SHIPPING SEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2057, 27 July 1893, Page 37

SHIPPING SEWS.

COLONIAL AND FOREIGN. ARRIVALS. July 19.— Pakoha, s.s., 4331 tons, Moffat, from ndonoL (May 21). Wairarapa, s.s., 1028 tons, M'lntosh, from Sydney, via the East Coast P July 20.— Pukaki, s.s., 850 tons, Fleming, from Lyttelton. Nairnshire, s.s., 3720 tons, Wallace, from Oamaru and Timaru. Rotomahana, s.s., 864 tons, Allnian, from Melbourne, via Hobart and Bluff. Omapere, 352 tons, Phillipß, from the Weßt Coast ports. . July 2l.— Kawatiri, s.s., 286 tons, Apstem, from Westport, via the Bluff. , n July 22.— Rotorua, s.s., 676 tons, Cameron, R.N.R., from northern ports. Invercargill, s.s., 136 tons, Sundstrom, from v Invercargill, via Waikawa. ' „ „ , July 23.— Flora, s.s., 838 tons, Bentley, from Sydney, via Lyttelton. July 24.— Rotomahana, s.s., 856 tons, Allman, from Wellington. DEPARTURES. July 19.— Waihora, s.s., 1269 tons, Anderson, for Sydney, via the East.Coast. ' July 20.-Rimutaka, s.s., 4515 . tons, .Green street, for Lyttelton. Wairarapa, ss., 1028 tons, M'lntosh, for Melbourne, via the Bluff and Hobart. Rotomahana, s.s., 864 tons, AUman, for Lyttelton and Wellington. July 21.-Omapere. s.s 286 tons, Phillips, for the West Coast, via Timaru. Kawatiri, s.s., 286 tons, Apstein, for Napier, via intermediate ports, Pukaki, s.s., 850 tons, Fleming, for Auckland, via the Bluff and northern ports. July 24.— Rotorua, s.s., 576 tons, Cameron, R.N.R., for northern ports. ' July 25.— InvercargUl, s.s. 136 tons, Sundstrom, for Preservation Inlet, via InvercargUl. THE DIRECT STEAMERS. The Tongariro arrived at Plymouth on Friday. The Kaikoura left Plymouth on Friday for New Zealand. . The Ruahine left Cape Town on Friday for Hobart. THE CARGO STEAMERS. The s.s. Rangatira, from Wellington (May 26) arrived at London on the morning of the loth inst., with her cargo of meat in good order. ARRIVAL OF THE PAKEHA. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's cargo steamer Pakeha arrived on the 19th. On reaching the heads she was boarded by Pilot M'Donald, who brought her into port at 3 p.m. - On coming up the harbour she was met by the customs boat and passed and cleared in by the health and customs officials, and anchored at 4 p.m. to discharge her gunpowder (720 packages), after which she was berthed at the George street pier in readiness to discharge her cargo for this port, which consists of ,2559 tons, in addition to which there is 147 i tons for transhipment. She has also 1600 tons for Lyttelton and'3so tons for Napier. Since the Pakeha's last visit there has been a complete change in the personnel of her command and officers. Captain, Moffatt Gate of s.B. Maori) is in command. The Pakeha was brought up to the Dunedin wharf on Friday. During the week ending July 23, 12 vessels (with a total of 10,668 tons register) arrived at the Dunedin wharves, and 9 vessels (representing a total of 4456 tons) left them. . The s.s. Nairnshire, from Timaru and Oamaru arrived alongside the George street pier at 9 a.m. on Thursday to complete her loading for London. _A.t Oamaru she took on board 9715 carcases Jtnutton, 119 bales wool, 481 sacks grain, 1065 cases preserved meats, 221 do butter, and 6 do of sundries, and left at 6 p.m. on the 17th inst. ; reaching Timaru at daylight on the 18th ; took on board 538 bales wool, 2000 sacks grain, 396 casks tallow and pelts, leaving again at 5 p.m. on the 19th, and arrived as above. The Union Steamship Company's steamer Flora, Captain Bentley, from Sydney, via Newcastle, arrived at Port Chalmers at 8.30 a.m. on Sunday, and steamed up the harbour to Dunedin. The Flora, which is on her first visit here, is one of the Union Company's" Tasmanian fleet, and is a smart looking boat of 838 tons net register. She carries about 1000 tons of cargo, and has accommodation for 76 saloon and 60 steerage passengers. She is an iron vessel and was built at Hull in 1882 by the Earles Company (Limited), her dimensions being-length 250 ft Bin, breadth of beam 32ft 2in, and clepth of hold 16ft 6in. She is fitted