SHIPPING TELEGRAMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 38

SHIPPING TELEGRAMS.

Auckland, April 6. —Arrived : Mamari, from London. During the voyage she sighted a quantity of ice. On March 15, in lat. 44.19 S , long. 49.3 E., 16 large bergs weie passed, varying in height from 23Uft to 300 ft. They were ranged on either side of the ttenniev, which thus pabsad through a channel of ice extending for SO mile* and 10 miles from hide to side. Two more very large bergs were highted next night, and two more on the Iflth. The Mamari brings 3395 tons of cargo for Auckland, including a quantity of mining machinery, and 900 toii3 for Wellington. Bluff, April 12.— Airived (2.15 p.m.) : Talune, from Melbourne.

The s.s. Wakatipu, Captain C. Spiaks, from Melbourne, arrived at 8 p.m. en the 7th. She left the company's wharf, Melbourne, at 4.15 p.m. 31st ult.

The s.s. Wakatipu steamed down the harbour on Thui sday morning, and left in thu afternoon for {Sydney, via Cook Sir*it\ The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company* ship Akavoa will lay up-at Lyfctelton for some months. Captain Murray has paid off his ship's company. During the week ending February 24, 16 nailing vessels and 13 steamers were reported at Lloyd's as lost or missing. During the week ending April 11' the following vesFßls have been at the Dunedin wharves :— Arrivals : Napier, s.a., 48 tons (thrice); Waihora, b.b., 1269 tons ; Ocean Hanger, barquentine, 234 tons ; Omspere, a.». , 352 tons ; Wakatipu, b.s., 1258 tons ; Flora,, s.s., B.'-8 tona; Te. Auan, a.s., 1028 tons ; Tarawera, s.s., 1276 tons ; Anglian, 8,5., 135* tons; Pukaki, s.s., 913 tons;— total, 8797 tons. Departures : Manopoari, 8.c., 1020 tons ; Waihora, s.s., 1269 tons; Napier, b.s , 48 tons (twice) ; Invercargill, 5.8., 123 tons ; Liv, barque, 811 tons ; Wakatipu, s.s., 125S tons ; Flora, s,s., 838 tons ; Omapere, s.s., 352 tons ; Hawea, e.s , 1114 tona; Te Anau, 5.b.,,1028 tons ;-total, 7288 tons.

The B.s. Anglian, from Sydney, via northern ports, reached the berth at the Dunedin wharf at lOa.m on Sunday. She left Sydney at 6 p.m. on the 31at ult.

The 8.8. Hawea is being cleaned and pointed in the graving dock. The s.«. Tarawera, from Sydney, via Wellington and J-.yttelton; arrived alongside the Georce street pier at. 9.45 a.m. on Saturday. She left sSydney at 3 15 p.m. on the 3rd inst. All hopes for the safety of tho ship Lord Dufferin have now been abandoned. She is more than 90 days out from Monte Video to New York. The Lord Dufferin was a fine four-masted *teel vessel. She was constructed by Messrs Workman, Clark, and Co , of Belfaet, aud launched in March 1896, to replace tha Lord Spencer, -which ■was lost. Her dimensions were :— Length £84 ft, breadth 42ft, and depth of hold 34ft sin. Her gross tonnage was 2250. The s.B. Tarawera steamed down the harbour on Monday forenoon, and left Port Chalmers at 4 p.m. for Melbourne, via the Bluff and Hobarfc. The fine ship Zuleika was towed from Dunedin to sea on Monday afternoon, and sailed with original cargo for Wellington. The Shaw, Savill, aud Albion Company's ship Canterbury has now on board 5472 bales wool and 1258 sacks oats. She was busy on Monday taking in grain.

