Shipping.

Evening Star, Issue 3432, 20 February 1874, Page 2

Shipping.

, HIGH; WATER! . To-ioBBoW; < Heads!, ’ I Pp»t ChaimAbs J Dunedin 6.47 p.m. | 6.22 p.m. | 7.07 p.m. PORT CHALMERS, ARRIVED. February 19.—'Wild Wave, 191 tons, Bishop, rom Newcastle. Trial, 15 tons, Bradshaw, from Waikouaiti. Flying Squirrel, 19 tons, Main, from Oamaru. Luna; p.s., 253' tons, Fairchild, from the North. February 20.—Lake of the Lake, 66 tons, Urquhart, from the Molyneux. Maori, 8.8., 118 tons, Malcolm, from Lyttelton and intermediate ‘ports. Passengers : Mrs Lewis; Mrs Chapman and three children, Mrs Renner, Miss F. Rayner, Messrs dobbins and Fraser, Master Baxter; and seven in the steerage. SAILED. Samson, pis,, 124 tons, Edie, for .Oamaru. PROJECTED DEPARTURES. Albion, for Melbourne, via Bluff, Feb. 27. Christian M'Ausland, for London, Feb. 20. Claud Hamilton, for Melbourne, via Bluff, March 6. East Lothian, for Auckland, Feb. 25. Jessie Headman, for London, Feb. 28. Ladybird, £6r Northern Ports, Feb. 24. Maori, for Lyttelton, Feb. 22. Mongol; for Auckland, Feb. 21. Macgregor, for San Francisco. March 10. , Omeo, for, Newcastle, via Northern Ports, March 6. Oreti, for Wellington, early. Phoebe, for Sydney, Feb. 27. Wanganui, for Invercargill, Feb. 24. Zealand!*, for London, Feb. 25. The Colonial Government p.s. Luna arrived at 6 p.m. yesterday, and passed up to Dunedin. The p.s. Samson sailed from the old jetty for her usual trip to Oamaru shortly after the arrival of the 7.30 train. The ketch Trial arrived yesterday from Waikiouaiti with ninety bales for transhipment to the barque Elizabeth Graham, and the Flying Squirrel from. Oamaru with thirty-one bales for the ship Dunfillah. The barque Bobycito was towed alongside the s.s. Mongol yesterday afternoon, and will discharge part of her coal into the steamer. The Mongol is advertised to sail for Lyttelton, Wellington Auckland, to-qiorrow. : The Maori left Port Chalmers at 5 p.m. on the 15th ; called at Timaru and. Akaroa. and arrived at Lyttelton at midnight on the 17, th : left on her return trip at 6.30 p.m. on the 18th, and after touching at Akaroa and Timaru •arrived at Port Chalmers again at 6.30 this morning. The brig Wild Wave arrived last evening from Newcastle, and anchored off Deborah Bay. Captain Bishop reports leaving Newcastle on the 4th inst., had fine weather and a light N.E. windjintil the 9th; afterwards heavy squally weather from the southward j made the laud on the 10th: encountered a heavy gale from the 8.8. E., which lasted for two days; variables were them experienced until the 16th, when a heavy gale came from the north, with a confused sea; passed through Foveaux Straits on the morning of the 16th, and met a heavy southerly buster, which lasted for six hours, no damage; from thence to arriving off Otago Heads light weather. A N.E. wind which sprang up enabled her to sail up to her anchorage. She brings 268 tons- of coal. The twin-screw steamer Lady of the Lake returned this morning after a smart trip to the Molyneux and back. She left the old jetty at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, in company with the Beautiful Star and Wallabi, and .an exciting race took place between the Lady of the Lake and Beautiful Star who should get to the Heads first. - They kept close together all the way down, and upon reaching the Heads it was impessible to tell which was the foremost boat. The Beautiful Star then went North, while the Lady of the Lake went South, arriving at the Molyneux at 3 a.m. yesterday. Left agaiu at 5 p.m., and arrived as above. Besides other cargo, she brings 70 bales wool for the Jessie Headman.

