SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 516, 12 June 1869, Page 2

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

WESTPOET. HIGH WATER. This Day ... 11.20 a.m., 11.49 p.m. To-morrow 12.10 a.m., 12.34 p.m. Monday ...12.58 a.m., 1.20 p.m. ARRIVALS. June 11—Lyttelton,p.8., Scott, from Grey mouth. N. Edwards aud Co., agents. DEPARTURES. June 10 —Waipara, for southern ports.

The s.s. Waipara, on her last trip south, entered the Kaduka river, which flows out of Lake M'Kerrow into Martin's Bay. She is the first steamer which has ever entered the the river. Lust year the Superintendent and a number of gentlemen from Dunedin visited the Bay in the steamer Geelong, but they crossed the bur in whale-boats. On this occasion the Waipara safely passed the Kaduka bar and steamed up the river about one mile. As soundings were taken whilst steaming up, Captain Bascand reports finding no less than lour to five fathoms of water, and not less than fifteen feet on the bar, aud declares it to be one of the best navigable rivers on the Coast. Should there be any encouragement to revisit the same locality, we believe that the Waipara could easily steam up to tne head of Lake M'Kerrow, a distance of fifteen or twenty miles. On Saturday morning, 29th ult., as two men were engaged on the Waimakariri, in towing out the schooner Rose of Eden, the tow-line broke and Ihe boat was capsized. One of the men succeeded in getting on hoard the schooner, but the other, who clung to the boat, was carried out to see, and drowned. His name was John Taylor. The vessel drifted ashore on the north spit. Amongst the vessels expected to arrive at Melbourne shortly is alarje new iron clipper named the Douglas. She has been provided with an auxiliary screw of a novel description. This screw has only two blades, and is only intended to be used in calm weather. In rough weather or with a steady breeze, the screw will not be used, and, with a view to obviate its being damaged or acting as a drag upon the vessel, it is placed perpendicular with tiie stern of the siiip, and in this position a slide or cover is lowered down over it, and when thus concealed there is scarcely anything to indicate that it does not form a portion of the stern. This new apparatus is the invention of Mr James .Jack, of Liverpool. la the s: ilo.'s' quarters in the forecastle there is a large iron bath, and washhand basins for th> use of the crew. There is also on hoard a fir-Ten mie, which can throw the water over the mast-head, and which can also bo used for the washing of the decks. Next to the passage made by the wool ships George Thompson and Lanarkshire during the i>res«nt season comes that of Messrs James Ileniy and Co.'s ship Warrior, Captain R. 13. Macfarlano, which sailed from Port Phillip Heads on December 14; mule the Lizard on the seve dy-sixth day; and reached the Downs on the seventy-eighth day out,aud was docked on the eightieth day. The celebrated clipper ship Thermopylae, which made one of the quickest passages to Melbourne on record, continues to uphold the pre fi '.c she then acquired. By China papers to hand by this mail it appears that she made the run from Newcastle, N.S.W., to Shanghai in twenty-eight days. On her passage out to Melbourne the Thermopylae, when oil' the Cap« of Good Hope, spoke the crack clipper ship Taeping, bound to Shanghai ; and, singular to state, the Thermopylae, after discharging cargo at Melbourne, and then proceeding to Newcastle and taking in coals, arrived at Shanghai simultaneously witii the Taeping, which had been 12S days on her passage from London. The ThermopyllO was thu) only the same number of days, including detentions, from London to .Shanghai, via Melbourne and Newcastle, N.S.W.

Tho most powerful ship in the British navy, the Inconstant, is rapidly approaching completion, ami will be ready for sea tarty next year. She is a remarkable ship, with lines nearly ;is fine as the best built yacht, iind engines that are to develop 6000-horse power; it is believed that she will attain a speed far beyond that of the finest frigate over launched. She will nlso carry the most formidable armatuent yet afloat, having on her main deck an armament of guns (which are the most powerful yet afloat in a sea-going ship), and en her upper deck half-a-dozen seven ton guns for chasing and distant firing.