NOTICE TO MARINERS.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 583, 15 November 1851, Page 2

NOTICE TO MARINERS.

To t'>E ,*--ciifor of the New Zealander. Sir, — Pc< I) )i>? you will have the goodness to notify through your paper the existence of a rocfc hitherto unknown in 'he duoct track of vessels sailing through Waiheki pa 39: i g . 1 hope, however, that t!ie Government will not lose any time in having a buoy placed upon it ; hut in the interim your noticing it might bo of gervict'. The Ilicnania struck on the rock at 1 p.m. of the 10th ultima, and rfmained fast for two hours exactly ; it was qoiw* low water when she went on, ami the Hood tide took her off with I hope a very slight damage. She was di awing 10 feet 6 inches, and on the ro.*L tfciire were only 9 feet water.— The rock bears nearly N. W. of Brown's Island, and is about a ihird of the puioagc actoss towards the island ftom Hingitoto, so 'hat vcpstla should keep well off from the Rangitoto shore. The schooner was running out of the haibour with a fine wind at the time she utruck. Your obedient servant, J. S. Mao-aklane. Nov. 10, 1851.

Wiitington bin ping. — The Clara, from London, ua Nelson, arrived on the 6th ult., and on the same day the brig Louis and Almnm, 14 days from Sydney. On tup Bth aic Thames Failed for Nelson. On tho lath the Lucy Jam. » anived horn New Plymouth, and the barque Bangalore s.iiled for Bombay. On the 17th the Inrque Iriiniah arrivtd. She was ten days on her pispago from Auckland to 'lararuLi, where she landed 40 i/ajsnngui '• Same day, the Louis and Miriam Hailed for Tor; Victoria and Sydney. The Government Brif l>ad rnado a trip to Port Victoria and back, and was°at Wullmgtou on the 18th.

Siix or Vlsiels. — Mr. J. G. Cohen sold the frCli'ooner Despatch, yesfi-rdnv, for the sum of si* hundred pounds, Mr. J. J. Peacock Leing the purchaser. 'Jhe schooner Eclair, anil the fca-qua Helen S. Page were also put up for sals ari • ought in.— Sydney

J let aid, Oct. 16. The cbppor uarque, Petrel, brings no further news from Sail Franci-co t).an pieviou^ly received by the Arc! i cct. The'ship Johnstone, C'jptam iJarnson, was asf filling- up witl. pa^ngfrtf, and hlely to sail OH tbt? iOtli 6'j/rf/ifi; tiexdd, Nov. 1.

The Moa h.is iifmn with her usual de-patch made her trip to and ftotn Auckland uithm tbo 31 d .y-. Hu> sail" 1 ! fiom Auckland on the 22d ultimo and the Jwnma, amis to -ail on tlm following d.iy. On 'Jnl, ,H noon, j\oit!i Capo o! Zealand so'Ah wp-,1. 1« iai!f J( p'lsswl tlii<.u t ;h a school of luge s.ienn \vhal<^; on tbo i'.ith, Intrude .j;5-lnnc!itu<!<> I'JO' east, parsed ab' ig, Mippcsed to b" o« b ilmy bi iff ; n,\A on tie t2?th ;it noon, Int'ttule 32"2 ti lUtli. longitude 1u.3. 3) east a large speun whale clo->a to the snip goin^ to tbe nonl>. On tbo 3ist past a bchconer sti-enng to tbe nuifb-enst; at 4. p. m. passed a sboal of large <pprm wlmlcs j;oinq; to 'lie s,outli. Also a liii^e lono wbhle ypßtordav lnoimn", tbo otst October. — lh. Tbe barque Victory, iort}-fivo days from the Capo of Good Hope, bungs news up to the 11th September. Intelligence of tbe gold discovery reached the Cape on the 6th September, per brig Blue JJell, from Adelaide, uinved at the (Mauritius. Tbe mail sciew steamer Sir llobeit Peel, with the July rnadb on board, was overdue about a month ; it was feared some accident had happened her machineiy. The steamer Uarbin^ei, of 1000 tons, wab daily expected from Plymouth, and it was reported, vsa 5 - coming on to Sidney. — Ib. Iho schooner Floia, fiotn the Nanhuckra River, ('coasting vovnge) lepcirts tbe whaling baique Emu, of Ilobirt Town, nine months out, ckan. This vessel was foi several months cruising in the North Artie Seas, where she very narrowly escaped being blocked up in the ice. At Aleutien Inland, in ihe Nojth-West Passage, lor ]3ehnng'a Stiaits, the natives conveyed the news of two vessels being frozen up in the ice, with many people on boaid, It was supposed to be tbe long missing squadron under the command of Sir John Franklin. It was also further sated, that tht> vessels had been in that position for some considerable time. This wo fear is only tbe revival of one tbe old groundless reports. The Emu put into Trial Bay, having lost her main topsail yard, fore topmast, and main topgallant mast ; after repairing damages she proceeded on to Ilohart Town. One of the sailors was killed at tbe above mentioned island, by the natives, but the name of the unfortunate mnn was not ascei turned. — Ib.

