SHIPPING NEWS. COLONIAL AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2371, 10 August 1899, Page 46

SHIPPING NEWS. COLONIAL AND FOREIGN.

EXPECTED ARRIVALS. From Glasgow. —Pleiades, ship (S.S. and A. Co.), sailed May 30; due September 3. Taranaki, ship (N.M. and A. Co.), sailed June If}.; due September 16. From Liverpool. —John o' Gaunt, barque (Neill and Co.), sailed April 21 j due July 30. llala, barque (Neill and Co.), sailed June 6; due September 9. From New York. —Grace Deering, barque (Rattray and Son), sailed May 5; due August 9. Thetis, ship, (Bates, Sise, and Co.), sailed June 6; due September 8. From Hamburg. —Bille, barque (Ahlfeld and Co.), sailed April 26; due July 29. . From Sydney. —Westralia, August 13. Mokoia, August 16. From Melbourne. —Oonah, August 15. From Maiden Island. —Lapwing, barquentine, early. From Surprise Island. — Ganymede, early. From Westporc. —Corinna, August 9. From Auckland. —Flora, August 10. From Kaipara. —Joseph Sim (early), Enterprise (early), Isabella Anderson (early), Defiance (early). From Greymouth. —Janet Nicoll, August 7. PROJECTED DEPARTURES. For Auckland. —Flora, August 11. For Sydney.--Mararoa, August 8. For Melbourne. —Mokoia, August 17. For Westport. —Corinna, August 11. For Greymouth. —Janet Nicoll, August 9. NEW SHIPS FOR NEW ZEALAND. THE WHITE STAR FLEET. (Fkom Oun Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 1. This week I am able to give you some further particulars respecting the new fleet of 12,000-ton steamships of the White Star line which Messrs Ismay, Imrie, and Company intend putting on what they term the colonial service. This fleet will be composed jis follows : —The Afric, 11,816 tons; the Runic, Medic, Suevic, and Persic, each of 11,984 tons; Delphic, 8273 tons; Gothic, 7755 tons; and lonic, 4748 tons; all except the lastname being twin screw. The registered tonnages given are gross, the net being about 7824 tons. The five new vessels, those first named, will be 550 ft in length, 63ft beam, 44ft in depth, and of a speed of 12 knots. They will "be fitted with all the most approved cargo appliances, thoroughly subdivided into watertight compartments, refrigerated with Hall's carbonic anhydride system, and insulated with silicate of cotton. As I have already informed -you, the Home port will be Liverpool, which it is designed to make a centre for the distribution of Australasian produce, and the vessels in their outward trip will coal at Cardiff, for it has been decided to use smokeless fuel, a condition which will add much to tiie comfort of passengers, xne route will be via Capetown to Fremantle, Albany, Melbourne, Sydney, and other ports. Seeing that only third-class passengers are to be carried on these boats, and that the accommodation for them will be much superior to that ordinarily provided, it was thought that the fares would be fixed at something between present second paloon fares and those usually charged for third-class. But, if anything, the fares have been fixed a shade lower than the ordinary rate, a berth in a two-berth cabin costing £17 17s, in a four-berth cabin r,'l6 16s; while the open berths, or rather a berth in a cabin for eight, the largest in the ships, will be £14 14s. And judging from the information given me and the drawings of the cabins and saloons shown, the accommodation is equal to that known by the secondclass only a few years ago. For instance, the reading room is spacious, comfortably seated, and provided with a piano; the saloons are amidships, where first-class cabins are generally placed'; the smoke rooms are- of the most convenient description ; while the dining room is fitted with swing chairs, and it will be the duty of the stewards to see that the tables are properly laid. In short, there will be no " pigging it," to use a phrase perhaps best descriptive of life in the old steerages. In respect to the dietary, the table includes four "square" meals a-day, and in the specimen bill of fare, I see, includes such things as chicken broth and boiled fowls, beef tea being provided when necessary for women and children, while cooled limejuice will be served with dinner-while in the tropics. In point of fact it looks like ordinary second-class rations, with a few of the more luxurious courses curtailed. How Mewrs Ismay, Imrie, and Company are going to make the thing pay is not quite seen by those not " in the know." They may, however, be trusted to have gone into the matter thoroughly, for the owners of the White Star line are credited with being as long-headed as anyone in the shipping trade. The Medic opens the service on the 3rd of next month. This afternoon, the Zealandia, the new steamship built for Messrs Huddart, Parker, and Company (Proprietary) rails from the South West India Dock, with cargo and passengers for Australia, to take up her running in the intercolonial and New Zealand trade. She is about 3000 lons register, and the route she will take is via the Cape of Good Hope to Fremantle, Melbourne, and Sydney. Her builders were Messrs Gourlay Brothers and Co., of Dundee. In many respects the new vessel i? similar to the same company's s.s. Westralia, her dimensions being: Length 327 ft, beam 42ft, depth 23ft. A special feature of the ship is a spacious and handsome dining room on the bridge deck, amidships, with seating accommodation for 72 passengers. She has also very fine music and smoke rooms ; the state rooms are large, and fitted with all the latest conveniences for making sea travel a luxury. The electric light installation throughout is said to be particularly fine. Two refrigerating rooms are provided-