with compound surface condensing engines, the diameter of the cylinders being 34in and 64m respectively, with a length of stroke of 39in. The Flora comes here to relieve that favourite boat the Penguin, which is to be laid up for two months in order that extensive alterations and additions may be made to her. • The master of the barque iEthelbert, which arrived at Liverpool on June 8, from Lyttelton, reports that in lat. 51 S., long. 50 W., the vessel was in collision with an ice island and had the spanker boom broken and mizzen mast Bprung. The heel)of the rudder also Btruck the ice under the water, but did not break. , , The German vessel Argo, which was blown up in Neutral Bay, Sydney, on Saturday morning, was an iron barque of 1010 tons gross, and 985 tons net register. Sne was built at Hamburg under special survey in 1875, and owned by Mr M. G. Amsinck, of that city, and is; evidently a thoroughly good vessel, her class at Lloyds being 100 Al at her last survey in July 1890. . I -I During the month of May 53 sailing vessels of the total register of 11,018 tons /md nine steam vessels of 6050 tons register were reported as lost to the Board of Trade. In these 62 vessels the lives of 158 persons were also lost. An anchor, believed to be 211 years old, has been recovered from the River Tamar, .Tasmania. It bears the figures 1682, and from the fact that a similar anchor, found some time ago, bore the same number, it is presumed to indicate, the year in which it was manufactured. The most recent specimen is in a good state of preservation, and weighs Blightly over three tons'. - Large quantities of ice have recently been fallen in with in the Southern, Ocean. The ship Gosford, which arrived at Liverpool on May 27 from San Francisco, reports that m lat. 51 S., long. 49 W., she fell in with numerous icebergs of gigantic proportions. While she was amongst them fog came od, *and the position of the ship was most critical. Captain ' Robertson is of opinion that these icebergs extend some considerable distance across the South Atlantic and also northwards, and he suggests that steps be taken to warn shipmasters now in ports on the Pacific and colonial seaboards to keep well to the westward in running up the South Atlantic from Cape Horn to as far as lat. 45 S. . The Campania has made another good yoyage, although not so fast as her previous trip. It occupied 6 days. 2o hours and 25 minutes. The voyage would undoubtedly have been made in several hours less time but for, the fact that the , vessel was obliged to proceed with one engine, owing to the heating of a piston rod. For three days she averaged 21 knots, and the whole voyage was performed at an average of 20*4 knots an hour. \ ' • An important tost of a new system of lighthouse signals was made off ■ New Haven, Conn.", on the night of April 21. The arrangements were made by and in charge of Major Heap and Captain Mahan, of the Lighthouse Board. The new system is an invention of . Captain Mahan to do away with the arbitraiy method of identifying ports at night by lights of varying periodicity, colour, or sets of By a combination of the usual lighthouse lenses and light, with a system of shutters, Captain Mahan is enabled to signal any number agreed upon to represent a harbour to great distances. A reference to a "port book would then show the master of a vessel his place at sea beyond doubt. The test on the 21st was made from the old lighthouse at the mouth of New Haven harbour to a place off Stratford, a distance of about 12 miles. The engineers- were well pleased with the result of the experiment.— New York Maritime Captain Thompson, of the barque British Isles, which arrived at Queenstown on May 26 from Spencer's Gulf, reports:-Passsed Cape Horn on March 8. On the 13th, lat. 51 S., tone 48 W., sighted a large number of icebergs— a thick fog on at the time. A hard gale subsequently came on, and the ship had to beat all night to keep cleir of the ice. The ice appeared to be one solid mass extending for about 40 miles, which was as far as

