TELEGRAMS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3352, 22 November 1871, Page 2

TELEGRAMS.

Spit— 2let, 1 p m., Luna for Wellington. Wanganui — 213t, 4.40 p.m., Wanganui, from Wellington. Nelson— 2let, 6 p.m., Taranaki, from Picton.

The 8.8. Claud Hamilton, Captain Clurk, will sail this afternoon, at; 2 o'clock, for Melbourne, via Lyttelton, Otago, and Bluff. The 8.3. Maori, Captiiin Malcolm, sailed yesterday afternoon, for Ly Mcl ton and Otago. The remainder of the members of the General Assembly have taken their departure by her. The e.B. Tarunaki, Captain Wheeler, hence Tia Pieton, arrived at Nelson yeßterday afternoon. She leaves there this afternoon for Taranaki and ManaVau. The b.s. Phcebe, Captain Worsp, has been placed in the graving dock at Port Chalmers to be cleaned and painted. She will leave that port on Friday next, with the outward English mail. The 8.8. Keer«, Captain Carey, leaves Dunedin this afternoon, for Northern ports, and may be expected to arrive here on Saturday next. She will, probably, leave the same day for Napier and Auckland. The s.B. Wellington, Captain Kennedy, is due here on Sunday next from Northern ports, and will leave on the following day for Lyttelton and Otago. At last the wrecked ship Loch Lcven has gone to pieces. The 8.8. Cooroug started from Melbourne to King's Island on Tuesday night last, in order to bring off another cargo of wool from the wreck, but on her arrival on Wednesday it was found that at 2 a.m. that day the ship had gone to pieces, with a great noise, resembling the fire of artillery. The weather was not particularly bad at the time, and has often been worse while the process of redeeming the cargo has gone on, but the constant wear of the veEsel against the rocks and her lightening may account for the catastrophe. The shore is said to be strewn with hundreds of wool bales and large quantities of loose wool from the ship. Fortunately before the break-up over 4,300 out of the 6,500 bales on board, had been saved, which will go very far to reduce the losses expected to be sustained. Tho steam winch and two sets of divers' dresses, taken down by the stevedore, are however quite gone, and it is thought very fortunate that no one was on board the Loch Leven when she went down. The Coorong returned yesterday in ballast, bringing back all the men employed in salvage, except two, who are left in charge of the property. The ship and remaining cargo will be sold by auction on Saturday next, — "Argus," Nov. 10. Captain Montgomerie, of tho Blanche, has been succeeded by Captain Simpson, who arrived in Sydney from England by the E.M.S. Geelong. The following is the full report of the Sydney Steam Navigation Board, who wero requested by the Colonial Treasurer to investigate the circumstances attending the collision between the American mail steamship Nevada and the A. 11. Badger :— " Tho board directed the secretary to write to the master of tho A. H. Badger to attend at this office with such witnesses as he might be disposed to examine in reference to tho collision. They likewise caused letters to be written to the master of the steamer Nevada and the American consul, inviting their attendance at the inquiry, with such witnesses as they might ■wish to bring ; and they further caused a notice to be inserted in the daily papers requesting the attendance of any persons who bad any evidence to offer in reference to the subject of the inquiry. On Thursday, Oct. 26, the board assembled to hold the inquiry, when there were present the master of the A. H. Badger, with his witnesses. Captain Blethen, of the steamer Nevada; and Mr Hall, tho American Consul, also attended, but declined to take any part in the proceedings, intimating through their legal representative their determination to defer what they had to cay until the case should be brought under judicial investigation. The legal representatives of the insurance company also attended.

