SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 14, 29 April 1871, Page 10

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

ARRIVED. APBIXi.

20, Wanganui, s.s. 165 tons, Linklater,' from Wanganui. Passengers: Cabin—Miss Dixon, Messrs Thomson, Scott, Edwards, Soloman, Griffiths, and Duncan. 21, Waikopia, schooner, 43 tons, Evans, from Nelson. 21, Rangatira, s.s., 164 tons, Renner, from Napier. Passengers : Cabin —Miss Tanner, Mrs Crossling, Mrs Southey and 2 children, Miss Gill, Misses Casey (2), Captain and Mrs Wallace, Messrs Russell, Smith, Seager, Master Harding; 6 steerage. 22, Luna, Fairchild, from Greymouth. 23, Rangitoto, 448 tons, Mackie, from Melbourne, via the West Coast. Passengers : Captain Edwin, R.N.; Miss J. Asher, Rev. A. Martin, Messrs Reardon, Hewitt, Clifton, and 16 in the steerage. 23, Lord Ashley, 354 tons, Andrew, from Lyttelton. 23, Falcon, ketch, 37 tons, Morrison, from Wairau. Passengers —Messrs Guard, Nesbit, Snelger, Marks. 25, s.s. Go-Ahead, 84 tons, Doile from the North. Passengers, Messrs Coppier and Black. 25, Go-Ahead, s.s., 84 tons, Doile, from Wanganui. 25, Dawn, cutter, 20 tons, Nelson, from Manawatu.

26, Wanganui, s.s., 165 tons, Linklater, from Wanganui. Passengers —Cabin : Capt. Sharp, Messrs Caffin, Isaacs, Howard and Russell. Steerage—Miss Driscott. 26, Jane, cutter, 25 tons, Bower, from Wanganui. 27, Huon Belle, schooner, 42 tons, Saunders, from Manawatu. SAILED. 21, "Venture, schooner, 20 tons, Brown, for the Sound.

21, Aspasia, schooner, 44 tons, Johnston, for Picton.

21, Huon Belle, schooner, 42 tons, Saunders, for Manawatu.

21, Gothenburg, s.s., 459 tons, Pearce, for Melbourne, via West Coast. Passengers: Cabin —Rev. Mr Dewsbury, Messrs TJnderwood, Bennett, Cord, Webster, Hamson, and Lascelles.

21, Kate, ketch, 26 tons, Jenkins, for Manawatu.

21, Wanganui, s.s., 165 tons, Linklater, for Wanganui. Passengers : Cabin—Mr and Mrs Oliver, Mrs Armstrong, Misses Lomax (3), Messrs Waters and Finnimore.

22, Rangatira, 175 tons, Renner, for the South. Passengers t Messrs Voider Hyde, McPherson, Branigan and orderly, and Miss Fife.

23, Lady Don, 52 tons, Toomey, for Lyttelton.

24, Rangitoto, s.s., 448, tons, Mackie, for Melbourne, via the South. Passengers— Cabin : Captain and Mrs Wallace and 4 children.

24, Lord Ashley, s.s., 269 tons, Andrews, for Napier, Tauranga, and Auckland. 25, Luna, p.s., Fairchild, for Auckland. 25, Lord Ashley, s.s., 296 tons, Andrews, for Napier and Auckland. Passengers : Cabin —Mrs Clarke, and two children, Mr and Mrs Bragg and three children, Messrs Edmeades, Ehrmann, Sims, Cumming, Grew, Donald, Henderson.

26, Falcon, schooner, 37 tons, Morrison, for Wairau. Passengers —Mrs Long and child, Mrs Fabian and two children, Mr Asher.

27, Anne Melhuish, 344 tons, Williams, for Newcastle.

27, Wanganui, 165 tong, Linklater, for Nelson and Wanganui. Passengers: Saloon— Messrs Goring, Wilton, and Griffiths. Steerage—i native man and women and two children.

27, Go-Ahead, s.s., 84 tons, Doile, for Manawatu, Wanganui, Taranaki, Waitara and Manukau.

