PORT OF BLUFF.

Southland Times, Issue 20641, 13 November 1928, Page 2

PORT OF BLUFF.

SAILED. —Monday November 12. Manuka t.s.s. (Captain G. B. Morgan) 4534 tons for Dunedin. VESSEL IN PORT. Karamea m.v. EXPECTED ARRIVALS. Calm, Wellington, November 15. Kartigi, Westport, November 15. Opihi, Greymouth, November 17. Karetu, Oamaru, November 21. Tainui, London, November 25. Kawatiri, Hobart, November 28. Northumberland, Liverpool, January 12. Waiotapu, Dunedin, January 22. Waikawa, Napier, February 8. PROJECTED DEPARTURES. Karamea, Wellington, November 14. Calm, Dunedin, November 15. Kartigi, Dunedin, November 16. Opihi, Dunedin, November 19. Karetu, Sydney, November 21. Tainui, Wellington, November 28. Kawatiri, Dunedin, November 30. Northumberland, northern porta, January 14. Waiotapu, Wellington, January 24. Waikawa, Wellington, February 18. GENERAL NOTES. The Manuka which arrived at Bluff at 1.15 p.m. on Sunday, sailed yesterday afternoon for Dunedin, Lyttelton, Wellington and thence Melbourne. The Karamea which is loading 8,300 freight carcases of meat, 1000 boxes of butter and 9,500 crates of cheese at Bluff, is expected to sail to-morrow afternoon for Auckland via porta, sailing finally on December 8 for London via Panama. The whale chaser Star XI. (Captain Karlsen) which arrived at Bluff at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday is expected to sail for Paterson Inlet at daylight this morning. The Oreti is due at Invercargill tomorrow from Dunedin, sailing later for Milford Sound with materials and supplies for the new hostel. The Karetu leaves Dunedin this morning for Lyttelton, Oamaru and Bluff. The vessel is expected here early next week and will sail later for Sydney direct. The Opihi is expected to load at Greymouth to-morrow for Dunedin and Bluff, being due at this port on Saturday with a quantity of coal for discharge. The Kartigi was expected to load at Westport yesterday -for Blufl, Dunedin, Oamaru and Timaru, being due here on Thursday. The Kurow will load at Auckland towards the end of the week for Wellington, Lyttelton, Dunedin and Bluff, being due here on November 26. The Kawatiri loads at Hobart early next week and leaves about November 20 for Dunedin, Lyttelton and Timaru. If sufficient inducement is offering the vessel will include Bluff in her itinerary. The Calm is now due at Bluff on Thursday to load general cargo, sailing the same day for the usual northern ports. The Kot are’s first trip of the season to the West Coast Sounds is set down for December 8 and the second for Christmas Day. The Tainui is due at Wellington on November 17 from London and Southampton, with passengers and cargo. She will put her passengers ashore and discharge portion of her cargo before sailing for Lyttelton, Port Chalmers and Bluff to complete discharge. The Tainui is expected at this port on November 25 with 2325 tons of general merchandise for discharge. The Waiotapu will load during November and December at Calcutta, Penang, Singapore and Samarang- for Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, Dunedin and Bluff, being due here towards the end of January. Personal I term. Captain H. Falconer, of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, arrived at Auckland a week ago to-day from Liverpool by the Matakana. Captain Falconer was in command of the company’s steamer Mamari when she collided with an iceberg near the Falkland Islands in August, 1927, while en route from Wellington to London .He is on holiday leave, and will spend three months at his home at Takapuna. Captain F. A. Hemming, who recently retired from the New Zealand Shipping Company, has already found that inactivity on the land is not altogether suitable to his temperament, and he has set out once more to sail the seas. He has taken a passage by the Hurunui for New York, and he intends to revisit Canada, his native land. His restlessness is understandable, for in the 35 years he spent at sea he travelled over 3,000,000 miles. During 15 years’ service as officer and commander of the Miowera he travelled 1,000,000 miles, and subsequently as commander of the Rimutaka, 800,000 miles. His earlier voyages, as apprentice and junior officer, bring his total wanderings to a figure well over 3,000,000 miles. In his early days be

