BY TELEGRAPH.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4209, 16 September 1874, Page 2

BY TELEGRAPH.

AUCKLAND. September 15.—Arrived, 7 a.m.: Macgregor, from San Francisco. WANGANUI, September 15.—Sailed, 12.25 p.m.: Stormbird, for Wellington. ONEHUNGA. September 15.—Sailed ; St. Kilda, for the South. PORT CHALMERS. September 15.—Arrived: Ladybird, from Lyttelton. Sailed, 1 p.m.: Taranaki, for Lyttelton. The s.s. brace sailed this evening on her first trip to Lyttelton. NEW PLYMOUTH. September 15. —Arrived: Wellington, from Nelson. Sailed : Phoebe, for Nelson. The rumonj relative to the sale of the three-masted schooner Marion to Mr. E. Pearce, are contradicted on the authority of the captain of the schooner. She is chartered for a term for the Coast trade. A VESSEL WITHOUT A FRAME. The Boston correspondent of the New York Herald writes to that journal;—There is now in progress of construction in one of the East Boston shipyards vessel embodying a new and peculiar principle in naval architecture, and which is attracting considerable attention from shipbuilders and others in this section of the country. The designer of this new method of construction, Mr. Nehemiah Hibson, a wealthy and leading citizen of East Boston, is not a professional shipbuilder, but in the course of long experience in the re-building by others of vessels which have been wrecked and purchased by him for the purpose of renovating and employing them in both the foreign and coasting trade, became strongly impressed with the idea that radical faults existed in the ordinary method of construction. This method requires, as the base of the structure, a costly white oak frame, the ribs of which are made up of several short pieces of timber, with curves of greater or less radius, placed end to end from the keel upwards to the deck, and held in position contiguous to each other by the outer planking and inner ceiling, which is securely bolted to them. Ribs made of a single timber extending from keel to deck, bent by powerful machinery, to the required curves, were invented several years ago by a citizen of East Boston, and a ship named the New Era, now in the East India trade, was built on this plan, and has thus far proved a staunch and able craft. In this invention the disadvantages and loss of strength resulting from the use of ribs constructed of several pieces of timber were avoided, but the, invention met with little favor among shipbuilders in consequence of the destruction of material occurring in the attempts to bend the huge timbers to the requisite curves. The plan of construction adopted by Mr. Gibson is exceedingly simple, and is a complete innovation on the theory and prootivo of the, past, in that it wholly discards the frame as tire basis of the structure of a vessel. It is a well-known fact that a majority of even the best built vessels, when deprived of the support of that clastic cushion, the water, by grounding in the harbor or elsewhere, are strained and become leaky, except in rare instances. This is believed to be the result of serious faults in the plan of construction, and, in one respect, in the use of a frame insufficiently staunch at first, and eventually weakened by the corroding or imperfections of bolts, which cut the ribs through. His vessel, which is now so far advanced as to be ready for launching in a few weeks, is a three-masted schooner, registering about 310 tons, 135 feet over all, 32J feet beam, and Hi feet depth of hold, with a single deck, and estimated carrying capacity of 050 tons of coal. The keel, of hard pine, was first laid, and then, commencing on either side, sticks of timber 12 inches wide and 6 inches thick were bolted to it by one and a quarter inch bolts, from 30-30 inches long. To these timbers others, hewn to meet the curves, were bolted in turn, gradually building upward to the deck a compact shell 12 inches thick, composed of timbers arranged longitudinally, the ends overlapping as the courses of blocks in a stone building. No short timber has been used except in a few instances, and the longest ones attainable have beCn employed as the best adapted to the purpose. The keel and plankshear are all hard pine, the stem, sternpost and transoms of oak, and the limbers of the shell, as it may be termed, entirely of spruce. The reasons assigned for using spruce as the principal material in the bull arc that it is tough and buoyant and especialiyadapled to thepreservationoflthe iron bolts. The manner of bolting is somewhat peculiar, and calculated to insure tenacity of hold and great strength. Into each timber twelve inches in width are driven two iron bolts opposite each other, each bolt having a slight “ drift” from a straight line. Varying in length from thirty to thirty-six inches, each bolt passes through three of the five or six of the 6-inch thick timbers, and their "drift” prevents them from withdrawing easily. Twenty-five tons of bolts have already been driven, and fifteen tons additional will bo required. The result of this system of construction is the formation of what may he termed a " concrete iron and wood hull of unusual strength throughout."