SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 809, 4 May 1871, Page 2

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

WESTPORT. HIOII WAT Kit. This Dny ... 9.34 a.m., 0.53 |i.m. To«morrow 10.41 a.m., 'J. 13 p.m. Tke schooner Excelsior left Oamaru fur Wcstport on Monday, with a cargo of pro* ilnee, consigned to Mr .John Muuro. On her lust visit this craft made tho run in two days and a-half, and with favorable weather her arrival might have been looked for to-day. The boisterous wind and heavy sea of yesterday will have necessitated her running for rih Iter. The schooner Maid of Erin is the next boat to arrive from Melbourne, It was rumored in town on Tuesday that tho tug Lioness was ashore at Hokitika. "Wo are unable to state whether the report is well founded. On Tuesday, the 7th February, tho steamer I'uciiio, belonging to Liverpool, was totally lost on Linga Island, oil' iho Shetland coast, and tweiry-six of the crew were drowned. Two others saved themselves, and after remaining four days on an uninhabited island, were discovered, and conveyed to the mainland. Another vessel, supposed to be Norwegian, was wrecked at the same time. It may be staled that there are several islands round the Shetland coast, bearing the name of Linga, but the one on which these disasters recurred is not indicated.—" Standard." A telegram in the *' Leeds Mercury," dated from Cherbourg, says ■ —A thick fog enveloped the coast on Wednesday, and much rain fell. The French Government transport Le Cei f got on the rocks at Capo Hogue, three leagues from Cherbourg, and was totally lost. One thousand and eighty soldiers on board perished, and only ten of the crew of 13(1 were saved. They say they cannot remember how tiny got on shore, but they faintly remember clinging to some floating spars. The Egypt, tho largest vessel in the world next to the Great Eastern, was launched on tho Mersey lately. She was built for the service of the National Steamship Company between Liverpool and New York. The Egypt is in length over alt 440 feet, on the lead line 435 feet, beam 44 feet, depth of hold 36 teot, gross measurement, 5150 tons. 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 tiny wanted to come on board." They however fli.ked 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 bo torn of the craft had tho best of the collision, as the whales were bleeding freely when next si en —" Southern Cross."

Westport, April 20.