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Grey River Argus, Volume XXVI, Issue 4394, 23 September 1882, Page 2

The following weather forecast was received by the Acting Harbor-master yesterday:—"3.lo p.m.— lndications of bad weather between north and west and sonth<ve3u; glass fall and sea continue heavy, and after 12 hours the rivers will be in high flood. Indications very bad. — R A Edwin;" fn consf queDca of the rongh state of the bar there were no departures frrm the port yesterday. The Martha Reid, after being lightered, was safely floated and brought to the Hoki« tika wharf on Thursday afternoon. While tha palm must unquestionably be yielded to the Manapouri and Wairarapa in respect to superb passeager accommodation, their right to it as cargo carriers may be disputed. The arrangement followed in laying out the engine space, the saloon and cabin room of these sbeamera, has"lef 6 them with about three-fourths of their cargo space approachable only by the fore hatchway, and the other fourth of the space by the after hatch. For working cargo this is obviously awkward, and entails a considerable loss of time, the cargo haying to be posscd out or in" mainly at one hatchway When the Wakatipu was here lait she took in 700 tons of cargo in ten honrs, and only last Saturday the Mahinapua discharged 350 tons of coal into railway tracks, chiefly between 9am and 9 pm. No such despatch is possible with either the Manapouri or Wairarapa. — Press, The following is from tho Rev James Pearson, of Fleetwood :— " The mode of determining the error of a ship's compissin ' all its bearings, which seems to inexperienced persons a matter of much complexity, is in reality nob nearly so difficult as ib ' seems. It is hoped the following details will be inbelligible ; — An instalment is sup» plied which consists simply of a movable compass card, having no magnetic needle, attached to which are upright sights for observing the bearing of the sun. Now, at any known time of observation, as shown by a watch on any day, the accurate magnetic bearing of the sun is shown in a book of tables provided for the purpose, and at thai; instant the card is screwed down so as to saow that bearing when the sun is In the linn of sijhti Thus, the card being in the position a correct compass would indicate, the error of the ship's compass is seen, and the ship ia swung round so as to exhibit the error when the head points to N, N N W, N W, W N W, W, &c. If the day is cloudy, the position of some headland is taken for a standard behring." Mr Benjamin, in an artiole on "The Evolution of the American Yacht," published in the July Century, compares the ti<ne made by some sailing ships, twenty and thirty yeirs ago, with that of the fastest i steamers to-day. In one of the recant 11 fastest passages ever made" by the Alaska, hor greatest run was 419 miles in 24 hours. I Before 1850, th« ship James Baines, built by Donald M 'Kav, ran 420 miles in 24 hours. The ship Red Jacket;, built at Rockland, Maine, r%n 2250 miles in seven days or 325 per diem for a week. The Flying Cloud. M'K-.y's most celebrated sh?p, once rr.n 374 knots, or 433 milep, in 24 hours and 25 minutes, fqual 17 17 miles per hour. The difficulty sailing vessola experience in com- i petiog with crafb who-e motive power ia Bteam lies not in tbe ability of the ships, i but in the fact that the wind is unsteady. ' An extraordinary decline has taken plaoe in the United States merchant marine during the last quarter of a cantury. In 1856 no leas than 75 per cent of tieir exports and imports wern carried in American ship 3, while in 1881 the proportion had sunk to only 16 per cent. Tbe shipbuilders are at last awakening to the necessity of aome auction to prevent tha utter desbrucbion of their industry, and » petition was recently jeccntly presented in the Senate from tha Board of Trade of Bath, Me., urging the appointment of a commission to ait during the recess to inquire into the caus«3 of this aUrmintt decay. C3ptain Jones, of the barque Loch Crea is somethiog more than a navigator. At sea his workshop is not only Bupplied with the requisite Btock of charts, chronometers, sexvants, &c, but there are the latest styled of machines for doing fretwork in wood. "The most delicate designs in frames, brackets, a?d to forth, executed at shortess notice," would form an appropriate sign at tMe entrance of Captain Jones's studio This gontlemaa also claima the honor of being aa inventor, having patented a ship's bottom scrubber for use at soa, the right of the manufacture of which ia America it is said he sold some time sinco for a considerable sum of money. "The JoDe3* scrubber " has achieved an enviable namo at several American ports, and ia in pood demand amongst Americ-n shipping. The bruab.es, in tho form of mats, are lot out on linea made fast to the martingale of the ship, and they work np and down from tfce keel to th«» water line, from &t ?m to stern, as the ship moves through the water, rubbing off barnacles and the marine growth that interfere bo much with the passage of ships through the water.