served as second lieutenant in the Canadian Government Fishery Protection Service. Captain Hemming is a son of the late Judge Hemming, K.C., who, in 1845 resigned his position as an officer of the East Indianman Herefordshire in order to take up the study of the law. MARINE JOTTINGS JONAH’S WHALE. MODERN PARALLELS. Many a fish story has weathered the cold incredulity of the scientist and the jeers .of the man in the street, and the biggest of all big fish stories, the story of Jonah, is still a matter for serious controversy. Although the prophet's remarkable experience is usually treated as a myth, many are content to accept it as it stands, regarding the performance as a miracle enacted under divine interposition. Dr. Ambrose John Wilson, a former Fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford, is the latest to champion the veracity of the ancient narrative, and in a recent contribution to the Princeton Theological Review, entitled "The Sign of the Prophet Jonah and its Modern Confirmation,” attempts to prove its truth by subjecting it to scientific and historical tests. Dr Wilson states that the "fish” •in question would be the sperm whale or cachalot, a species measuring up to 80 feet, inhabiting the waters where Jonah was once a voyager. He compares the interior of such a creature to a house room in which at least twenty Jonahs could stand upright. The impossibility of the performance has been urged on the ground that the whale’s gullet is too small. Although certain species of whales have comparatively small throats, the gullet of the sperm whale is not only large, but distensibile, and thus, as the author mentions, is a question not of calculated possibilities, but of recorded facts. The sperm whale subsists for the most part on octupus, the bodies of which, often far larger than that of a man, having frequently been found whole in its stomach. There is also a well-established record of the skeleton of a shark 16 feet long being found inside a sperm whale. Therefore, while one may reasonably question the prophet’s survival after being swallowed, there is no shadow of doubt that certain whales could swallow a human being with the greatest ease. Whether a man could live inside a whale for more than a very short time is the next point to be considered. According to Dr. Wilson, the answer is in the affirmative. He reasons: "There will be air to breather, of a sort—the air necessary to enable the fish to float. The heat would be oppressive, but not more than 104 deg. to 106 deg. F., in the opinion of an expert. This temperature, though fever heat to a human being, would not necessarily be fatal to human life. Again, the gastric juice would be extremely unpleasant, but not deadly. It cannot digest living matter, otherwise it would digest the walls of its own stomach.” WITHIN WIRELESS RANGE. The following vessels were expected to be within range of the undermentioned wireless stations last evening:— Auckland: —Tofua, Canadian Conqueror, Waipahi, Maui Pom are, Port Auckland, Marama. Wellington:—Maori, Wahine, Ngaio, Arahura, Tamahine, Ulimaroa, Ruahine, Maheno, Rimutaka, Canadian Highlander, Wirral, Waitemata, Eleanor Bolling. Awarua:—Makura, Maunganui, Manuka, Sir J. C. Ross, C. A. Larsen, N. T. Neilsen Alonso, City of New York. Chatham Islands: —Devon, Bohemian Club, Benholm, Tainui, Port Wellington. TELEGRAPHED REPORTS. COASTAL And OVERSEAS. Auckland, November 12. Arrived: Kaimanawa 5.30 p.m. from Westport; Port Darwin 12.20 p.m. from New Plymouth; Norfolk 3. p.m. from London ; Trongate 6 p.m. from Texas. Sailed: —Matakana 4.10 p.m. for Wellington; Wirral 6.20 p.m. for Wellington. Wellington, November 12. Arrived:—Maki 10.45 a.m. from Gisborne; Kurow 10 p.m. from Picton. Sailed: —Wahine 7.50 p.m. for Lyttelton; Breeze mid-night for Dunedin; Calm midnight for Lyttelton. Lyttelton, November 12. Sailed:—Kahika 2.10 p.m. for Wellington; Gale 4.15 p.m. for Wellington; Maori 7.35 p.m. for Wellington. Dunedin, November 12. Arrived, November 11:—King Edgar 6.15 p.m. from Napier. November 12: —Progress 4.10 a.m. from Wellington. Sailed:—Waipiata 5.10 p.m. for Oamaru; Progress 5.30 p.m. for Timaru. Sydney, November 11. Arrived: Poolta from Greymouth.—Australian Press Association. Colon, November 10. Arrived: Rotorua. Sailed: Westmoreland.—Australian Press Association. Southampton, November 10. Sailed: Tamaroa.—Australian Press Association. London, November 10. Arrived: Esperence Bay, Pakeha and Demosthenes. Sailed: Orama.—Australian Press Association. Colombo, November 11. Sailed: Jervis Bay.—Australian Press Association. Suez, November 11. Sailed: Orsova.-*—Australian Press Asso ciation. Honolulu, November 11. Sailed: Sonoma. —Australian Press Association. Liverpool, November 11. Sailed: Runic.—Australian Press Association. Port Said, November 11. Sailed: Hobson’s Bay.—Australian Press Association.