SHIPPING NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2055, 13 July 1893, Page 37

SHIPPING NEWS.

COLONIAL AND FOKEIGN. ARRIVALS. July 6.— Onyx, barque, ,403 tons, Woebling, from Kaipara. Omapere, b.5.,352 tons, Phillips, from Westpoit, via ,Oamaru and intermediate ports. July s.— Manapouri, s.s., 1020 tons, Wheeler, from Melbourne, via Hobart and the Bluff. Rotomahaua, s.s , 865 tons, Allman, from Sydney, via the East Coast poits. July B.— Rotorua, s.s., 676 tons, Cameron, R.N.R., from the north. July 9.— Janet Nicoll, s,s., 496 tons, M'Lean, from Greymouth. - July 11.— Herald, s.s., 356 tons, Jones, from West Coast ports. Wakatipu, s.b., 1258' tons, Ewan, from Sydney, via Cook Strait". InvercargiU, s.s., 136 tons, Sundstrom, from Lyttelton. DEPARTURES. July 6.— Manapouri, s.s., 1020 tons, Wheeler, for Sydney, via the East Coast. Rotomahana, S.S., 865 tons, Allman, for Melbourne, |via the Bluff and Hobart. _. , July s.— Torea, schooner, 67 tons, Hooper, for July a 7.— Taupo, s.s., 411 tons, Todd, for West-port.-—Omapere, s.s., 352 tons, Phillips, for the West Coast, via Timaru. ■" July 10.— Rotorua, s.s., 570 tons, C&meron, R.N.R., for the north. THE DIRECT STEAMERS. The Tongariro sailed on the 2nd inst. from Rio de Janeiro. „, » . j The lonic (from Lyttelton, 25th May) arrived at Plymouth on the evening of the 7th with her meat in good order. Auckland, July 7.— The Coptic, from London (May 16), Plymouth (May 19), Teneriff e (May 24), Cape Town (June 11), and Hobart (June 30), arrived at Auckland at 10.30 a.m. to-day. At 1.40 i a.m. on June 16 a fire was discovered in the drying room. The outbreak was quickly subdued, the only damage sustained being the destruction of some dirty linen and the contents of the steward's locker. Otherwise the voyage was an uneventful one. Passengers for Port Chalmers i Second saloon— Misa Freeth, Mr and Mrs Best. Hobart, June 9. Arrived (at 11 o'clock this morning) : Rimutaka, from London. She sails at 5 p.m. to-morrow for Port Chalmers. The Rimutaka brings 23 passengers for Australia, and 123 for New Zealand. SHIRE LINE STEAMERS. The Nairnshire, Captain Wallace, left Brisbane on Bth inst. for Oamaru,, where she will load 11,000 carcases mutton, also wool, &c. She proceeds thence to Timaru and Port Chalmers to complete cargo, sailing finally from the latter port for London about 22nd inst. WRECK AT MOKAJJ JUVER. New Plymouth, July 11.— News has just been received from Mokau that the steamer Waitara, belonging to the .Waitara Harbour Board, was totally wrecked on the bar when going out of the Mokau river on Monday last at 3.40 p.m. The steamer went to pieces at once, and her boiler has been washed up on the beach. No lives were lost. < During the week ending July 9, 11 vessels, with a total of 4825 (tons register, have, arrived at the Dunedin wharves ; while nine vessels, representing 4607 tons, have left them during the same period. <. The Union Steam Ship Company have received advice that the Rotokino, which left London on the 10th and St. Vincent on the 24th May, arrived at Fremantle on Saturday last (Bth inst.) After discharging cargo at that port Bhe proceeds to Albany, thence to Melbourne and Sydney. Captain Moffatt (late of the Maori) is in command of the Pakeha, due 20th inst. at Port Chalmers. It is expected that Captain Scotland will havethe command of the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's new steamer Teihoka, leaving London about October for this colony. "Lloyd's Register of Shipping" shows that during the present year 112 steamers of 131,453 tons and 28 sailing vessels of 43,157 tons have been commenced, while 81 steamers of 161,210 tons and 17 sailing vessels with an aggregate of 13,955 tons have been launched. The P. andO. Company's steamer Himalaya, on her recent record trip from Brindisi to Adelaide, covered the distance in 21 days 18 hours 45 minutes, or 537*19 hours at a speed of 16 f 2B knots per hour. The greatest distances covered on any Bingle day by the Himalaya were as follows :— Between Brindisi and Port Said, 385 and 387 knots in 24 hours ; Suez and Aden, 390, 396, and 390 knots; Aden and Colombo, 400, 400, 401, and 400 knots; Colombo-und Albany, 399, 411, 381, 385, 483, 405, and 382 knot s; Albanyand Adelaide, 395 and 377 knots. " The serious and continuous reports of ice in the South Atlantic received from the majority of ships arriving from round the Horn are causing considerable anxiety to underwriters, .and quite account for the uneasiness which is felt for yessels on such voyages as soon as 'they become in the least overdue. Besides the damage to the Arthurstone, the John Cook (new Britißh ship), which arrived at Queenstown on Sunday last from San Francisco, reports having been in a position of serious danger on January 13 and 14 through being surrounded by 50 icebergs," from which she escaped with difficulty;. and her- captain adds further that on the night of the, 14th of January a large . full - rigged ship ' was seen to sail under a heavy press of canvas into the middle of these, bergs, and, as nothing was to be seen of her. in the morning, it is to b3 feared that she must have struck the ice and foundered. For months past ships' reports have indicated unusual quantities of ice in the South Atlantic, and that it had 'drifted considerably to the northward and eastwar&'of the limits within which it is usually seen— so much bo as actually to lie in the tracks of 'vessels! outward bound to the East, as indicated by. Ihe report of the Eivion, from Buenos Ayres, ,4th December, for Australia, which met with dangerous quantities when 18 days at sea.— Fairplay. Various surmises have arisen in connection with the cabled report of the ship Greta having sighted a burning iron vessel about 1200 miles off Honolulu. The Honolulu papers give the following .version of the Greta's report:—" On- Friday, the 21st April, the captain sighted the hull of a vessel drifting along. The Greta's course" was directed towards the vessel. A little shower poured down, and when it passed away steam was seen issuing from the burnt vessel; Captain Garland sailed his vessel around- it, but he could not find the name of the vessel. The ship was evidently a 2000 ton iron four-masted ship, end was totally dismasted. The white-painted spike bowsprit was still remaining. The deck houses -were all gone, but it was apparent that she had her cabins amidshipß. The position of the wreck was 143} W. and 4 N., bearhrg about 1200 miles from Honolulu. This was probably the remains of the burnt ship erroneously reported some time ago as the John Ena." A private letter received at Timaru from a son of Mr F. Le Cren, who was a passenger on the ship Turakina, which left Lyttelton on February 6, shows that tbe vessel had an exciting, not to say dangerous, time among the ice on March 9. The night was clear and moonlight, and ice was seen a long way off. The letter says :— " At 11 p.m. all hands were called on deck, as the ice was getting very close. Nothing but a wall in front, and pieces were breaking off the bergs, making a noise like thunder. We struck one piece and the ves?el shook all over. There was just a nice breeze at the time to let us dodge between and around the bergs. About 12 p.m. the ice was not so thick, but at 1 a.m. it was thought we would not get through. The ice was bo thick we could not see an opening. We went on cautiously, and by good luck we saw a narrow opening. We went through a very anxious half-hour. One berg we passed less than 3ft from the vessel's side. All hands had a fright, and no one expected the ship to get through. Next day still going through icebergs, but not so thick. At 5 p.m. we passed one of tremendous size, over 500 ft high, that took the wind out of our sails and nearly ran into its. All the boats were got ready and provisioned before night, because the ice got thicker. At 1 p.m. we had a very narrow escape— just cleared a big one. It meant destruction to all hands if we had atruck. We got through after travelling 180 miles amongst icebergs."