Shipping Intelligence

Taranaki Herald, Volume VII, Issue 364, 23 July 1859, Page 2

Shipping Intelligence

From the Wellington papers received last night by the overland mail we copy the following —

The barque Minerva, Merriman, from London, arrived in port last night, after an average passage of 112 days. The ship Jlargaretta Rosener, from London via Lyttelton, arrived in port about 10 last night. She biings a general caigo and no passengers.—(Spectator, July 16. — The Queen of the Avon, Gilbeit, from London, anived on Wednesday last, after a passage of 110 days. She bungs 131 passengers, 70 being for Wellington and the lemainder for Nelson. — Ibid. - The biig Emma, Captain Holford, arrived from Sydney on Sunday evening last. She left Sydney on the 23id June, and experienced very changeable winds dining the passage. She arrived off the heads on Fiiday morning, but being unable to work up against the stiong north west wind and ebb tide, anchored in Fitzroy Bay until Sunday morning when she beat up the heads and anchored in this port on Sunday evening. She shipped 37 horses and has landed 33, having lost only i on the passage. — IbU. [The Emma sailed foi Taranaki on the Kith inst.]

The blnp Cameo, irom London, with 303 passengers, arnved at Ljttelton on the 11th inst. — Ibid. - The schooner Valentine Hcllica, from Melbourne to Port Cooper, with twenty passengers, four horses, and geneial caigo, was wiecked on the beach at Otaki, on Sunday moining last, during the great thunder storm and gale of wind which occurred at that time. Piovidenlially no lives were lost, everything was saved, and the vessel is high and dry, and appatently sound, with the 'exception of the foremast, which was cut away after bhe got into the surf and cniried with it the bowsprit and main topmast. Great credit is due to Mi Eager and several other European residents at Otaki, who, with the zealous co-opeiation of the Natives, rendered every assistance in their power to the shipwrecked passengers and crew. — Ibid.

Accident to the " Prince ALritED " Maii Steamer. — The Piince Allied, on returning fiom Wellington on Tuesday last, in attempting to take the Fiench Pass, very unfortunately struck on a leef of rocks, wheie she remained till the following tide. The pai ticulars of this disaster aie as follows : — The steamer, on appioaching the mouth of the Pass from Cook'!, Strait on Tuesday forenoon, found the tide ebbing strongly against her, and by hugging the mam land too closely, she glazed a rock on her larboard side i her helm was thereupon suddenly put h.ud a poit, and the stiong tide then running caught her head, and before she could be stopped, she had shot across the channel and struck upon a reef on the opposite side, where she remained firmly wedged. As the tide fell, it was found the vessel hail got into a chasm in the reef, and had stiuck about midships, the reel aiound hei being high and dry. Efforts were of course made to lighten the \ essel as, much as possible by thiowing ovei board a quantity of coal, and by emptjing hei boilers, and a kedge was carried out to haul upon when the tide rose. At eleven o'clock at night the \ essel floated off the reef, and was waiped up to her ancboi ; but the tide again ebbing strongly tluough the Pass,, the waip snapped, and the vessel swept back thiough the open channel, fortunately w ithout encountering any luither danger. Having got out of the stiength of the current, the vessel was biought to an anchoi in Admiralty Bay, wheie bhe lemained until her boilers were filled and her steam got up, and then, proceeding round Stephen's Island, came on to Nelson. The most ex. tiaoidinaiy circumstance connected with the affair is, that neither the vessel nor her machinery appears to have received any serious damage, and, after coaling at Nelson she was able to pioceed at once on her voyage to Sydney. — Nehon Examiner, July 9.

Wheie are the London ships ? This is a question veiy generally being asked. The Traveller is now 112 days from her last port ot departure, Cowes, whence bhe sailed on the l'Jth of March. She had been in collision with the Mimmic, Hislop, tor Cadiz, and h.id put back to Deal on the 20th of Feb., but took her final depai tur j, as we have above stated ; the Snoidfish is 111 days out, having sailed on the 20th March ; the Biitish Queen is 100 days having sailed irom Deal on the 31st March j and the Whirl, wind is 95 days having passed through the Downs on Ihe sth April. We m.vy expect to see them tumbling in in a lump. — Neiv-Zealande> , July 9. H. M. Brig. Sloop Elk, 12 guns, Commander Campion, ai lived last evening from a Southern cruise, in the course ol which she visited the ports of Wellington, Lyttelton and Nelson, from the last of wliioh she came by the Noith Cape, purposing to touch at New Plymouth, but was pievented horn doing so by stiess of weather. The Elk is now one of the cruiseis attached to the Australian Command under Commodore Loring, C.8., and, will, we sup pose, be no uuficquent visitor to the New Zealand waters. She was, we believe, expected to proceed to the Feejee*, but the departure ol the Cordelia, fiom Sydney, ior those Islands, will, in all likelihood, liberate her fiom that duty. If we may hazard a _conjecture, we should be apt to/tonclude that the "visit of the Governoi-Geneial of Australia, Sir William Denison, to the Feejee Islands, viewed in connection with a strong memorial relative to their impoitance, the desire of their chiefs to be placed under the protection of Great Britain, and a deputation of the leading men of Australasia, in London, to the British Government, enforcing that memorial, are the primary motives ot his Excellency's tiip. This is no time lor England to stand shilly shally, when Fiance is. concentrating her Naval and Military forces in New Caledonia, the immediate neighbour of most of the British Colonies of the Southern group. By a neck and neck race, England won New Zealand from the clutches of France — that success has ever since been deplored by the loser. Let England, therefore, beware how she lets slip the offered prize of the Feejees, and, with it, one of the most important points of the maritime supremacy of the South Pacific Ocean.— lbid, July 9.

The steamer Lord Ashley, from Manukau, viS Nelson, arrived in Sydney on the 14th ult., in time to put her mail on board the Benares. We learn

that her machinery, as well as her cabins, would require a complete overhaul. — Ibid, July 6.

The Australian Naval Command, not before it was urgently and imperatively required, and has at length been dissevered from that of India and China, and Captain Loring, C.8., of the Iris, has been the first to hoist his broad blue pendant, as second class Commodore ; he is to be immediately reinforced by the screw corvettes, Niger 14 guns, 400 horse power. Captain Peter Cracroft, (not thehon. Arthur Cochranc, — son of the Earl of Dundonald — as erroneously stated by the " Sydney Morning Herald ") and Pelorus, 21 guns, 400 horse power, Captain F. B. Seymour ; both are modern ships, and both their Captains were posted in 1854. The Niger is the ship which the New Zealand Government was, some months since, advised as being about to be dispatched from China for service in New Zealand. We have heard a whisper that an alteration in this older has taken place, and that two steam cruisers may be looked for from England. The report comes to us from a highly credible source, but, we candidly confess, we are rather disposed to question its accur.icy. The promotion from Captain to Second Class Commodore is rather honorary than lucrative. When Commanding in Chief, if so ordered by the Admiralty, it entitles the Officer to additional pay of £385 per annum. The pay of a Commodore of the Fust Class, like that ot a Hear- Admiral, is 1095 per annum, with table money. — Ibid, July 6.