The following appointments of Harbor Masters are officially announced : For the port of Opunake, Wm. Ballantyno; for the port of Patea, Alfred Wood. A notice to mariners is issued from the Marine branch of the Customs’ Department “ that the Chief Harbor Master of the province of Auckland has reported that the iron beacon recently erected on Flat Rock off Kawau Island, Hauraki Gulf, has been carried away. Masters of vessels are therefore cautioned to give the rock a wide berth in passing it.” The Admiralty yacht Enchantress, with the First Lord on board, arrived at Madeira on the llth February. 'Mr Childers was carried on shore in a hammock. The “Cross” of the 19th says:—A cutter, in coming up the harbor on Saturday night last, ran foul of the p.s. Challenger, moored off Holmes’ Wharf, North Shore. Considerable damage was done to the steamer. The Maria ship, of Dunedin, (N.Z.), Ritchie, from Porsgrund, for Melbourne, (deals and timber), went on shore on Bacton Beach, near Hull, early on the morning of the 22nd Jan., and remains. Every appearance of becoming a wreck. The Peninsular and Oriental screw steamship Pera, Captain J. M. Rogers, sailed from Southampton on February 18 for Gibraltar, Malta, and Alexandria, with the heavy India, China, and Australian mails, and a general cargo. Cargo for Hobson's Bay—plate,jewellery, and watches, £8,359. For King George’s Sound—jewellery and fancy goods, £3BO. For Sydney —watches and jewellery, £2,030. Passenger for Melbourne —Captain Edwin. The Jennie Ellingwood, from Sundswall for Melbourne, which put into St. Helena, 27th December, leaky, has discharged a portion of her cargo (deals), and in consequence of certain defects having been discovered after the second survey was completed, a third survey was held on the 19th of January, and the master has decided to lay the vessel up, having failed to raise the necessary funds to carry put the repairs#

Mr W. Short, master of the ketch Elizabeth, gives us an account of a strange peril of the sea which he met with while on the trip between Manawatu and this port. It appears that while between Sinclair’s Head and Baring Head, three whales suddenly appeared alongside, and, to use the words of the master, “ looked as if they wanted to come on board.” They however fluked and disappeared under the ketch’s bottom, and so close that two or three rough shocks were felt on board. The master thinks the blue gum bottom of the craft had the best of the collision; as the whales were bleeding freely when next seen. We are informed by Captain Edwin Smith, of the Star of the South, that he has made the quickest passage from Wellington this season —viz-, 88 days. The passengers presented him with a testimonial, expressive of their appreciation of his attention during the passage home. A telegram from Sydney on the 12th says H.M.S. Blanche proceeds on a cruise to the South Seas immediately. A Sydney telegram, dated 13th, says: — The Alexandrine, from Mauritius, reports loading there the Nile and Corinne, for Melbourne ; the Stranger and Melrose, for Sydney ; the Pacific and Princess Alice, for Melbourne or Sydney. The finding adopted by the Victorian Navigation Board was to the effect that the accident to the Claud Hamilton arose from the gross carelessness of the third engineer, who neglected during his watch to keep the port boiler properly supplied with water. The Board further intimated that had Wilson been in possession of a certificate, it would have been suspended for twelve months. The Alexander Dutbie reports having experienced strong westerly gales to Cape Horn, which she rounded 7th December; she was eight days near soundings, with E. to N.E. winds.

The ships on the west coast of Africa are ordered to rendezvous off the Gold Coast, to be present at the ceremony of the . transfer of Dutch settlements to England. From the “ Broad Arrow” of February 18 we take the following : —H.M. paddle-wheel steam sloop Basilisk, 6 guns, Captain Moresby, which had been detained at Plymouth by the gale, has sailed for Australia. She has received orders to call at Madiera, Cape do Verde Islands, and Simon’s Bay, en route for Sydney. The “ Broad Arrow” of the 11th February says:—The new crews of the Blanche and Rosario, with stores and supernumeraries for other vessels on the Australian station, will leave Sheerness under the command of Captain A. T. Thrupp, on board the Magsera, in the ensuing week. The Magsera was taken out on a trial at the Maplin Sands on Wednesday last, and attained a speed of 9.783 knots.

From the London “ Globe” of February 21 we take the following : —Sir Harry Verney has received from a gentleman laboring in France in connection with the Society for the Relief of. the French Sick and Wounded, a few particulars concerning the loss of Le Cerf, a French Government transport, wrecked on the rocks of Cape de la Hogue, on the night of February 7. On board Le Cerf were 1,080 French wounded and convalescents, and a crew of 150 men. Of the latter ten saved themselves on spars, &e. The letter is dated Calais, Saturday last, and says, “In the fate of this ship we are all most deeply interested, as it contained 1,090 wounded soldiers, marines, and sailors, all of whom had been cared for by different members of the National Society for the Relief of Sick and Wounded. They had been sent to ‘Calais from various parts of the north of France for embarkation, their destination being Cherbourg, Brest, and Bordeaux, from which place they would be sent on to their homes. Many of them were the sons of gentlemen. They all arrived here without a sou in their pockets, clothed in rags, and were billeted on the poorest people in Calais and the fishing villages, at whose houses they slept, and had to seek their food at the carsernes twice a day; a piece of dry bread and a little greasy water called soup were given to them, and there was never enough. Thus these poor starved soldiers, who had suffered almost a martyrdom for their country, were to be seen wandering about the streets, faint, weary, cold, and hungry. The French Societe pour Secours aux Blesses gave them a meal on their first arrival —nothing more. The wounded men on board the ill-fated Cerf were each and all delighted to tell of the noble gifts that had been sent them from England. At Metz, directly after the capitulation, the first food they had was from England, and how many lives have been saved in consequence. Hundreds were on board who had been wounded at Villers Bretonneux and Amiens on the 26th and 27tli of November; these had been oared for entirely by the English from the day of the battle to the last day of their departure, and each carried with him some substantial proof of England’s sympathy for France in her hour of need. Saturday and Sunday, as they were departing, they came by dozens to thank their nurses. Others were parted from at the train, where many a noble man, with the greatest politeness and courtesy, over and over again declared that England nad saved their lives.”

