Colbert, from Glasgow via Wellington, left April 10, Omba, from New York via Northern ports, left April 30. Northern Monarch, from Liverpool via Wellington, left May 1. PROJECTED DEPARTURES. for Sydney via Auckland, May Corinna, for West Coast and Northern ports, May 21. Monowai, for Sydney via Wellington, May 2L Tarawera, for Auckland via way ports. May 23. Victoria, for Melbourne via way ports. May 24. J • Waikare, for Sydney via Auckland, May 26.

The Ovalau left the George street pier at 5 p.m. yesterday for Sydney via Oamaru, Tiniarn, and Auckland.

A Hokitika telegram says; The small paddle steamer Mahinapua grounded in the Mahinapua Creek yesterday. Five men aboard shifted from'bow to stem, when the boiler, situated at the bow, suddenly exploded, the men marvellously escaping injury. The steamer was undamaged. The Union S.S. Company’s steamer Ovalau has been purchased by Messrs Bums, Philp, and Co., for the Island trade. Apart from the construction of a few very fart ocean steamers by the German, and now by the English lines (says the ‘Scientific American’), the tendency’ is toward the construction of extremely large cargo passenger ships of modem speed, say, from fourteen to seventeen knots an hour. It is found that the cost of carrying freight is steadily reduced as the size of the ship is increased; and as there seems to be no limit to the application of this rule in theory, it becomes an interesting question just how large the ships of the near future will be binit. At present it seems that the only limit will be that of depth of channels ana length of dock accommodation.

On Wednesday morning (says au Auckland paper) an accident happened to the Northern Company’s Glenelg when coming alongside Onehunga wharf. There was a strong tide setting along the wharf,- and the steamer did not answer her helm promptly, with the result that she went into the wharf, carrying away a corner pile and disarranging a portion of the decking, while the damage to the vessel resulted in a hole being stove in her starboard bow. The Aparima sailed this morning for Timarn and Sydney. She will go subsequently to Calcutta. The barque Port Sonachan has discharged all her Dunedin cargo, and is taking in ballast. She will probably sail for Wellington, for which port she has part cargo, to-morrow.

The s.s. Invercargill will sail for the South to-morrow morning. The scow Eunice has got quit of her cargo of timber, and now ues at the Jetty street wharf, awaiting developments. If a cargo is available she may go to the West Gout. TURBINE ENGINES FOR STEAMERS. The news that Sir Chris to {her Furness, head of the well-known Furness line of steamers, has ordered a fleet of merchantmen fitted with turbine engines will (says a contemporary) probably mark a very real improvement with regard to ocean transit. A new turbine boat, the Queen, was recently huilt at Messrs Denny’s famous shipbuilding yard at Dumbarton, to run between Dover and Calais. The principal reason for which turbines were fitted to the steamers was that of doing away with seasickness by means of the practical elimination of vibration. There is no doubt, also, that vessels fitted with engines working on this principle cain. develop a speed fax beyond that of the ordinary screw, and can run with a much smaller consumption of cold. The oscillation caused by the paddle wheels and the throb of the screw are absent, there is very little pitching, and scarcely any noise is heard from the machinery. “The manoeuvring power,” states a writer in an English paper, “ is as great as in an ordinary steamer, while in going astern there is none of that grinding motion so familiar to the traveller.” It was expected that the turbine steamer built by Messrs Denny would take up its regular running within six weeks from the date when it was first launched. As that would be just about the present time, it is possible that Sir Christopher Furness, in ordering a fleet of merchantmen' fitted with turbines, was actuated by the successful working of the Channel steamer. The vessel was guaranteed to have an average sea speed of twenty-one knots, and it was fully expected that she would cover the passage Between Dover and Calais in considerably less than the hour. Now that the principle* ha* united ’to Channel rrminim anVl