could be seen from the ship. On the evening of the 16th the ship was entirely surrounded by berga. On the 18th only four bergs.were in sight, the position of the ship .then being lat. 49 S., long. 46 W. During the time that the vessel had been in the ice all hands had been on deck for 72 hours, and Captain Thompson estimates that his ship sailed through 200 miles of ice. PavennVs thermostat, for indicating a certain temperature by sending an electric current and ringing an electric bell, has been adopted on some French and British warships. It consists essentially of a sniallexpansible chamber of thin German silver, like that of an aneroid barometer, but containing some ether, which volatilises when the given temperature is reached and messes the sensitive bottom of the chamber into contact with a metal stop, thus completing an electric circuit and ringing an alarm bell. It is also proposed to utilise the thermostat in hospitals. ior example, an abnormal rise of temperature ma patient might in this way be signalled to the doctor in attendance.— Fairplay. Big ships are found to pay better than small ones, and the steady growth in size is a marked feature of modern flhip architecture. The Westmeath, an enormous cargo steamer, was launched recently from the Tyne. She is a steel span-deck vessel, 435 feet in length, 63 feet in breadth, and 34 feet in depth, with a dead-weight carrying capacity of 8700 tons, or a total measurement capacity, excluding the bunkers, of 11,000 tons of 40 cubic feet. She is being fitted with powerful engines, capable of forcing her enormous hull through the water at the rate of 11 knots per hour. Another vessel of nearly the same dimensions will be launched from the same yard shortly Transport states :— "The largest steamer built on the Clyde, the Bezwada, has had her official trip. The speed of the vessel, which has been built by Messrs Alexander Stephen and Co., Linthouse, for the British India Steam Navigation Company, was beyond expectations, the representatives of the owners expressing themselves as highly satisfied. The Bezwada carries no less than 7200 tons dead weight. Her dimensions are :— Length, 400 f t; breadth, 48ft: depth, 31ft 6in. The engines .have cylinders 24in, 41in, and 67in diameter, with a length of stroke of 48in. The vessel is of the spar-deck type, with poop. tsld?e'.aSdAop-ga]l*n*t s ld ? e '.aS d A op - ga ] l * n * forecastle; her class at Lloyds is 100 Al, and she is fitted with machinery for dealing easily, rapidly, and economically with large cargoes of every e The PBteamerP Bteamer Balsena, one of the four Dundee whaling vessels engaged in the Antarctic whaling expedition, arrived at Dundee on Tuesday after, noon (says the Peterhead Sentinel of June 6). Ihe immediate object of the venture was the search for the true black whale. In this respect the enterprise has been a failure. Many whales were seen, but they were not of the species sought— that yielding baleen, the valuable commercial product. The non-success in this direction has, however, been compensated by a splendid catch of seals, of large size, and it is now certain that the shareholders of the Baljena, if they do not receive a dividend, will at least sustain no loss. The result of the Balsena's voyage has, in the opinion of many, by no means Bettled definitely as to whether the true black whale inhabits the Antarctic Ocean. Several prominent members of the Balsena's crew hold this view, and say that the non-success of the quest of the Dundee ships does not necessarily prove that the black whale is a stranger to these regions. It is understood that the sealskins brought to Dundee by the Balsena are in good condition, but a difference of opinion exists as to their value. Although no fewer than four distinct classes of seals were captured, none of the animals possess the fur coat. Several skins have been sentjto London to be valued, and the result will be known in a day or two. The catch will yield about 180 tons of oil, and it is expected to fetch about £20 per ton. The manager of the fleet states that the undertaking has not been a financial Buccess.