The second-class accommodation is superior to that of most vessels engaged in the intercolonial trade. The dining saloon in this class is capable of seating 54- passengers, and occupies the full width of the ship. Nearly all the berthing space is' in enclosed cabins, which are almost equal ta those in the saloon. In the total, berthing accommodation is y..iovided for 150 saloon, and 100 second-class passengers. The Zealandia's engines are triple expansion, with cylinders 26in, 43in, and 70in diameter, by 48in stroke. On the trial trip they drove the ship at a speed of slightly over 13 knots per hour when fully loaded. The Zealandia, for the voyage out, is under the command of Captain Free, E.N.R., who is well-known in Australia, his next vessel, prior, being the Miowera. LYTTELTON, August I.— The s.s. Ardandearg sailed yesterday with a cargo of 36,050 sacks of wheat, for Spain. It is believed to be < the first direct shipment ever made from this colony to any Spanish port. The Huddart-Parker Co.'s b.b. Elingamite steamed down to Port Chalmers on the Ist inst., and left the Bowen pier in the afternoon for Sydney, via the East Coa3t ports. A Ohristehurch telegram says that all doubt as to the identity of the hatches recently found at Akaroa heads is set at rest. Some of the Elginshire's hatches have been recovered and brought to Lyttelton. On comparison they proved to be both from the same Eteamer. The New Zealand Shipping Company's steamship Otarama left Port Chalmers on the 2nd inst. for London, via Lyttelton. Her outward cargo from this port consisted of 9375 carcases frozen mutton, 249+ crates ( frozen rabbits, 56 cases kidneys, and 58 cases boned beef. The Shire line steamer Perthshire arrived on the 2nd. It will be remembered that afti^r drifting about the Tasman Sea for over 50 days she was eventually picked up by the Union Steam Ship Company's Talune and towed into Sydney harbour, where ehe was placed in Mori's dook for overhaul, and received a new stern tube weighing nearly five tons, and an overhaul. The Perthshire comes here in splendid order. She left Sydney at 5 p.m. of the 21st ult. The Maori, from London (July 7). left Capetown on the evening of the Ist inst., for New Zealand, via Hobart. The following vessels have been in harbour during the past week: — Arrivals: Invereargill, s.s., 123 tons; Beautiful Star, b.s., 146 (twice); Perthshire, s.s., 6000; Te Anau. s.s.. 1028; Taupo, b.s., 408; Tutanekai, s.s.. 463; Tarawera, s.s., 1269; Talune,' s.s., 1303; Mararoa, s.s., 2598; Hawea, s.s., 1114; — total, 11,333 tons. Departures: Oonah, s.s., 945 tons; Bimu, s.s., 143; Elingamite, s.s., 1675; Beautiful Star, s.s.. 146 (twice) ; Otarama, s.s., 38.08; Wakatipu, s.s., 1258; Te Anau. s.s., 1028; Taupo, s.s., 408; Perthshire, s.s., 6000; —total, 15,408 lons. The s.s. Tarawera, Captain C. M 'Arthur, with 63 passengers and 373 tons of general cargo for this port, from Melbourne tind Hobart, via the Bluff, arrived at the Bowen pier at 7.30 a.m. of Saturday. She left Melbourne at 3 p.m. of the 29th ult. The Union Steam Ship Company's steamship "Talune, Captain C Spinks, from Sydney, via Cook Strait, arrived at the Bowen pier at 9.30 a.m. of Saturday, and stexmed up to Dunedin on the afternoons tide. She left the company's wharf at Sydney on July 29. T!ie Shire line steamship Perthshire left Port Chalmers on Saturday afternoon for London, via Lyttelton. Her Dunedin cargo consisted of 12 pkgs sundries, 13 bales leather, 2 do glue pieces, 173 casks tallow, 27 do pelts, 2466 sacks oats, 199 pkgs zinc ash, 404 boles of sheep and rabbitskins, 1959 crates frozen rabbits, 160 cases boned beef, and 19.630' carcases of frozen mutton* The Union Steam Ship Company's Mararoa, Captain C. Al'Donald, from Sydney, via the East Coast ports, arrived at the George street pier at 8 a.m. on Sunday, and pleamed up to Dunedin on the afternoon's tide. She left Sydney at 5 p.m. of the 261h ult. There was quite a procession of steamers down the harbour on Monday. At 3.15 p.m. the s.s. Tarawera left for Sydney, via Cook Strait ; at 3.30 p.m. the s.s. Talune left for Melbourne, via the Bluff; and at 3.45 p.m. the Government steamer Tutanekai left for Lyttelton. Immediately aftei the Tutanekai left, the a.s. Hawea moved down from the cross wharf to the Victoria wharf to load transhipments. She left next day fpr the Bluff to load there for Auckland, via Oamaru and Timaru. H.M. gunboat Ringdove,' Lieutenant-com-mander Ayscough, from northern ports, arrived at Port Chalmers on Monday morningg. The barque Passe Partout had a unique experience lately. It appears that the ship's copper sheathing had been pierced by a swordfish during her passage from Goole to Gottenburg, and she put into Kragero leaking, when part of the sword was found embedded in her planking.

