COLONIAL AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2273, 23 September 1897, Page 38

COLONIAL AND FOREIGN.

Arrivals. Feptcmber 16 — Te Anau, 1028t, from the north. September 17. — Napier, 48t, from Waikawa. | September 18.— Om»pere, 352t, from the West Coa«t. — Fareora, 350t, from lnvercargill. j September 19. — Ruahine, 51271, from London, via Teneriffe, Capetown, Hobart, and Coastal ports — lnvercargill, 136t, from the south. — Napier, 48t, from the sauth. — Tarawtera, 1209t, from Sydney, via the north. j DEPARTURES. September 14 — Tnv«rcargill, 13<Jt, for Preservation Inlet, ria Tnvercsr^ill.— Westralia, 1819t, for Sydney, via East Coast p rfa. September 1G — Onda. 5247t, for Newcastle.— Mansion, 92t, for Noumea, via Napier. i Septembor 17.— Nmpier, 48t, for Waikawa.— \ Te Anau, 1028t, for f.yttelton anfi Wellliiurton. Stpteniber 18.— Pureora, 350t, for the Bluff. I Kcptsmber 19.— Omapere, 352t, for the West j Coast. { September 20.— Napier, 49t, for Waikawa.— j Ocean Rover, 130t, for Stewart Island. THB DIRECT STEAMERS. The Mitaura sailed from Capetown on the 15th insl. THE VANCOUVER SERVICE. The Warriwoo srr.'vedjat Vancouver on Friday, 10th— on? «Ujr before k«r time. Wellington, SeptooiberJ ß. — Arrived :Miowera. from Bytl»ty, en r*nte t-o VaEOouver. She has 65 throuf h pas*espere. Sailed : Miowera, for Fiji, Honolulu, and Vancouvei. THE MONOWAI'S MISHAP. It will b« renxmbered that tbe Monowai, when going up Bluff Harbour on the 13ih ult. touched on a rock which was not shown on the chart, and •he kad to be docked on arrival at Part Chalmers, whin it was found that a hole had been knocked in oae of her plates. 'The U»ion Company represeuVad th« matter to the Bluff Harbour Board, and the latter arranged to have the channel in the meiehbeurhood ef where the Monowai touched thorouehly examined, with the result that a small rock has been found about 80ft from the miHch»»nel rock. This rock does not appear on the chart, »nd is no doubt the one on which the Aloaowai struck. The Bluff Harbour Board arc making arrangements to have the obsti uction removed at odo«. The rock is 19ft below low water mark at lowest spring tides. ANOTHER DIVERSION OF TONNAGE. The sailing ship Oamaru, now here, has b«en ordered to Portland, Oregon, to load, irxtead of •waitinp for wool here as intended, the rate» of freight here beieg too low. SHIPPING MOVEMENTS. Tke following are (ho stations on which the fleet «f the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company are presently occupied :—: — sailing vessels. Akaroa — At Lyttelton. Auckland — Chartered for Adelaide. Ai"tcrioii — Left Auckland for London 28th June. Blenheim— Loading at Glasgow for Otago and Wdlinfton. Brussels— At Nelson. Canterbury — Loading at Glasgow for Otago and Wellington. Crusader— Loading at Liverpool for Wellington and Otago. Euterpe — At London. Orleulor*. — Left London for Nelson 30th August. Hudson — At Port Chalmers. Hermione— Left London for Wellington Bth June. Invercargill— Left Glasgow for Ofcago and Wellington 23rd August. Lull efworiih— Left Liverpool for Lyttelton and Ji-ipier 7th July. Lochnagar —At LondoD. Margaret Galbraith— At London. Nelson— Left Liverpool for Wellington and O»ko 23th August. • Oamaru— At Dunedin. Pleiades— Left London for Lyttelton and Timaru 17th June. Pleione — Left London for Nolson and Timaru lssh June. Soukar— At Port Chalmers. Timaru— At Fremantltf. Taranaki— Left Glasgow for Otago 30th June. Wellington — Left Liverpool for Wellington and r>nediu£6th June. Westland — Chartered for Capetown. Z«alandia— Arrived at Bluff 10th September. STEAMERS. Aotea — At Wellington ; to sjil 9th October. Gothic — Due London 30th September. lonic— Due Wellington ISth October. jMamari — Due Wellington 29ch September. Matatua — At London. Maori — Due Tendon 20th September. Pakeha— At London. Rangatira — At London (put back). Tokomaru — Due London 15th October. THE FASTEST SHIP AFLOAT. One of the excitements at Spithead during the preparations for the recent review was the little Turbinia, which the Hon. C. A. Varnons, its designer, had brought down specially from the Tyn». The Turbinia is only 100 ft long-, and look* something like a sscond-clas 1 ? torpedo boat with her rakish bow and proj.cting turrets. Inside her diminutive hull, however, there is packed away some 2200 horse-power in the most cominodioui form yet jnvtnted— that of the Parsons's steam turbine, with bunker space and boiler to match. Abaft she has three propeller shafts, each carrying three pairs of screws and revolving at something like 2000 revolutions a minute, the upihot ef wbich is that the Turbinia flies along at a speed never before dreamed of for vessels of her size and tonnage, cutting through the ■water eaiily nt 33 knots an hour, with power in hand for another two knots if r. quired. A Pill Mall Gazette representative was enabled by the courtesy of Mr Parrons to taka a run round the fleet in the Turbinia, and to test the effect of this lecordpace. The most striking thing about it- is that although the wa'erisflyiug past at » dazzling rate thpreis absolutely no vibration or shaking on the ship. The motion is quite smooth aii^i cany, very different from that on the torpedo boats, whick the Turbinia is destined to eclipse. The caus* of this is the continued motion of the steam turbißes, which are free from the reciprocating siction and thud of all piston engines. This, taken in conjunction with the increased power andsaving in space, forms a very Considerable improvement, .c ste«m turbine is, in fact, the latest word in marine esgineeriag, and it is not to be wondered »t that the Admiralty are watching its trials with much interest. Built on a larger scale there is no reapon why boats of this class should not attain to 40 knots »n hour under ordinaiy conditions, for it ii unnecessary to mention that 24 knots, or thereabouts, is the maximum for boats of the Turbinia's size fitted with common machinery.

