EXPORTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1523, 21 June 1873, Page 2

EXPORTS.

Per Albion, for Melbourne: 12530z 17dwt gold, Union Bank.

There were no arrivals or departures at this port yesterday. The s.s. Kennedy and Waipara are expected to-day from Nelson and Hokitika. An exchange paper says : — We shall soon have ocean signal stations — telegrams meeting a captain in mid-ocean, warning him J which way the wind is blowing a few hundred miles ahead of him. At sea, as on land, all over the world there will soon be a simultaneous knowledge of where the storms are and what course they are taking. It is thought not to be at all beyond the resources of the age to have floating stations in deep water, secured by submerged buoys and connected with a cable. Whether these will ever be converted into mid-ocean post offices to save the double voyage many letter bags take we will not hazard an opinion, but insurers of ocean freights will not be long satisfied without the means of protecting, by a storm signal, vessels that would otherwise be rushing to destruction. On March 29 the largest vessel ever built on the Clyde was launched from the yard of Messrs Laird and Co, Greenoek, for the Inman Company's line of steamers. She was named the City of Chester, and is of 4800 tons burden, with a horse-power of 800. She can accommodate in all about 1400 passengers. The fitting-up of the new turret ships is being rapidly proceeded with at Woolwich. The Devastation has had her four 35-ton guns safely mounted, and the turrets in which they are lodged have been sighted. The Gorgon has four 10-inch guns of 18 tons ■weight each, and the sighting of her turrets also just completed. The Thunderer is to be supplied with four of the) 35-ton guns. None of the heavy guns for these turretships are sighted, and are furnished with no other fittings than such as are required for raising and lowering the breech, for the turrets turn en masse, and the turrets are therefore sighted instead of the guns. There is a hole in the roof of the turret, and an arrangement of sights parallel with the gun, so th,at a, man putting his i head outside can take arm by looking along the roof ; or by an arrangement of mirrors, similar to that adopted for the Moncrieff carriage, fixed at angle with the line *of the sights, the gun can be laid from the inside of the turret ■without exposing either of the gunners to the enemy's fire. — European Mall.