At 4.45 p.m. yesterday, the scheoner built by Messrs Sutherland and Co. for Messrs Anderson and Mount, of Dunedin, was successfully launched from the builders’ yard. The vessel was decorated with flags, and there was a good number of spectators present. Everything in readiness, and the usual bottle of champagne swinging from the bows, the word was given by Mr Sutherland, and Miss Ramsay came forward and, breaking the bottle over her bow, christened her the Wanganui. The dogs being knocked adnft the vessel • went very easily down the ways, and splashed into her native elemen without any mishap, three cheers being given for her, and three for her builders by those present. A» soon as she is rigged, she probably make a trip to Oamaru, and upon returning she will be docked for the purpose of coppered. Messrs Sutherland and Co will immediately lay down the keel of another vessel of a similar description, for the same owners. SHIPPING TELEGRAMS. Melbourne.— Arrived : February 10 Tasso ftrom Thames ; 12th, Circe, from Hokitika. ’ Newcastle.— Arrived: February 13, Cvrene for m T.vtSu ltOn ‘ I n?if ilo 4 : 7^ h ’ fSbecca Jane; ; !° th ;i Bnt T> for A «cWand; wSK^n.^' ° yrU8 ’ Ann ® Melhuish » f or *•—* “ d ®HIP ON FIRE IN KINGSTOWN pat? BOR-DEPLORABT.BnA°^n^ AR - At twelve o’clock on the night of the 9th November, the greatest consternation was created in Kingstown Harbor, Dublin Bay, by the approach of a vessel on fire, which subsequently turned out to be the Nagpore, frem .Cidoutte bound for Liverpool, with a general cot K n ’ and mani H a * The Dubhn Freeman,’, describing the (scene, says : -Shortly after eleven o’clock on Sunday night 9 0ast S ard Station was alarmed by the sight of blue fires to seaward It was blowing a gale at the time, with an exceedingly heavy sea on. In some twenty T the time the signals of distress were hrst observed a large ship was discerned “ a k in S f° r the harbor, with all sails set, and ploughing before the wind at a headlong rate. She dasted between the piers as she had approached them with all canvas flying, and battling with one of the fittest seas seen for a long time at Kingstown. On entering the harbor she rounded up, showing S e a lo^l br °l ds^ e ’ fin ? Unes » a nd tall spars of a clipper-built ship. At the same moment that her character, was recognised, the reason A e ir 8 vf aS , becam , e a PP ar . en t- A vast cloud ofdense black smoke, plainly discernible in the weak moonhght, enveloped the after part of her hull, wreathing about her lofty white masts and ha!f shrouding her wide spread of w £ TF eV i dent that the 8hi P was on tb{ i fc kc l 'desperate course was a race ter and safety. Just as she cleared the .Bart Pier, the vessel was seen wearing to her anchors. But the crowded canvas was too full in the wind. She failed to take ground, and dragging her anchors, began to drift toward the «horo to the south-west. Fresh consternation now arose, for right in her way lay several of ttie wind-bound craft sheltered in the harbor Her crew were soon working might and main to lessen the press of sail, and they did succeed in lessening the tremendous strain. But it was now too late to avert what happened. She tore along straight for the shore, and not many cables’ length from the certain destruction which awaited her on the jagged roeksand ponderous masonry which form the seaface of Kings- . town harbor. The spectators on shore looked on speu-boiind, while the immense and towering . Mass of white painted hull and whiter sail looming through a huge thick smoke-cloud! torged ahead directly towards them, A fine schooner, deeply laden, was at anchor right before ker. . The great East Indiaman bore Abfated vessel, and, striking net nearly amidships, smashed in her side! £ VC l ael y. awed over heavily, and

