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Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 720, 30 August 1870, Page 2

The brig Magnet for Melbourne, and the Florence for Gnam, were towed to sea by the p.s. Dispatch on Sunday morning. Yesterday morning, the p.s. Dispatch took The s.s. Waipara ran up from HokltikaTo'n Saturday night, landed a quantity of cargo ex the Rangitoto from Melbourne^ and left again the same tide for Hokitika. The schooner Excelsior returned to port yesterday, in-thow of the p. s. Dispatch, after a trip to Oamarn, the Kakanui River, and Port Chalmers. She brings a cargo of produce, consigned to "order," her agents being Messrs Orr and Co. The 8.8. Claud Hamilton arrived in the roadstead at 10 p.m. on Saturday, and was tendered by the p.s. Dispatch on Sunday morning. She left Hobsoh's Bay at 6 p.m. on the 13th inst ; passed Port Phillip Heads on the 9th, Cape Schanck at 11 p.m., and Swan Island at 5.30 the following day. Experienced fine weather during the passage, and made South-west Cape at 8 a.m. on the 18fch, and entered Bluff Harbor at daylight next morning, discharged cargo, and sailed at 4 p.m. ; arrived at Port Chalmers at 8 a.m. on the 20th; sailed at 6 p.m. on the 22nd for Timaru, where she arrived at 8 a.tn. on the 23rd, received a quantity of tallow and grain, and proceeded to Lyttelton, arriving at 12 noon on the 24th ; sailed at 6 p.m., and arrived at Wellington at 1 p.m. on the 25th ; sailed for Nelson at 7 p.m. same night, arriving at 8 a.m. on the 26th ; sailed at 8.30 p.m., arrived here as under, was tendered, and despatched to Melbourne, via Hokitika. with a large number of passengers.

The schooner Ceres, Captain Murdoch from Melbourne, was brought to the wharf on Saturday forenoon by the p.s. Dispatch. She left Melbourne on the Ist August, and on the evening of the 4th was still in sight of Cape Schanck. On the sth she encountered a furious gale from the West, and was hoveto for 36 hours, during which time a sea broke on board carrying away her bulwarks and stanchions on the port bow, and doing other damage. The Straits were cleared on the 7th, and the land was nft.de off Cascade Point on the 14th, carrying southerly winds from land to land. This roadstead was not made until the 20th, and while on the coast nothing but gales from the N.E. was experienced. After making the roadstead she tad to stand off to sea, and did not get in until Saturday, the 27th. She comes, as usual, consigned to her owners, Glenn Bros., and brings her cargo in first-class order. We takejfroin a southern paper the following additional items respecting the search made by H.M.S. Blanche and the schooner Daphne. The following is from the report of the Harbor Master of the Bluff, and will be found of interest : — On our return journey, while proceeding up an almost dry water••urse, we discovered what were taken for human footprints. Tiere were two tracks, the prints in one being apparently those of a large boot, the other much smaller, measuring about seven and a half inches. They were seeu in several places, but were lost altogether on emerging to the grass land at the head of the creek— the marks did not appear more than two months old. At one place we observed the track take into some scrub, but emerge again, as if defeated in forcing a way. On comparing the list of articles left in- the cases at Epigwait (No. 2 depot) with the original list, [ find that the following articles have been taken away, viz., clothing, boots, stockings, preserved meat, bread, matches, flint, steel, and tinder. The articles mentioned in the list were replaced by the Blanche, and the case securely nailed up. Our men, assisted by some of the Blanche's crew^ retbatched the house, and left everything in good repair. Before closing this report, I wfiuld draw attention to a fret mentioned in Mr Armstrong's report, namely, tbat in Imray's general chart of 18511 the Auckland Islands are placed 35 miles south of their true position, and it is my opinion that many of the wrecks which have occurred at the Islands may be referable to

that error. I have compared the chart alluded to with a great many others, and find that it differs with them all in this respect. Subsequent charts published by Imral also place the" Islands in their correct place, but as the Australian trade suddenly acquired great dimensions in the year named, it is quite likely that the chart of that year is still in use on board many vessels trading in these seas. I trust that the utmost publicity may be given to this important matter. The schooner Lady Don cleared at the Customs, Christchurcn, for Greymouth on the 24th inst., with a cargo of produce. At a meeting of tho Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society, two presentations for gallant conduct at sea were made to Captain Lowry, of the British and African Steam Navigation Company's steamer Bonny, and Mr James Sullivan, the second officer of the same vessel. The circumstances which called forth the recognition of the conduct of Captain Lowry and Mr Sullivan are as follows :— On Sunday, the 9fch of January, when the Bonny was in lat. 50.41 N., long. 7.40 \V\, at 1 1.30 p.m., the wine blowing a terrific gale from N.W., a man was observed on a piece of wreck about half a mile to the leeward. Captain Lowry at once ordered the engines to be stopped and the lifeboat to be got out. The second officer at once jumped into it, and, following his gallant example, six of the crew followed him. After a desperate struggle, during which the boat and her noble crew were several times in imminent danger of being swamped, the piece of wreck was reached, and the poor fellow, a Swede named Holstein, one of the survivors of the Cossipore, which had been capsized in a sudden squall the day before, was taken off by Mr Sullivan. The poor fellow was in the last state of exhaustion, and could not possibly have survived much longer.

