NAVAL DUEL NEAR HAVANA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 916, 13 January 1871, Page 2

NAVAL DUEL NEAR HAVANA.

The San Francisco Chronicle publishes the following telegrams from Havana regarding this event:—On Monday, 7th November, the Prussian war steamer Meteor, carrying three guns, and the French war steamer Bouvet, carrying five* entered this harbor. The Meteor sailed out again after the French mail steamer Nouveau Monde had sailed, but the mail steamer immediately returned, fearing capture. On the night of Tuesday, the Bth, the Bouvet left port, but waited outside for the German vessel, in anticipation of the twenty-four hours prescribed by law. The steamer Meteor followed, a naval duel having been arranged between the officers before starting. The Spanish war steamer Hernando Cortes accom-t panied the two vessels. The Meteor had a crew of sixty men, and the Bouvet eighty The Bouvet was ten miles beyond the offing, but, upon the coming out of the Meteor, she steamed inwards towards the neutral line. The Bouvet opened the contest by firing five shots, which the Meteor promptly returned. The Bouvet then attempted to board the Meteor. In this she was unsuccessful. Her rigging became entangled, carrying away her main and mizen masts,- and the the rigging, failing with the masts, became entangled witn the Meteor's screw. At the same momeut the Meteor seat a shell into the inside of the Bouvet, smashing her steam pipe. The Meteor, by reason of the disabling of her screw, became unmanageable, and the Bouvet, finding the quarters hot and capture certain if she waited until the Meteor could disentangle hers-.-lf, set sail rapidly and made for port, the Meteor continuing to fire meanwhile. With a fair wind the Bouvet was enabled to cross into Spanish water before the Meteor could disentangle her screw. At this time the Hernando Cortes fired a gun as a signal that the combat had closed. Both fought bravely. The German gunboat Meteor was accorded the victory. Both vessels are now in port repairing damages. The Meteor had three killed and one wounded. . The Bouvet had only three wounded. The Germans at Havana are much elated with the affair, which caused intense excitement. The two Prussians, Carbonier and Thomson, who were killed in the rjaval engagement, were |iuric j 4

here on the 10th instant, the German merchants attending the funeral in an immense body. It is now said that the Bouvet left the scene of the fight under steam and sail. The German residents a re arranging a grand banquet for the officers of the Meteor.

«Ptrr vour tongue out, a little further," said a doctor to a female patient j " a little farther, if your please—a little further still." "Why, doctor," cried the gating invalid, " do vou think there is no end to a woman's ioogne ? "—American Paper. "BAKBfiB," said a farmer to hia tonsor, "now corn's cheap you ought to shave for half price." " Can't, Mr Jones," said the man of razors ; " I ought really to charge more; for, when corn's down, farmers make such long faces that I have twice the ground to go over." Mr Cuyckmick pucks Yakuskolitmilks Sakfarskylitmilks Aukachagamucks Kekutokutk* sokorts keeps an hotel in Sitka, Alaska. He eays that the Americans have the queerest names he ever heard of, and it is with the utmost difficulty he can pronounce them.