Shipping Intelligence.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 343, 5 September 1868, Page 4

Shipping Intelligence.

PORT OF WESTPOET. | HI (111 WATER. J This Day ... 11.40 p.m., 12.6 p.m. A ft RIVALS. Nil, DEPARTURES. September 4—Kennedy s.s., Whitwell, for. Hokitika and the Grey. N. Edwards and Co., agents. Schooner Mount M'Laren, in ballast, for Pieton. Allen and Suisted, agents. PASSENGER LIST. Per p.s. Kennedy, for Hokitika and the Grey—Saloon, 3 original, and 1 steerage. EXPECTED ARRIVALS. Wallabi, from Wanganui. -NelsoD,from Nelson. VVaipara, from Wellington. VESSELS lIT PORT. Schooners Fairy, Necromancer. Ketch—Alert. Steamer —Lioness. Three small vessels that were engaged in the coasting trade of Auckland are supposed to be lost, namely the cutters Betsey and Dolphin and the schooner Percy. The latter boat left the the Bay of Islands for the Thames Goldfields about three -weeks ago, and no intelligence of her has since been re•ceived. The Betsey left Tairua for the Thames a month since, and it is generally supposed that she has foundered at sea. The Dolphin, bound from Auckland to Napier, has not been heard of for many weeks, and it is feared that the crew and passengers have met with a fate similar to those of the Betsey. HOMEWARD TRIP OF THE GALATEA. The Galatea, Captain his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, KG., left Sydney at 6.30 p.m. on the 6th April, and passed the Snares off the southern extremity of New Zealand —the only land seen on the passage—at 2 p.m. on the 11th, having run the first 1100 miles in 4| days. On the 23rd of April, when in lat. 5.V20 S., and long. 11l W., she passed a large flat-topped iceberg 450 feet high, and three-quarters of a mile long. On the 24th passed two large ones, one of them 400 feet high, in form something like a haystack ; the same night another which, in the absence of moon,, was not seen till right abeam, distant only three miles ; early the next morning sighted another right ahead, when running thirteen knots an hour, and soon afterwards passed one on the port bow, and r.in between several pieces of drift ice, and soon afterwards passed another on the starboard bow. In none of these cases did the thermometer give any warning of the approach of danger. The temperature of the sea was either the same as that of the atmosphere, or higher, but never lower.; in one ■case it was 3 deg. higher, and in another 4 deg. The bergs were passed between 111 W. and 105 W. The Galatea passed the Horn at midnight on April 30, having run the distance trom oyaney in i*j aays tor turrerence of longitude and change of reckoning). She never got the south-cast trades'at all. Crossed the Equator in long. 25T6 W. on the 2Sth May, 27t days from the meridian of Cape Horn. Got the north-east trades in lat. 9-2o N., long. 26£ W. on the Ist June. Had light winds north of the Line, which fell away to a calm on the 24th when steam was got up. On the morning of the £ s'.h fell in with a pilot boat, and obta.n. • ews up to the 15th, got Bba-vln.M in S3 fathoms, 6o miles from the Seiliy Islands. Steam was •'occasionally used during the passage, for eight or nine days in all. Lord Newry, the Hon. E. C. Yorke, Leiufc. Haig, R.E., and Mr Brierly, who went out with the Duke of Edinburgh, have returned in the ship. Mr Whatinore, engineer, and Mr Tregilgas, engineer (invalided), from her Majesty's ship Challenger, have also had a passage in the ship. The Galatea was officially inspected at Spitliead on June 29, by Admiral Sir Thomas Sabine Pasley, Port Admiral and naval com-mander-in-chief at Portsmouth. The Duke resumed active command, for the time being, early on June 30.