The Minerva, on her way from San Francisco, calle at the Penihyn Island, in hit. about 9 south in tt e hope of obtaining a supply of vegetables, &c. The natives came off to the vessel in (heir canoes, and were with great difficulty rpsuained from possessing themselves of a number of articles belonging to the schooner ; they weie decidedly savages, and inclined to take possession of the vessel. Captains are advi&ed not to let too many come on board in the event of their passing. The island does not supply anything. Four canoes came in pursuit, after we had got quit of the first, but the breeze springing up enabled us to get away, or no doubt had they boarded us they would have taken the schooner, being unprepared and short-handed. We wiled also at the lbland of Ohun, one of the Navigatois and weie well received by the natives; they are a fine intelligent race of men, and are able to supply ships with all they require. —Communicated,— Coi mcall Chion- '

xcle, The Screw ron Steamers.—ln his examination before Lord Jocelyn's steam navigation committee, Captain Claxton, whose connexion with the construction and sailing performances of the Great Western and Great Biitian bcrew steamer has gained for him a deservedly earned reputation, gave evidence in favour of iron steamerb and oi the sciew, which he avers must, ere many years elapse, be applied umversally as the motive power of sea-going vesspJs. To iron-built vessels Captain Claxton gives a decided prefeience, the advantages which he a^cubes to them being duiahihty, inexpensireness in lepairs, greater capacity, in proportion to tonnage, than wooden vessels for cargo, healthiness, and swift sailing. As tegaids durability, he desenbed the state of the Great Britain when lying for many months exposed to a senes of heavy gales in Dundium Bay. It was also mentioned, that, although the quantities of cockles accumulated on the bottom of the Great Britain since lying in still water at Liverpool was so large as to sell for £5 10s. in the market, no ill effects were apparent whoa they were scraped off.

Aruival op hie Cape Mail.—Plymouth, Friday. —By the amval of the General Screw Steam Navigation Company's screw steamship Hellespont, IF. Watts, commander, with the mails in charge of Commander 11. M. Itobertson, R.Ar., we have important intelligence fiom the Cape of Good Hope to the 4th ultimo. The Hellespont, though only of sixty-horse power, and meiely placed on the line by this enterprising company before theu s larger and more powerful new mail bhips are built, has made a splendid passage. She left Plymouth on the 15th February, and, after various delays at the places she touched at, she reached the Cape on the 29th March. She left the Cape again on the 4th of April, at noon; anived at Sierra Leone the J9th April, at seven a.m.; left on the 20th, at seven p.m. ; arrived at St. Vincent, 25th of April, at half-past eleven a.m. ; left same day, at half past two p.m. ; put into Corunna for coals on the 6th of Way, at 11 a.mv; and arrived at Plymouth on the 9th of May, at five a.m. ; thus running from the Cape to* Plymouth in 31 days 17 hours, including stoppages at Sierra Leone, St. Vincent, and Comma. The contract time allowed 13 38 days, including three days extra for the deviation to St. Viucent; so that the little vessel hns done her work in a manner most satisfactory to the country, as well as to the company, whose exertions to accelerate the mails at this crisis in Cape affairs, and to do even more thai they stipulated, deserve public thanks.—London Mornivg'Hei aid, May 12.