The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-07-09 00:00:00

PUNCH IN LIVERPOOL.

THE MESMERISED SEWERS.—Punch has bestowed
serious attention upon the case of the unfortunate 794
sewers who never open their eyes, and conceives that
their temporary blindness must arise from mesmeric in-
fluence somewhere, or else from the soporific effects of
the vast quantities of Mercury carried down them,
amongst kitchen-slops and dish-washings. The Mayor
or the Watch Committee ought really to impose a check
upon the present practice of cheesemongers, green gro-
cers, and other venders of esculents, wrapping their
goods in so deleterious a commodity.
PANIC AMONGST THE BATHERS.—Punch is sorry to
be unable to console his fair readers in Woodside and
Seacombe, who have been accustomed to bathe from the
machines upon the banks of Wallasey Pool. Undoubt-
edly the odious wall, about to be erected from Woodside
Point to Seacombe Slip, will interfere with these bathing
sites ; but perhaps the fair mourners may be accommo-
dated in the large "float " to be formed above. They
might even be permitted to take an occasional subaqueous
excursion through the sluices.

TARDINESS OF THE KING OF SAXONY.—Panch begs
to acquaint his Royal Highness of Saxony, that (in com-
pany with the Mayor and a great quantity of the broad
cloth of the town) he has been expecting his arrival for a
week past. His Royal Highness has already been long
enough inspecting the factories in Yorkshire and Lanca-
shire, to be double milled.

THE NEW CLARENCE GRAVING DOCK AND
LENGTHENING OF A SHIP.—On Saturday, we saw, for
the first time, the new Clarence Graving Dock, No. 2,
(north of the Clarence Dock,) running parallel with
the similar dock No. 1, and opened for vessels last week.
These docks are each double, or, in other words, are di-
vided in transverse sections, by gates forming, as it were,
four docks—the upper, and the lower—when occasion re-
quires; so that vessels in the lower compartments may be
floated in or out without the necessity of wetting, or dis-
turbing the operations in, the uppr ones. We are not
informed whether this plan originated with Mr. Hartley,
the Dock Surveyor; but it is clearly a great improvement
upon the old graving docks, where sufficient length is
available. The lower portion (or dock) in each, is about
460 feet in length, and the upper one 270,—making in each
dock (Nos. 1 and 2, so called) an entire length, (running
east and west) of 730 feet. The great utility of these
docks, in affording accommodation for a number of ships
at a time, may be estimated from the fact that no fewer
than eleven vessels—including some of the largest class
that frequent the port—were to be seen at once within
their walls last week, coppering or repairing; and several
of them also discharging cotton or taking in goods,—a
sight which excited a good deal of astonishment among
those who witnessed it for the first time. No fewer than
about 500 carpeaters and their assistants were employed
in the work of repair and renovation ; and the noise of
their busy mallets, chissels, axes, &c., filled the vicinity
with a ceaseless and multitudinous assortment of din.—
Amongst other novelties, our attention was called to an
apparently fine new vessel in one of the upper docks,
called " The Celt" ; but which we found had been length-
ened from a brig, and made into a smart barque, by Mr.
Robert Talbot, an ingenious master- ship-builder, whom
we have had occasion to notice before-time as having most
successfully converted the steamer " George IV"., and
others (no longer required in the steam coasting trade)
into fine sea-going ships ; and more recently as the
builder of a handsome and fast-sailing brig, to which be
gave the name of that humble heroine " Grace Darling."
The Celt is the property of a highly respected and spirited
firm in this town, extensive ship owners •, and she was
built, a good many years ago, in Greenock. As she was
still a strong seaworthy vessel, but with rather super-
abundant beam, it was resolved to thoroughly repair, a-td
to lengthen her. The mode of proceeding with the latter
operation is not generally known ; and we shall, there-
fore, endeavour briefly to describe it. The vessel was hauled
into dock and placed upon blocks. Launch-ways being
laid down, forward, on an inclined plane, the ship was
sawn across in the centre, and four sights (two on each
part) were fixed on deck, so that the body might be kept
out-of-winding as she was hauled asunder, —in other
words, so as to finally fix the two parts in their respective
position, that the new planking would range in the cor-
rect sheer of the slip. The required additional keel and
timbers were then fixed in the gap, and alternate
portions of the old lines of plank being removed, at various
lengths, new planking was put in to cover the whole
hiatus, that the buts would in no instance range
vertically, each having a straight and perfect plank run-
ning above and below it, in accordance with what may be
called the " masonry" of shipbuilding. She was originally
of about 220 tons burthen, and the lengthening-123 ft.—
increased her to an additional 100 tons. It was found,
to the gratification of all concerned, that there was not a
single decayed, or decaying piece of timber in the whole
ship—a fact highly creditable to her original builders.
The whole work was accomplished in the short spacediitsf
seven weeks, under the inspection and approval of Lloyd
surveyors, and she will be rated as a seven
yaeraeprpsweairnt without
and
tf
other fastenings, and she is all iron-kneed
regular
d hanging principle.
below and aloft, on both the staple air:,
width,
No expense was spared in copper, andinfcoore
The deck-planks, only four inches in
been
ner maasts,, spars,g :nod
and d aft,
d
a knot, the wood having been ca
taste evinced, in her finishformed,
fore and aft, one under the
great length. Much pail
moulded panels are (he bulwarks) above. She has a
top sides, and the other
handsome figure-head of a
foundwith
to
tk. selected
e nTwoon
I new, and she two suits of
rigging are al
lower masts are more than usually taunt—a
sails. The
ed of In the navy, as enabling a vessel
system now approved by Mr. Talbot.
larger breadth
rig to carry aof canvas in her
of the nfsemhaavlee.
d " The Celt," in fine,
courses on a win •
she has
sidered a new ship ; and as a fine entrance and an
equally fine run, we. doubt not but that, though originally
a good sailer, she will now prove to be one of the smartest
merchantmen of our port.

ORLANDO V. RUNNING REIN.—The decision of this
long-pending case in favour of Orlando, in the Court of
Exchequer, is announced in an advertisement in another
column, by Mr. W. E. Whiteman, the worthy host of the
Brunswick Hotel, who, it will be seen, intends, at the
usual dinner, which takes place on Friday next, to have a
general settling of all stakes, transfers, &c. , The dinner,
we feel assured, will do justice to the well-merited name
this house bears.

ROBBERY IN THE MARKET.-At the Police Court,
yesterday, a woman named Margaret Clarke, who had
before been committed, was sent for trial for robbing a
respectable female of her purse, in St. John's Market, on
Saturday night. The prisoner was observed by a market
constable close to the complainant, who said the purse,
which contained a sovereign and some change, was
snatched from her hand. It was afterwards found on the
ground, the prisoner bating dropped it when detected.