Hobart, September 15 —The Kelpie, a small uteamer which left Melbourne on the 10th foundered next day when 50 miles oft' Melbourne Bead*. The crew, who consisted of the captain, the engineer, and one seaman, took to a 13ft din«ey aud nuccessfully crossed the strait, landing at Penguin yesterday. They had no water, and only two imall tins of meat.

The Huddart-Parker Company's ss. Westralia left tb« cross wharf on Wednesday, 14th, and steamed down to Port Chalmers. She left the Bowen pi«r in the afternoon for Sydney, via East Coast p->rts. John Hermann ter Yeen, a fourth engineer Wider the British India Steam Navigation Company, has successfully paseed his examination for m st'XDxi'Cligg engineer's certificate of compeUmy before Mr Henry Wetherilt, examiner 4>/ £tM&ti*4FS lor Otago. \)^ffy-$ lit* w<--ck ending 19th September, the fe&WVyf y***t;U Iwvo been at the Dunedin •WW** <~htt\vf).U i Corfnna, h.r., 820 ton* ; &i4Wy >;*>*,, # Utns (thrice); Onyx, barque, 403 tlffifl? ,! 'H. B Am*f, fc * , 1028 tons ; Omapere, b.s , 352 1l A 3? > mft&wtsll, c c,, 123 turn ; Titrawera, s.s., ;,.- (M 4, HSfi tana. Departure* : Wakam l , uu / -?{ W& Urn*-', Wufkare, «,»., 1901 tons; **, *&) lout; Napier, «.3., 48 tons fiy^)\ W**:**>tU*, ««,, JBU) tonw; InvercareiH. **v li-v ioiix ; ilatiuton, i-.chooner, 92 tons ; Te

Anan, s.s., 1028 tons ; Omapere, s.s., 352 tons ;— total, 7489 tons.

Two vessels were chartered on July 21 to load wheat at San Francisco for Rio de Janeiro, this being the first time iv history that i>uch a thing has occurred.