>eared thatthe muster is two or three short,and >that fe;many of their number have gone down with the scnooner. The burning ship dashed on, making fresh havoc among the flotilla lying peacefuly at anchor. The next vessel she struck was the schooner Pilot, which now lies in the harbor a striking witness of the terrible force of the collision. She received the blow at an acute angle on the larboard side, which is partly ripped up. Had she been hit full on the broadside, the Pilot, which was far less stout in build than the first vessel sunk, would, in all probability, have been smashed to pieces. As it was, her masts snapped asunder, and fell, clean broken, to the deck, her stern being twisted out of line with her after timbers. She was converted by one stroke into the crippled, unsightly hulk at pre-sent-floating helplessly near the greater wreck ■of her ponderous assailant. But a more deplorable calamity still befel the Pilot, for her ' master, Thomas English, who was in his berth at the instant of the collision, running on deck, fell overboard and was drowned. The East Indiaman, careering more like A monster frantic with-the tortures of the fire which was consuming her than a machine of man’s construction and subject to his control, dashed on unharmed by the two collisions, and encountered next a trawler. She dragged this little vessel from her moorings. The trawler, thus cast loose, drifted to leeward, striking on the rugged barrier beneath the C6astguardStalion,and was speedily reduced to debi-is; her fragments still floating near the dangerous spot where many a stouter craft had cbnie to grief. It would be impossible to exaggerate the dismay with which the frightened beholders on shore, and the yet more scared seamen on board ship, looked on while the great East Indiaman, as if mad with fire and storm, crushed, plunged, and swooped upon the lesser craft lying in her course. The entire force of coastguards, under their commander, the pilots, and other harbor employes, the men of the revenue cutters, Fanny and Victoria, had been energetically preparing to aid the crew of the unmanageable vessel. The three collisions, though they had not damaged her, had checked the stem way she had been making, and the help from land putting off in several boats soon succeeded, with the assistance of the crew, in getting the ship somewhat in hand. Her anchor flukes at length took bottom a hundred yards or so from the Royal Irish Yacht Club House. She was speedily boarded, and then it was learned that the vessel was the Nagpbre, East Indiamen, Captain James Morris, 1,521 tons, and classed A 1 at Lloyds. She was exactly four months from Calcutta on the day when such extraordinary misfortune befel her. Her cargo consisted of cotton, jute, linseed, hemp, cocoa fibre, manilla, rice, turmeric, and upwards of fifty tons of saltpetre. She had a crew of thirty-two hands all told. The story of her disaster is brief. She made a fair passage till the Channel was reached. Here she fell in with dirty weather, and labored rather heavily. Between five and six o’clock on Sunday afternoon, while the ship was beating between Holyhead and the Isle of Man, a strong gale from the southward ‘then blowing, theiteward saw smoko issuing from the aftercabin. Captain Morris was alarmed, and the entire ship’s company at once set to work with full-manned pumps to combat the fire. But they had to fight two elements, for the storm had increased, and, consequently, they faced the new danger with a force greatly weakened from its nominal strength. Notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts, the fire appeared to he gaining. Owing to the vast quantities of suffocating smoke generated by the inflammable and gaseous materials of which the cargo was composed, it was impossible to even approach the part of the ship where the combustion was in progress. The crew worked manfully for an hour, but it was wasting exertion, for the decks and the choking vapor concealed the locality of the fire, A new and immediate danger decided the step which was taken. It was feared that the tire, burning dully but swiftly through the cargo, would reach the saltpetre, in which case an overwhelming _ explosion was certain to occur. The captain, therefore, after consultation with his chief officers, determined to run to Kingstown hatbor. Unluckily neither the captain nor any ol the crew, except the steward, had ever been in that port before, and, ignorant of its moorings or the disposition of the shipping, in the press of a perilous situation, misled by the darkness, and so exhausted as to be unable to manage ship in the extreme stress of weather prevailing, the catalogue of disasters which followed their entrance befel. Once secured at her anchors, the coastgard men and the worn-out crew addressed themselves to the task of subduing, if possible, the fire, which still continued to make head. It showed only once m a sudden fierce glare from the afterhatchway, which told how intense was the smouldering combustion underneath. But the smoke now proved as formidable an obstacle as before. Not a soul could penetrate its einpyreumatic volume, and two score men, able and eager, if they only knew how their exertions might be applied, were perforce obliged to let the fire ravage at will. The Nagpore had hardly been boarded from the land when the news reached Kingstown that a large consignment of explosive matter was amongst the cargo, and wild apprehension and excitement resulted, many fearful folk preferring to brave the inclemency of the night rather than run wie risk of being 1 blown out of their beds. The next day the fire brigades were set to work, and they directed a flood of water on the hurning ship. But the obstinate element had by this tune made a progress which could not be stopped. It had spread under deck far along l j , yawning of the timbers showed that the densely pressed bales, which formed the chief part of the cargo, were expanding with the heat. Here was a fresh hazard. If the cargo weie to burst its hold, the destruction of the ship would be but the work of minutes for the emancipated flame, once it had been freed to contact with the air. It was also evident that the ignition was fast reaching the saltpetre. The deck timbers over the place where this dangerous substance was stored below were blistered and warped with the heat. The pitch was actually boiling through the seams, and the vessel s sides were begirfhing to smoke omi“oj* B */- Another consultation was held, in which the officers of the Nagpore, of the revenue cutters, and the harbor authorities took part, and it was decided, on the suggestion of Captain Ingram, that the only way of savin" the ship lay in scuttling her without delay! Inis was effectively done in a short time. At the first touch of the waves over her deck the black vapour which had clung about her till .hen vanished utterly, as its source yielded to the invading element. Examination of the vessel, as she lay water-logged after the stern alternative had been performed, affords but a taint idea of the damage which must have been occasioned. The water covered the cargo, and rose to within a few feet of her decks. But what can be seen of the interior hull was charred and blackened by the fire, which had shrivelled up the metal mouldings, melted all that was lead, and pulverised the glass in the winc J oWß - The loss sustained to ship and the general property she had on board, inT , h i er a j ln ?’ W be P Qfc down at fulfil ’ of tbe damage she inflicted, and for which her owners may be liable.