w t obe used for merchantmen, it is prob- 1 able that its adaptation on the big Atlantic l®ers will be a not very distant innovation. If ft works, on a large scale of practice, as successfully as it promises to ao in theory, and has already done on river boats and torpedo-destroyers, a considerable revolution in ocean travelling may be within sight. A FEVER-STRICKEN SHIP. Captain Tom Dariqy, who is well known in Australian shipping circles as master of the steamer Dovedale, has bad an awful experience with a fever-stricken crew, which he is not likely soon to forget. The vessel loaded a cargo of sugar at Java, and left at the end of last year for Philadelphia, but shortly after her departure her crew began to fall ill with a most virulent form of malarial fever. One by one they were stricken down, and at Suez Captain Barley had to ship a number of Arabs to work his vessel. The master frequently had to steer in turn with the chief engineer, to keep watch, trim coal, and fire. The vessel’s safe arrival at her destination on March 12 is largely due to the work of the master, the chief engineer, the captain’s son and daughter—the latter a young Australian girl, who used every effort to help the sick and encourage the small number able to work. Following are some extracts from a letter written by Captain Barley to a friend at Port Adelaide, dated Philadelphia, on March 20:— “We loaded at two ports in Java, taking 1,000 tons of sugar at Tjilitjap (a perfect oven, where there was no house but had one or more of the family down with fever), and completed at Samarang on December 31. Two days later our troubles began. First of all the second mate was laid aside with fever, then the firemen and sailors, and lastly the chief mate was attacked The latter lost his reason. On the Equator every one of the firemen was off duty, and all the sailors with one exception, besides the cook and mess room boy. The steward we landed at Batavia. The chief engineer, my son, daughter, and myself were the only persons who were perfectly well, although the other engineers never gave up, but did very much more than they were physically able to do. My daughter went into the galley and cooked, and made tasteful delicacies for the sick, did the stewarding, and kept watch during the daytime One day I was nine and a-half Honrs without stopping for anything more than a drink, trimming coal into a barrow in the ’tween-decks and running it to the hunkers to keep them filled, the engineers firing and keeping watch. Then I had to keep all-night watch and steer. The chief used to relieve me for an hour or so when one of the other erigineers relieved him. For four days, I think, he had no rest either night or day, and for about eighteen days I never had my clothes off except when I was trimming coal or “™:8- The chief mate was left at Suez, and was not expected to live. Op entering Suez Canal we had not one man capable of taking the wheel, so I took it for fourteen and a-half hours, and my son the remaining four and a-half hours, until our arrival at Port Said. The Suez Canal Company allowed ns to go through without making fart, and at a greater speed than the regulations permitted. Every vessel had to make way for the ‘fever ship.’ The second mate and six men were landed at Algiers, and there I shipped a chief mate. Leaving Algiers I thought we were well, clear of the fever, but as soon as we got into the bad and cold weather it came on again, almost as bad as ever. My son was acting second mate, and did very well. The Arabs I had to ship at Suez were perteetty useless, and on arrival here they i, me into trouble because I puJed them out of bed and would give hem nothing to eat unless they worked. After a succession of heavy gales we arRegister!^ 6 “ March Adelaide ARE FAST STEAMERS WASTEFUL? Pb™ 6 , K x^ er ,y iUlelln n - is a new North German Lloyd s steamship, which was a V¥ Vdcan Works at Stettin on 705 ft, breadth 72ft, displacement 26,000 oa n L ~ D dlCatf ( l horse-power 40,000, speed G i l non 11 ! h er passenger accommodation is for 1,800, but she carries no dead-weight. Her consumption of coal is 750 tons per comparison between this .<hip and the Cednc is made by Mr A. W. Robinson “ a P‘}P? r before the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, as an illustration oi the way to secure economy in large T7 S (ww 9 edrie has a displacement of f’V7 *£ DS ’ with an indicated horse-power °:. *,’292; ®Pccd 17 knots, dead-weight capacity 18,000 tons, passengers 3,000, and a coal consumption per day of 260 tons. The Gedric, according to Mr Robinson, represents a type of vessel having large capacity combined with moderate speed, while the Kaiser William 11. is of a type in which everything ls sacrificed to speed! He says : .A' " apparent from the foregoing figures that the extra seven knots speed [in the Kaiser William ll.] is obtained at the cost cLf 11 .. addltlona * coa i consumption of nearly 500 tons per day, and that the passenger accommodation is much less and the cargo capacity entirely lost. This will give some idea of the enormous cost of high speed. ’ It will be seen that Mr Robinson believes in large vessels, but not in an attempt to drive them too fart through the water. Of the advantages of great size provided moderation in speed he regarded as sufficient, he says (we quote, in part, an abstract made for the ‘ Engineering Magazme, December): “ It has been found that the propelling power required for a vessel for a given speed increases in a slower ratio pan the increase in its displacement, and in this fact is found the main secret of the superior economy of large vessels. A good deal has been done during the past ten years in the improvement of engines and boilers of ships, and in the reduction of weight and apace occupied by them; but this _ improvement is small compared with the increased economy produced by increasing the size alone. During the part ten years the paying load carried by a representative ocean cargo steamer has about doubled, while the average increase in fuel economy has been reduced from 1.521b coal perhorae-poweranhour to 1.481b, a comparatively small saying. Constructively, the limitations as to size in shipbuilding have by no means been attained. The Critic is about 700 ft long, 75ft beam, and 53ft draught, with a displacement of 33,500 tons, and a gross tonnage of 20,800 tons, and this is about the present limit, not of shipyards opd marine engineering, but of harbor draught and port facilities. This fact is realised, partially at least, and harbors all over the world are being dredged and docks and channels extensively improved to enaMe larger vessels to enter. It is an unnecessary truism to say'that large ships will not be economical unless they can be filled, but this aspect of the question merits more than passing notice. The difficulty of providing cargo for these large vessels is very great, and their advantages will not be realised unless there is a corresponding growth all along the line in facilities for receiving, warehousing, and rapid handling of the different kinds of freight in large quantities. In the keenness of competition of the present day it is the large economic cargo carrier winch will aid the most in the development of ocean trade, and ships of very great speed are only required for the purpose of carrying mails, and for carrying the comparatively small-number of passengers who are willing to pay the extra price for the saving of tune. The subject of fart ships is always an interesting one to engineers, as it calls for (he highest skill in design and construction, and the problem is no easy one. . . . The fact may' as well be realised now as later that those ports which expect to retain their commerce must provide safe channels of ample depth and proper harbor handling and warehouse facilities for the large steamers. Vessels of I,oooft in length, and 40ft or more draught will have to be reckoned with before very long, and only those seaports which have prepared themselves for such visitors will be able to reap'the advantages of the commerce which such ships will •bring.” THE WAIMATE. The New Zealand Shipping Company’s steamer Waimate, which arrived off the Heads yesterday afternoon, steamed subsequently into Port, and anchored off the Bowen pier, having on board combustibles, which were transhipped this morning. The