The German five-masted ship Potosi, the-largest Bailing vessel afloat, recently made the passage from Hamburg to Valparaiso in 58 days, the quickest on record, and two days lower than the record the same captain had previously made. This is almost steamer time, and shows that the Potosi is probably the fastest as well as the largest ship in the world. The Engineer of February 19 gives an account of the construction at the yards of Hailand and Woolf, at Belfast, of the new steamer Gigantic, for the White Star Company. She is being built on the slip from which the I', and 0. Company's R.M.S. China was launched. The bar keel is 18h'm deep by 4in thick. Her length is to be 680 ft. this being the precise length of the Great Eastern, and the other dimensions, it i& anticipated, will hear a close relationship to those of the defunct leviathan. She will be propelled by three screw*, and the collective energy of the three sets of engines will probably be between 45,000 and 50,000 horse-power indicated. Her speed is said to be guaranteed at 27 knots, and to attain this will necessitate a consumption of about 700 tons a day and about 4000 tons of coal for bunker supply for the voyage. She will be able to cross the Atlantic in' four days and a-half. There will be little or no room for cargo, the steamship being in fact an express vessel for mails, passengers, and baggage. If the claims of Timothy Van Wyck, a Brooklyn inventor, for the machinery of a small yacht now being built should be realised, f assengers might be able soon to croBS the Atlantic in four days. Mr Van Wyck has been at work on his invention ever since he was a boy, and last year he tried his perfected plan with success on a small boat rigged up. Mr Van Wyck describes his invention as follows :- It is simply a disc with grooves cut into its face. The disc is twice the sizs of the main shaft on which it is placed. Into grooves on the disc fit rollers fastened to the cranks. With the revolution of the shaft the rollers move to and fro in tha grooves, and communicate motion to the cranks, and they in turn revolve the shaft or shafts, as may be arranged according: to the size of the boat propßlled. For every revolution of the main shaft thadisc! sends its cranks around twice, making's gain of 50 per cent, in the revolutions of the propeller without the aid of cog wheels, thus materially reducing the friction and doing away entirely with the ordinary jarring of the^ boat. The late Norman L. Munro promised to build a boat to carry this movement, and told Mr Van Wyck it was just what he had been looking for, and it is said that the chief engineer of. the Wavy

department told Mr Van Wyck the scheme wns a good one.

A great ocean race has just been completed. The British ship Rahan left San Francisco on November 20, aud the Puritan, Cromartyshire, Queen Margaret, aud Koss-shirp on the 21st, all bound for Great Britain. A dinner and several suits of clothes were wagered on the race, but among local men the Puritan was the favourite. When a month out the Roasshire, Cromartyshire, and Puritan were in company off the coast of Central An, erica, and there was a' good deal of good-natured badinage over the? matter. The captain of the Puritan, as she movei ahead, offered the other two boats a tow, but as the matter turns out the Cromartyshire has beaten them all. She arrived at Queeiistown after the smartest run of the season. The victory is a popular one »s th a master has a great number of friends in San Francisco. The pzrfection of the art of shipbuilding will be exemplified in the White Star Line Company's new steamship Oceanic, now under construction by Messrs Woolf, Harland, and Co. at Belfast. It has often been said that the sole misfortune of the Great Eastern w.13 to be built in advance of her age. Her length was 670 ft. while that of the Oceanic will hi 704 ft, or '-Tiff; more, and she will exceed by not less than Wife any vessel either afloat or now in course of construction. Her grosj tonnage, too, is also to be noted, as it exceeds 17,000 tons. To fully appreciate the progress made in the la-.t 25 years, we must compare the new Oceanic with her predecessor. Twenty-live years ago the then Oceanic was what was considered to be of the exceptional length of 420 ft, and she boasted a tonnage of 3=oo3 = 00 tons gross. Now her successor is to be 284 ft longer, while in tho matter of tonnage she will be four and a-half times greater. She will ready for launching in .Tauuaiy next, so that a period of about 10 months is all that is allowed, because it is all that is required for the building of the largest mail steamship the world has ever seen. She will have a speed of 21 knots, and, in case of need, can Rteam as many as 2.}, 400 knots, at 12 knots an hour, without coaling. She cm, in fact, go all mind the xvoild when her bunkers are once filled.

The following comparison recently printed in the Liverpool Post would seem to establish the fact that pride of place as the "first port of Europe" has been wrested from Liverpool byHamburg. The probable explanation of this reversal of position is due in considetable measure (says the writer in the Post) to the high dock charges and local due"! at Liverpool :— 1883-Tous. 1895-Tons. Liverpool ... 4.27R.851 ... r>,!)f>3,!)59 Hamburg ... 3,704,312 ... (i,256,0')0 Antwerp 3,122,172 M , 5,3 40,247 Rotterdam ... 2,120,3)7 ... 4,038,(117 Bremen 1,28a,3D9 ... 2,184,274