The Loss of the ship Mistress of the Seas.— The news of the loss of this vessel, along with her master, mate, and a portion of the crew, has been.received in Greenock with great regret. Captain Laing, we understand, leaves a widow and family. His brother was master of the ill-fated ship Ladyburn, which sailed from Greenock for the East Indies towards the end of 1869, and has never since been heard of. Both ships belonged to Messrs Shanklhnd & Co. The Mistress of the Seas received a thorough overhaul in Messrs Robert Steele & Co’s dock before she proceeded on her last voyage. We understand she is insured. The crew was shipped at Glasgow* where the ship was loaded#

A painful acoident occurred on board the s.s. Napier on Sunday week, off the East Cape. It appears that a fireman named Richard Eastcotb was engaged in some work in the engine-room on the night in question, when a sudden lurch of the vessel caused his trousers to get entangled with some portion of the machinery, and his leg being drawn in was broken in two places. Luckily, the engineer heard Eastcott’s cries for help, and the engines were stopped almost immediately; had .it been otherwise, the accident would, beyond a doubt, have resulted fatally. On the steamer’s arrival at Poverty Bay, the wounded limb was set, and afterwards Eastcott was conveyed to the Provincial Hospital.—“ Grey River Argus.”

Remakkable Incident at Sea.— Captain E. E. Patterson, of the American barque Aleyone, met with a most remarkable incident on his voyage from Amay to the port of Singapore. The Aleyone left Amoy on the 2nd December for Singapore, and pursued her voyage until the 7th, when at about seven, p.m.-, a light was discovered close to on the starboard bow. It was evident that the light proceeded from a boat or a raft, and being far from land, Captain Patterson judged that it must be some one in distress. Canvas was quickly reduced, and the ship hove-to, to allow the boat to come alongside; but she failing to do so, and the sea running, too high to lower the ship’s boat, the vessel, wore round to endeavour to get near the boat, which was evidently unable to make the vessel. After wearing ship several times, she got near enough to throw lines over the boat, which proved to be a Chinese sampan containing three Chinese. The poor fellows caught the line, and two of them succeeded in holding on and getting on board the ship, but the third being blind from exposure, and too weak to bear his own weight, fell overboard .and was lost in the attempt. When the poor fellows got on deck they were completely exhausted, and it was found necessary to feed them like infants. When they were able to tell their story, it was found that they had been driven away by a gale from Formosa, which place they left on the 3rd or 4th Nov.; their sail and mast had been carried away by the gale on the second day out, and their steering oar lost, leaving them without sail, mast, oar, or rudder. The poor fellows did not despair, but managed to subsist from day to day by catching fish and birds, which they ate, and for water they had merely what they could catch when it rained. Thus they lingered day after day, drifting about at the mercy of the winds and waves, and when picked up by the Aleyone, had been, incredible to rolate, thirty-two days at sea in the helpless condition, in an open sampan. During this time, who shall tell their sufferings and privations; and had it not been for the humane perseverance of Capt Patterson in working his ship up to them, attracted only by the light which they displayed as a forlorn hope, their fare must have been starvation in all its horrors. The boat had drifted S.W., % S., 1,000 miles during the thirty-two days, being an average of a fraction over thirty-one miles per day.—“ Singapore Free Press,” J an. 4.

A correspondent of the “ Sydney Herald” points out what the Haydamack might have done had she waited at Sourabaya for news ef a war between Russia and England. Telegraphic intimation of such a war would have reached Batavia as soon as Galle, and the Russian vessel could have caught the outward bound mail steamer off the Leuwin, and then awaited the arrival of ,the homeward bound steamer with the gold. None of our fortifications would have been of any avail against such a cruiser. The only real protection would be a ship of war with its head-quarters at the Sound. While on the subject of defences, I may mention that the Council of Education is about to introduce military drill into the public schools. It is to be tried first in the metropolitan district, which it is expected will furnish a battalion of 1,400 boys.