STEAMERS FROM AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16013, 3 September 1915, Page 7

STEAMERS FROM AMERICA.

TWO ARRIVALS YESTERDAY. The arrivals in port yesterday included two large cargo steamers, the Norman Monarch and the Batsford. from New York, via the Panama Canal. The Batsford left New York on July 18, and the Norman Monarch on July 22. They met in the canal, where they were detained for three days, owing to a heavy landslide in the Culebra Cut. A channel of just sufficient depth and width was dredged through the debris, and the vessels proceeded slowly through, the Norman Monarch entering the Pacific at 8 p.m. on August 3, and the Batsford an hour or two later. Neither sighted the other until reaching pert, the Norman Monarch being four hours ahead of the Batsford. When the Norman Monarch was passing the island of Pitcairn at dusk on August 18, she was stopped for half-an-hour, in answer to signals made by several boat-loads of the inhabitants, who desired to communicate with her. The visitors were allowed to inspect the ship and exchange curios for fresh food and other delicacies. There are about 126 white people on Pitcairn Island, and it was learned by the officers of the steamer that everyone was well and happy, despite their isolation from civilisation. The Norman Monarch brought a full cargo of general American merchandise for New Zealand and Australian ports. She encountered a series of moderate gales and very heavy seas in the Pacific, and as a result some of the deck cargo, consisting of several hundred barrels of resin, consigned to Melbourne, broke loose and was slightly damaged by the heavy seas which broke on board. The officers* report that the steamer Navarino, which left New York a day or two later than the Norman Monarch, with a full cargo of ease oil for Auckland and other New Zealand ports, was passed in the Panama Canal. The Navarino was expected to arrive here as soon as the Norman Monarch and Batsford, but Captain Watson, of the former vessel, expressed the opinion that as the Navarino is a flower vessel, she may not. arrive before to-morrow.