The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-29 00:00:00

SECOND BOARD.

10,000 Penn be 731
25 Mohawk Railroad
50 Long Island Railroad
25 Nor. and Wur.
100 Canton Co s 3 44

THE REGISTER OF MERCHANT SEAMEN.—Mon
day Mr. Brown, the registrar of merchant seamen in
the port of London, applied to Mr. Broderip, at the
Thames Police-court, for summonses against a man
named Daniel Stocker, a sailor's lodging-hi iuse-
keeper or crimp, for detaining the register tickets of
three seamen. an offence which rendered hi -n liable to a
penalty of 201. in each case. The registrar said the de-
tention of seamen's register tickets was going on to a
very great extent, and people were beginning to traffic
in them in open violation of the law. It was absolutely
necessary that people should know the severe re nalties
they were incurring. He had already registered thir-
teen thousand seamen for the merchant service in the
port of London, and as many tickets had been issu d.
Mr. Broderip said if the tickets were net restored, the
summonses would be granted to the seamen on making
the application. Mr. Pelham, the solicitor, then made
an application on behalf of seven seamen, whose register
tickets had been illegally detained by the master of a
ship. The men had signed articles to proceed on a
coasting voyage to Poole, and delivered the register
tickets belonging to them to the master of the vessel,
which, from some cause or ether, had been detained for
seventeen days in the river, and it was uncertain when
she would sail. The men's clothes were also on board,
and they were detained on shore, knocking about, sub-
ject to great privations. Mr. Broderip said the men
would be entitled to their wages from the period of the,r
signing the articles, and also to compensation if the
master broke the contract. He would act in this case as
in the last, and direct an officer to wait upon the captain
of the ship, and if he could assign no satisfactory reason
for detaining the tickets, he would issue the summonses
as a matter of course.
Woomvien, JAN. VT.—The Lightning steam-
vesse4, Master-Commander W. Petley, left Woolwich
this morning for Sheerness to tow the Havannah,
38-gun frigate, from that port to Deptford. Experi-
mental trials were made down the river in the Rattler
steam-vessel, Commander Henry Smith, on Wednesday,
with Mr. Steinman's propeller, when a speed of 9.45
knots per hour was obtained ; and on Thursday with
Mr. F. P. Smith's propeller, the same in principle as has
been applied to the Great Britain steam-vessel, and the
speed obtained was 9.635 knots per hour, the engines
making 26.98 strokes per minute. The Rattler is to be
finally fitted with Mr. Smith's propeller for sea service.
Experiments are ordered to be carried on at. Portsmouth
with shells fired from the Excellent gunnery-ship, Cap-
tain Sir Thomas Hastings, Knt., against the Swiftsure, a
74- gun ship, recently employed as a receiving ship at
Portsmouth, and the Leviathan, a 72-gun ship, recently
employed as a convict ship at the same port. The num
ber of shells to be experimented with is 300, and they
have all been prepared in the Royal Arsenal at Wool-
wich, and were forwarded on Thursday last in one of the
Ordnance lighters for Portsmouth. Sixty of the shells
have been fitted with fuzes on Captain Norton's prin
eiple; eighty shells with fuzes on IA ilton's princip' e ; eighty
shells with fuzes invented by Lieutenant-Colonel Dansey,
C.B. ; and. 80 shells with fuzes invented by Mr. James
Marsh. The experiments are expected to take place
'about the middle of February. The new barge, fitted
with Mr. Fouler ton's manceuvrer, was tried it: the basin
at Woolwich Dock% ard on W. dnesday, and made a
complete revolution in hes than four and a halt minutes,
with ten men at the winch. The depth of the immer-
sion of the barge in the water was 3 ft. 9 in. forward, and
4 ft. 2 in. aft ; and thy- lc-ngth of the vessel 70 feet. The
result gave great satisfaction to the professional gen
tlemen present. and they consider the it..ention a very
valuable acquisition to sailing vessels. The Apollo trorp-
ship, Commander W. Maclean, was reported off Mar-
gate on the 23(1 instant, with two cempenies of the
Royal Artillery on board, Captain Nevett's. from the
lonian Island.. and Captain Smith's, from Malta ; and
she is Lour!), expected to land them at head-quart-rs at
Woolwich. The Mountstewart Elphinstone, hire-d vessel,
387 tons, under the charge of James Gordon, surgeon,
dropped down the river on Friday from Deptford to
moorings off the Dockyard, Woolwich, where she will
take on board convicts for Van Dieman', Land. A de •
tachment of the 11th Regiment go out in her as a guard
to the Convicts. •