but declined to take any part in the proceedings. On tho purely ex parte view of the case presented to tho board, they do not feel that they would bo warranted in pronouncing an authoritative opinion as to which vessel was in default ; but that they feel constrained to record their opinion that great blarna is to he attached to the person in charge of the steamer Nevada in proceeding on their oourso without stopping to inquire into tho facts of tho collision, and also whether any assistance was required by tlio other vessel." — " Sydney Morning Herald," Nov. 3. The "Times" thus comments on tho towing off of tho powerful ship of war, the Agincourt, from the rock on which she- grounded, at the entrance to Gibraltar Harbor : — " The noble exertions by which tho ship was eventually saved are a more pleasing tin me. As an excuse for tho accident, it is said that a current was running which carried tho Agincourt upon tho rock, without any one being aware of tho danger ; but in spite of all currents the Hercules— an ironclad, scarcely less bulkly than the Agincourt— kept close to tho Pearl Rock for three days, and ultimately succeeded in towing off the sti'anded veesel. The Hercules is a ship of 5234 tons, and 1200 horsepower, commanded by Lord Guilford, and to the skill and courage lie showed in keeping by and saving the Agincourt a tribute has been paid by every witness. When ihe immense mass of these vessels is considered, and the powerful momentum produced by their propulsion, it will be perceived what judgment and coolness ox'e necessary for their management on tho edge of a sunken rock, where the slightest false movement would be fatal. At any moment of those three anxious days and nights the Hercules might have shaved tho fato of the Agincouit. At first it was attempted to drag' off the vessel by main foice a3 she stood. A chain cable was tried, but its weight swampod the boats that were engaged in passing it from one ship to the other, and there was an end of that expedient. Then trial was made of an 18in. hemp cable, which had been laid out between tho two ships ; but no sooner^ had the Hercules begun to move than the gigantic rope snapped like a thread without making the slightest impression on the Agincourt. Then it was resolved to lighten her as much as possible, and from the Sunday morning parties of men from all the ships, with further assistance from the shore, were engaged on this work. ' Guns of six and twelve and a half tons were seen hanging from some of the yards, and huge iron slides and carriages from others. Parties were at work shovelling the coal out through the ports into the lighters ; running the chain cables out through the hawse pipes and lowering the anchors down from their places.' At last, on tho Tuesday, at high tide, ' a ship weighing 9,000 tons kept in the same spot in a strong current, close to another monster of 10,000 tons, while huge chains, whose every link weighs more than half a hundredweight, are hauled from one to the other.' How tho work was done, how the Agineourt the moment she got off came into collision with the Hercules, how both ships were for some time in danger, the Agincourt being without tho aid of her engines and the cables having fouled the screw of the Hercules— these thing 3 have been already described, and supply a record of skilful and courageous seamanship unsurpassed in tho annals of the British Navy." ARRIVAL OF THE BLANCHE. H.M.S.S. Blanche, Captain Chullis, arrived in harbor yesterday ovening, from Sydney, via the Chatham Islands. The Blanche left Sydney on October 21st, calling in at the Auckland Isles on the 28th. Examined the depots and searched the islands for wrecked seamen. Left there for Campbell Island on on Sept. 4, where she arrived on the sth ; as it was blowing a gale tho Blanche did not cull in, but proceeded to the Antipodes and Bounty Islands, which were closely examined. Thence sailed for tho Chatham Islands, which she reached on Tuesday, Nov. 14. Left there for Wellington direct on Nov. 16, arriving in harbor at 6 p.m. yesterday. The Blanche is almost entirely manned by the survivors of tho Mcgccra, which our readers well remember was wrecked at St Paul's. Altogether there is a total of 150 of all ranks from tho Megsera's crew on board, the commander of that vessel, together with other officers and the chief engineer, having gone home to attend tho court martial. Tho following ie a list of the officers of the Blanche :— Captain Henry J. Challis, (acting, Rosaria). Lieutenants — F. W. B. Pried, Thos. T. A. Smith, John H. Lee (Clio). Sub-Lieu-enants — Lewis T. Jones, Henry F. Hazard, Henry M. 0. Feating. Naval-Lieutenant — John Edwards (Blanche). Paymaster — Jas. B, M'Avoy. Surgeon —W. H; Adams: Assistant Surgeon — Wm. F. Sweetman. Chief Engineer — John Snell (Blanche). Engineer — Thomas Clark. Third Engineer — George Elliot. Clerk— Charles E. Bynon (Clio). Midshipmen — H. J. Davison, E. K. Bruce, J. C. Faire, H. Evans, H. Walpole. THE BRITISH FLEET, Our thought last week, says the "Saturday Review," was that it wa3 impossible for tho Government to get deeper into the mud ; but the Malebolgo has thickened, and a denser darkness has settled on tho setting of the Parliamentary sun. It is as though an adverse and cruel fate were engaged in hurling confusion from every quarter of the political hoaron, if not destruction, on the House of Gladstone, Una JSurusque Notxsc/ue, &c. Although troubles and misfortunes generally come in troops, yet there remains another characteristic of a sea of sorrow, that the last wave is usual ly the most destructive. If there is one British boast which we especially prize, it is our navy. The Battle of Dorking was not fought till the British fleet was found wanting, or scattered, or nowhere at the crisis of fate. The ingenious but exceedingly stupid author of tho " Second Armada" founded his pleasant fiction on our great line of defence on the German Ocean. This illusion has received a very rude shock. In one brief twelvemonth no less than four great naval casualties of iho very first importance have overtaken tho pride of England. The Psyche hns been' lost-, though the savans and their instruments have been saved, and this on a coa&t which, 6inco history has been written, has been noted as especially dangerous, and therefore especially well known. One of our best ironclads — an ironclad ship built to illustrate the greatest novelty, and, as we are told, the greatest success in war ships — has gone down in a most inconsiderable gale in a notorious, sea, where danger is always looked for, and, therefore, as wo simply thought, always provided against. Another of our great glories has escaped destruction by tlie weather and broad daylight iv the well-known waters of Gibraltar Bay ; and, to crown all, a troopship has been obliged to be run ashore on a barren rock in tho Indian Ocean in a sinking Btate. The Psycho, the Captain, tho Agincourt, and tho Megroia — these sad names almost recall the successive buffets which, culminating at Sedan, have just destroyed tho power and ulniost the existence of France.