NAUTICAL ITEMS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4266, 20 October 1875, Page 2

NAUTICAL ITEMS.

The Register states ihe Board of Trade returns show that at the end of the year 1574, there were registered as belonging to the United Kingdom, including the Channel Islands, 21,464 sailing vessels, of, in the aggregate, 4,103,220 tons ; and 4033 steam vessels, of ■1,870,011 tons, m iking in the whole 25,497 vessels, of 5,978,831 tons, being 173,669 tons more than at the end of the year 1873. The ahove numbers compared with those for 13(50 show on the 14 years a decline of 4199 in the number of sailing vessels, but of only 86,140 tona in the tonnage ;in steam vessels, an increase of 2033 in the number, and of 1,416,284 in the tonnage. The total shipping shows a decline of 2166 in the number of vessels, but an increase of 1,320,144 tons in the tonnage. The same authority inform* us of extraordinary torpedo experiments. Captain Singer, R.N., President of the Admiralty Torpedo Committee ; Captain Bloomficld, R.N. ; Lieutenant-Colonel Stotherd, R.E. ; Captain Bre=t, R.N., and Captain Liddle, R.N., were enjKUfed for several hours on July 23rd in witnessing a series of very extraordinary experiments at the -Alexandra Palace. These experiments were designed to show what could be done in the matter of pecretly pi icin"- or removi g torpedoes or submarines mines by the employment of the appliances recently invented and perfected by the Messrs Denayrouge, o^

Paris. It was shown that a man furnished with these appliances could live and work under water, without any communication or connection with the surface, for two hours : than he could move about under water in any direction, and raise and lower himself, as he pleased ; that he could guide himself by the aid of a compass, which he could read by the light of a lamp, which he could light and extinguish at pleasure; and that with these appliances he could either remove torpedoes which the enemy had placed, or arrange others for the destruction of the ships of the enemy. All these operations, it was shown, could be conducted with perfect secrecy, the man employed in them bein? for the time as safe from observation as a fish in the water. For, example, a man with these appliances could descend to the bottom of the Thames, guide himself by his compass and lamp to a vessel lying at anchor, raise himself to her side or stern, affix a torpedo which he carried with him, and return to the shore with a wire attached to the torpedo, and through which it might be exploded; or in like mauner he could reach torpedos laid down by an enemy and render them useless. The experiments were of a most critical and conclusive character. The men employed in them remained under water three-quarters of an hour without any connection with the surface, ana performed in miniature everything which we have described. The officers of the Torpedo Committee expressed themselves entirely satisfied with the result. The appliances used on this occasion were the Denayrouge compound compressing air pump, a set of steel cylinders charged with compressed air to 300 lbs. to the square inch, with an appliance for so reducing the pressue as to|render it available for breathing; a diving dress and helmet, with speaking apparatus, and with another apparatus which enabled the wearer to work below water without giving any tokens of his presence ; the Denayrouge submarine lamp, which the diver could light under water: the ordinary Denayrousre apparatus, with the most approved improvements for ordinary submarine operations, and finally, the submarine high pressure apparatus, which is a single cylinder, with a self-regulating appliance for supplying the diver with air.