Waimate was then berthed at the George street pier to discharge her Dunedin cargo, which consists of 1,346 tons measurement and 665 tons dead-weight. Of explosives there were 1,428 packages, consisting of detonators, gelignite, gunpowder, and roburite. She has also sohte 399 tons of transhipments for Oamaru, Tim, am, Wanganui, Qreymouth, Napier, and Invercargill, with 410 tons for Lyttelton. The Waimate is still tinder the command of Captain J. J. Hamon, who bus with him the following officers :—Mr H. J. Davis/ chief; Mr J. F. Le Brocq, second; Mr C. W Clement, third; Mr J. Church, fourth; Mr S. Wescott, surgeon. Mr W, H. Fitches is chief engineer, Mr W. Barbour second, Mr J. Wilson third, Mr J. BartoQemena fourth, and Mr W. J. Philps fifth. The chief refrigerating engineer is Mr J. Colder, and the second Mr C. College. The following details of the passage are- supplied The Waimate left the Royal Albert dock on April 2, had fine weather down the Channel; arrived at Teneriffe and landed mails on April 8; coaled, and left again same day; had light N.F.. trade winds, and crossed the Equator on April 15; thence she had light to ‘strong S.E. trade to the Cape of Good Hope, which she rounded on April 25, and thence had moderate winds to longitude 6deg E. on May 1, when strong westerly winds set in. On May 10 she sighted a Shaw, Savill and Albion Company’ s steamship. Her passage across the Southern Ocean was marked by strong westerly gales and terrific seas down to longitude ISOdeg E., when she had south - erly gales for forty-eight hours, followed by strong S.E. winds She passed through Foveaux Strait on the 17th inst., and arrived off Otago Heads at noon yesterday. THE DIRECT STEAMERS. The Tongariro, which left Wellington on the 25th April, arrived at Monte Video yesterday, and continued her voyage to London. SHIPPING TELEGRAMS AUCKLAND, May 18.—H.M.S. Sparrow, from Wellington.—Mararoa, for Sydney.—Margarita, barque, for Kaipara.— Pelotas, barquentine, for Sydney. May 19: Kumara, from London.—Waikare (under fumigation), from Sydney. Passenger for Dunedin : Mr W. Preston. GNEHUNGA, May 18—Takapnna, for New Plymouth and Wellington. WELLINGTON, May 18.—Rotomahana, for Lyttelton. MELBOURNE, May 18.—Nairnshire, from London.—May 19: Elmville, from Kaipara-

BLUFF, May 19.—6.30 a.m., Monowai, from Melbourne via Hobart. Passengers for Dunedin : Misses Winton, Ellmore (2), Barron, Mrs Bluett, Messrs Johnson, Outram, M'Lean, Winton, Harvey, Bluett, Watts, Hogi; and sixteen in the steerage —7 a.m., Moeraki, from Dunedin. (For continuation see Late Shipping.)