Mr George Seymour has taken out a patent for double rudders. The invention consists in having a broad stern-post with a rudder on each side, acting independently of each other. Two wheels are worked by one man, who stands between them ; or, if preferred, the tillers can be operated in the usual way, by one wheel. The patentee claims that the steering properties of the ship will be much improved by this plan, and that the sternpost against which they act will not only protect the rudders but likewise afford increased strength hi a part where it is so urgently required. Mr Seymour asserts, also, that by the application of this system the shaft of a screw steamer can be carried through the solid stern-post, and so allow the screw propeller to revolve in solid water abaft the rudders, instead of in a hollow well as at present. By carrying the screw so much further aft, he contends that his system may" be made applicable to the propulsion of sailing ships, without necessitating any alteration in the hull beyond the construction of the additional exterior vertical stern-post. In fact, he holds that all sailing ships may be adapted for auxiliary motive power, and that a two-bladed screw would offer no impediment to a ship's progress. The merits of the invention appear to consist in being enabled to move either rudder at a time from amidships, without being compelled to change the helm from starboard to port, or vice versa, more than a given number of ! degrees j and in the additional strength imparted to the stern-post, which latter is of the same breadth as the rudders. — British Trade. Journal.

At the Secondaries' Court, recently, the claim for compensation, Kreuse v. Baines and another, was heard before Mr Secondary Potter, and a special jury. This was a writ of inquiry to assess the amount of damages in an action which had been brought in one of the superior Courts by the widow of the Kreuse, of the barque Emma, of Menuel, to recover for the loss of her husband, who was drowned outhe occasion of his vessel being <v rtm \7iniaiiur,— iasj,- Ucvntrary; — rue TiereiP dants, the owners of the Calcutta, had suffered judgment to pass by default, and the only question to be determined by the jury was the amount of compensation the widow and her family of six children were entitled to. It was stated that the barque Emma, which was SCO tons register, generally traded from Memel, but on the voyage in question, in consequence of the ice having set in in the Baltic she was proceeding from Cardiff, with coal to Barcelona, and on the 3rd January last she was run into by the defendant's ship Calcutta, which was laden with the electric cable for the Persian Gulf, and foundered. Only three or four of the crew were saved, the remainder, about seven hands, including, the master, perishing with the vessel. The deceased was forty-two years of age when he lost bis life, and he was a very healthy and sober man. He had commanded the barque six or seven years, and generally brought home the whole amount of his earnings. He had been married twelve years, his wife, a German lady, living at Memel. They had six children, being- 10 years and the youngest 18 mouths, and it was stated that the amount which he had earned as wages was LIBO a year, and he had perquisites and other payments made to him. Mrs Kreuse, the widow, was then called, and she detailed the-xgesof their children, the property she had, her geseral circumstances, and the earnings of the deceased. Mr Hoffmann, shipbroker, agent for the barque Emma, deposed that the command of the barque was worth Ll7O or LIBO a year. Other evidence having been given, the learned counsel for the defendants addressed the jury in mitigation of damages. The learned Secondary having summed up, the jury awarded damages as required under Lord Campbell's Act— Lsoo to the widow, LIOO to each of the three eldest children, and LI 50 to each of the three youngest ; in all L 1250. The Atlantic and .Pacific Steam Navigation Company have abandoned that portion of their scheme between Milford Haven and San Francisco, and now only contemplate running steamers from thelatter place to New Zealand. They propose to go first to New Caledonia, thence to Sydney, where branch steamers will start for Tahiti and New Zealand. That colony will, it is expected, be induced to accord the company a subsidy of say L 25.00 0; New South Wales a like sum ; while France, which has strong political considerations at stake, will probably be willing to grant a much larger amount. Another company, it is said, is ready to take up the lapsed' portion of the enterprise between Milford Haven and San Francisco. Some weeks ago the ship Puritan arrived in port from New York, and reports that wiien three days out a boy named Henry Williams, aged sixteen years, fell overboard and was drowned Recently, a ship belonging to the same line arrived, and reported tbat Henry Williams is in "Mew York alive and well. While engaged in performing some service on the Puritan he fell overboard. His calls for help were not heard by any on board, but before his strength was exhausted he discovered a Jog of wood, which be was able to reach. He clung to his life-preserver for eleven hours, at the end of which time a Brazilian vessel came along and rescued him from his perilous position. He was landed safely in New York.— flaw Francisco Bulletin.