MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL,

Otago Witness, Issue 2087, 22 February 1894, Page 17

MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL,

The total length of the (Manchester) canal from Eastham to 'Manchester is 35* miles, the average widthatwaterlevel isl72ft, while the minimum width of the canal at the bottom is ISOft, which is considerably in excess of either the Amsterdam or the Suez Canals The principal locks on the canal are 11 in number. Eastham comes first with three, one being 160 ft by 80ft, another 350 ft by 50ft, and the third 150 ft by 30ft. Lanchford, Irlarn, Barton, and Mode Wheel have each two locks, their sizes being 600 ft by 65ft, and3sof t by 45ft. At the Eastham locks the depth of the lower sill is 23ft, below the Liverpool old dock sill; while the depth of water in the upper sills of locks, both in estuary and inland portion of the canal is 28ft, and this will enable the depth of water in tho canal, if found requisite, to be made 28ft throughout. We may here mention that the t otal fall from the level of water in the docks at Manchester to the level of tide rising 14ft 12in, above the Liverpool old dock sill is (iOJft. The dock system in connection with this canal is very extensive. At Warrington, the length of quays will be two-thirds of a mile, having an area of seven acres, and the water space c vers 22'} acres. It is, however, at the terminus of the Ship Canal that we see the docks, these which theiOanal Company contend are to attract such a large amount of traffic from the Liverpool docks. The .Salford clockd sre the largest by far, the longth of quays being 3} mile 3 ; area of quays, 129 acres ; and water space, 71 acres ; whereas the dimensions of the Manchester docks are, length of quays, If mile; area of quays, 23 acres ; water space 33i acres. The railway communication to these docks is intended to be very complete, for on most, if not all, the quays there

will be double lines of rails running between vessel and the shed, and we believe that all tho railway companies have mado arrangements to connect their systems with these docks. As tothe particular trades for which these docks will be used, we may state that the directors of the canal have decided that the Manchester docks aro to be used for vessels engaged in the coasting trades, and the Salford docks will receive vessels trading foreign. Near these docks will be placed a large pontoon graving dock for the repairing of both ships and stearuera, there also being another close to i*!ilesmere port which is capable of accommodating a vessel 350 ft long. In regard to the high, level bridges which go over the canal at different points, all these will have a height sufficient to have a clear headway of 75ft, and in the case of the Runcorn Bridge it will be 78ft. Already arrangements have been mado to commence direct shipments of cotton to Manchester through- \.o Ship Canal. Messrs W. and T. W. Pinkney uho nianag^Dg owners of the Neptune Steam N'a . igation Company, are content to give the business a fair trial, and their steamer Venango, 4600 tons register, will sail from New Orleans on the 10th December with cotton and grain for Manchester direct, and she will be followed by another steamer of the same line— the Ohio, 3600 tons register— from the same port on December 24. We understand that Messrs Pinkney are sanguine that good business is to be done with tbo canal, abd they are prepared to sail some of their steamers from other cotton ports to Manchester. The < Master Cotton Spinners' Association are moving in this matter in right earnest, and we believe they have already informed the American cotton skippers that when buying cotton preference will be given to that which is shipped direct to Manchester through the Ship Canal. Such decided action as this is sure to take a large amount of traffic from Liverpool. It is the opinion of many shipowners and others competent to judge that while drawing traffic to tho Ship Canal, Liverpool will benefit by the increase of trade attracted to the district. There will, nevertheless, bo a very severe struggle between the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and the Ship Canal Company, when the canal Is finally opened for traffic to Manchester. It, however, appears quite clear that if Liverpool is to retain any considerable portion of that traffic which ia consigned to the manufacturing districts of Lancashire, both tho Mersey Docks Board and the railway companies at Liverpool will have to make some reduction on the rates at present charged.— Nautical Magazine. Sydney, February 14.— The ship Philadelphia made a record passage of |77 days from New York to Sydney. She spoke the Comadre, bound from Buenos Ay res to New Zealand, in 44 S., 107 E., 64 days out. During tho week ending February 17 11 vessels, with a total of 6183 tons, arrived at the Dunedin wharves; and 10 vessels, with 5372 tons, left them. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's ship Taranaki has now on board 2246 bales wool and skins. Ainont; the vessels which the Brazilian Govern' ment purchased in the United States for uso against tho rebel fleet is the Destroyer, a; remarkable craft, the invention of the famous Captain Ericsson. Until now the vessel has been retained on lease from her owners by the United States Admiralty. She ia not a very new vessel, and depends for means of offence on a submarine gun placed in her bows, which discharges a projectile or torpedo to a distance of 100 yards or bo. The gun is nearly 10ft below the surface, and is built of gun metal, strengthened by steel rings. It is oaded at the breech, the valve which closes the muzzle being opened by a series -of levers just before the moment of dincharge, and closing automatically as the projectile leaves tho gun. The latter is a steel torpedo, 80ft in leilgth, containing in itn head a charge of 3001b of guncotton, which explodes on impact. The Destroyer is 130 ft lonff, and built of iron, her stem and stern being of a similar form. She can, therefore, go asteru almost as well as ahead, and is of great length in proportion to her breadth. In her fighting trim she exposes but a few inches of her Bides above water. Ihe barque Bolivia, which" recently arrived at Melbourne from Liverpool, bad an unpleasant experience amongst the ice. Captain Glasson reports passing " a continuous stream of icebergß " between the Ist and lOfch of January. The presence of large fields of ice so far north of their [ usual position is becoming a serious menace to navigation, so that for some considerable tinio to come shipmasters will require to exercise rare skill and judgment to prevent casualties. Some five or six sailing vessels have experienced very narrow escapes from destruction by icebergs in the last 12 months, while there is every reason to fear that several ships have already been lost in this way. Shipmasters fully anticipate that several years must necessarily elapse before tho vast masses of ice floating about the southerly ship-lanes of the Indian Ocean are broken up by the higher temperature or drifted back to colder and less frequented latitudes. In tho case of the Bolivia the first iceberg was sighted in lat. 43 S. and long. 19 E. For 10 days the barque passed through a magnificent proceß*ion of bergs of every colour and shade, and varying from a few feet to fully 400 ft in heipht above the water line. The last, of the ice was loft behind in lat. 45 S. and long. 51 K. On December 22, at the Manchester Town Hall, the Lord Mayor (Mr Alderman Marshall) was presented with a warrant issued by the Treasury constituting the city a harbour and port for customs purposes. The warrant, which took effect on December 31, defines the limits of the two ports of Manchester and Liverpool. Dr John Murray, the well-known authority on Arctic and Antarctic exploration, has expressed to a representative of a news agency the opinion that in all probability nothing more will be heard of Dr NaDsen for a loDg time to come. He thinks it probable that Dr Nansen is fixed in tho ice somewhere between the longitudes 120 and 130 east, and latitudes 78 and 80 north. He adds that if the Fram is carried through the polar basin without being crushed by the ice floes she will have a most extraordinary run of luck.

About 50,000 young liveß are benefited weekly by the operations of the Ragged School Union. The Rangitikci Advocate says that recently, probably during the last fresb, a portion of the bank of tbe Manawatu river was washed away near PalmerstoD, exposing the tracks, stamped in 6offc clay, of two moac. The one track measures 14m long and 14-in across, and the other Bin by Bin. There was 12ft of soil and clay resting on the bed on which the tracks are exposed, apparently a recent deposit, for some totara logs embedded in it are still sound and fresh, but a wood which resembles manuka has commenced to decay.