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Grey River Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 3313, 31 March 1879, Page 2

The schooner Spec, now commanded by J. W. Turner, formerly of the T. B. Taylor, was brought to the wharf on Saturday by the ps Dispatch. The Spec left Wanganui on the 17th inst, and had light variable grinds until off the bar on the 27th, when, through the thick weather, she had to put to sea again, and was brought in as above. She is in ballaßt and will load coal. The fore-and-aft schooner Opotiki left Gisborne on the 9th inst, and experienced head and light winds all the passage. She brings about 20 tons of flour and other produce, and will load coal for Gisborne, in which trade she will be engaged during the next twelve months. It was lucky the schooner got in on Saturday, as the crew were reduced to very short commons, and were out of water, their only supply for the last six days being what they could catch from the sails. The steamers Waipara and Murray sailed on Saturday, the former for Hokitika and the latter for Westport and Nelson. The schooner Gleaner, coal laden for Port Chalmers, was towed out by the Dispatch on Saturday. A strong gale commenced from the northwest yesterday forenoon, accompanied with heavy rain squalls, which will leave the bar unworkable to-day. The Hecla, formerly the British Empire, originally a merchant Bteamer, now an armed man-of-war, has lately returned to Portsmouth (says the Pall Mall Gazette) from a cruise of several weeks' duration. The Hecla is a model or specimen vessel, having been bought by the Admiralty some months ago, in ordei that experiments might be made, in the first place, as to the possibility of converting in case of emergency merchant ships of a certain class into armed cruisers for the protection of commerce, or for any other purpose for which fast, unarmoured, and not very heavily armed ships might: be usefully employed ; and in the second phce, in order that it might be determined by actual trial how the proposed conversion of a peaceful into a fighting ship might be best effected. The Hecla herself is armed with six 61 -pounder guns, the sides and deck of the vessel in the neighborhood of each piece having been strengthened to enable those parts to withstand the strain brought upon them when the guns are fired. Ports have been cut in the sides of the ship through which torpedoes can be discharged, and she carries a'so four fast torpedo launches. Assuming then that torpedoes are the formidable weapons which they are generally believed to be, the Hecla must be held to be offensively a very powerful vessel, and one which might, under certain circumstances, prove to be a dangerous antagonist for even a large ironclad. To strengthen the Hecla defensively a novel expedient has been resorted to. In vessels of her build the engines are to a great extent above the water line, and are therefore more exposed than even in an unarmoured man-of-war. To protect therefore this vital part of the ship as much as possible "coal armour," as it has been named, has been employed ; or in other words, the machinery and boiler of the vessel have been surrounded with permanent bunkers, which are filled with coal, and (strengthened with thin iron plates. Before this plan was adopted it was ascertained by experiments made at Portsmouth that this "coal armour" possesses considerable resisting power, and will ac all events keep out the projectiles of guns as powerful as those carried by the Hecla herself. During the cruise from which she has jußt returned it was proved that her guns could be fired without in any way straining or damaging the ship,