Vessel Tonnage From Beautiful Star, *.s. 146 ... Oamaru Perthshire, s.s ... 6000 ... Bluff re Anau, s.s. ... 1307 ... Auckland faupo, s.s. ... 418 ... West Coast ... rutanekai, C.G.S. 412 ... No Ihem ports Beautiful Star, s.s. 146 ... Timaru I'arawera, ss. ... 1269 ... Melbourne lalune, s.s. ... 1305 ... Sydney Hawea, s s. ... 1250 ... Auckland Mararoa, ?.s ... 1381 ... Sydney Ringdove, tf.M\ ... 905 ... Northern ports Aug. 2 2 3 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 7

Vessel Tonnage For Rinw, s.s 143 ... Invircargiil ... Elingamite. ss. ... 1 605 ... Sydney Beautiful Star, s.s. 11*5 ... Tin: ara Dtatama, s.s. ... 3POS ... Lyttelton Wakatipu, s..s ... 125S ... HyJney fe An an. s s. ... l«>30 ... Auckland Pevthi-hire, f.s. ... 5000 ... London Beautiful Star, ss. 146 ... Oamaru.Timaro L'aupo, f.s •lOS ... Wesnort rutanekai, C.G.S. 412 ... Wellington ... LYlune, s.s. ... 1303 ... Melbourne I'arawera, s.s. ... 1269 ... Sydney Aug. 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 6 7 7 7