The s.s. Pareor.i, from Inv«rcarp;il, arrived at Port Chalmers early on Saturday morning, aud was berthed at the Bovven pier to take in transhipments, ex Onda, for the Bluff. The Pareor«, which is on her first visit to this port, is owned by the Black Bull Coal Company, Greymouth, and was launched from the yards of M«ssrs Wood, Skinner, and Co., Newcaatle-oa-Tyne, the latter end_ of last year, her registered tonnage being 35*', with a carrying capacity of 770 tons. She is commanded by Capt*in Christian, a gentlem*n well known in Otago, iv command of ihe St«r of the South aud other steamers, and whptn w« welcome back after an absence of nesr nine yeaiv.

The ».s. Tarawera, from Sydney, via the north, arrived alongside the Bovrcn pier at 4.20 p.m. on Sunday.

The New Zealand Shipping Company'^ R.M S. Kuahiuo, from London, vis Plymouth, Teneriffe, Capetown, Hobart, Wellington, aud Lyitelton, arrived off the hoeds on Sunday morning', and etcamed into poit under the charge < f Pilot Thomson, Ixing berthed at the George street pier. The Ruabiue is still usder the ooraoiand of Captain Bone, RN.It. She left London ou July 22, and arrived at Plymouth on the 23rd, and after emharkiug mails and passengers sailed as* in on the 24th. After discharging cargo the B.c. Tara^era steamed down to Port Chalmers on Monday forenoon, and waa floated in^o the graving dock in the afternoon. The ship O^maru has made excellent progress with the discharge of her cargo at the Victoria wharf.

The flaga at the harbour and tfaa Union Steam Ship "Company's offioes were half-masted on Monday on account of the death of lire Mills, wi c of Mr W. Mils, fatherof the managing director of tbe Union Steam. Ship Company, late collector of customs at Lyttelton, and one of the earliest settlers in the colony.

The s.b. Mnraroa was floato-3 out of the graving dock on Monday morning.

The It.M.S. Ruahine commenced to take on board f roz^n mutton on Monday morning.

More terrible tales from the tea— the horrors of «ne of which it would be difficult to beat. The French schooner Vailnnt, of St. M«lo, it may be rem«mb«red (says the Westminster Budget), recently ran into an ice floe on the bank of Newfoundland. The men— 7o in number— had only time to jump into the boats, which appear to have be«n u»provided with provision*. Before bring picked up 63 of them h*d perished from starvation, exposure, or drowning. The survivors, who were dying of tbirst and hunger, not only cu 1 ; strips c,{ fl«sh off the body of one of their dead comrades for food, but actually cut out the heart »nd sucked the blood ! Surely nothing more ghastly was «ver iinaisiaed in the realm of fiction. An order hae been placed in Belfast for the construction of a steamer of 40,000 tons. She will be IGOWt long and 100 ft in the beam, her hone-power is tb be 90,000, and «he will have 30 bailers aud 240 furuaceH, requiring 1500 tons of o-x»l d*ily. Her guaranteed speed k 30 knots (34 inilos) per hour, and she will cross the Atlantic in four days. Accommodatiou will be provided for 3500 passengers, and cbe is expected to earn £40,000 in the round trip. She will take two yeaiM to build, and the company for wh'ch she is bring made intends to have two such vessels ruaning at the time of the Park Kxhibil.ion io 1900 a.d.

The owners of the steamer Oceanic, the Atlantic Steamship Company, yunderiaud, have been instructed by the underwriters to present a sum of ipiO to the master, officers, and crew, in recognition of special services rendered as follows : — The vrvftel was on a voyage, Natal for Elephant Point, in balla«t. The vessel left Natal on 13th February last, and all went well till 4th March, when in lat 2.32 N , lone. 74 41 X., the taii-end shaft suddenly broke and was lost, together with the propeller. All hands immediately set to work to tip re-«el and fit the cpare shaft and propeller, which was accomplished with givat difficulty in eight days and ten hours, during which time the yes-tel drifted 270 mile 3. The work of fitting was complicated by the presence of sharks in the vicinity of the ship. The owner?, in" making the presentation, informed the men that they r.ad by their ac ion saved underwriters a very heavy claim for ealvase. A somewhat similar piece of work to the foregoing was performed some time ago by the tnaster of a steamer, which came to Sydney from one of ihe eastern ports, the steamer at that time drifting close to the shore before the work was completed. In that instance also some BuitaWe recognition was made by the underwriters.