New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-06-20
MARINE AFFAIRS.



mail line is being thoroughly overhsuled prior to
sumrg her trips on this route under her name Of
Central America. As the Improvements which are
being made upon her cannot be completed by the 10Th
inst her regular day Of sailing the steamship Star OF
the West will be dispatched in her stead.
The old steamer James Christopher, which has long
piled between this port and sundry places In New
jersey after undergoing extensive alterations and i'm
provements has again commenced running to the va
rous summer resorts in the vicinity Of Long Branch
Shrewsbury. Red Bank, &C.; and in coming out in
new dress, she also appears under new name-the
Long Branch.
rHE LATE YACHT RACE.
T. Ne Ed,toy Of TIE n. y. Tribune
SIR: The decision Of the Regatta Committee, ab-
surd as it is that buoy No is not buoy of the West
Bank ha. an importance from the character of the
Yacht Club that may hereafter be detrimentaly used
upon nautical questions unless the error Of the dec
sion is pointed out.
Buoy No. 9, which the Committee have ignored, s
the southern buoy, on the western side of the ship
channel north Of the buoy Ne. I, Of the Knobs and
on the S. E. point Of the West Bank 1t placed
there by order of the Lighthouse Board under the d.
rectiOn Of Commander Case L. S. n. the Lighthouse
Inspector, and who says it s Of the buoys of the
West Bank.
Prof Bache. Superintendent Of the L. s. Coast Sur
vey. ar. Edmund Blunt, who surveyed the harbOr in
1876 and 1896 and Lieut.. Commanding I. A. Craven,
L. S. NJ who has been resurveyng the harbor for the
last two years all unite in calling No. 9 one Of the
buOys OF the West Bank; and the writer Of this COM
munication has a chart Of the harbOr made in l76O
naming all the shoal ground, where the buoy IS the
West Bank.
The authority quoted in opposition TO the above
viz eighteen pilots out of 1870, will hardly be consid
cred a. having the weight Of the opinions of the per-
named who pronounced it TO be one of the buoys
of the West Bank.
1 have prepared the above statement thinking that
a tact assentto the decision of the Committee might
GEO w BLUNT
THE SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH PUT TO FISHING PCR-
POSES.
At Messrs. Glasse & ElliOt's yard a fine submarine
cable is being made for the Norwegian Government
This is, far aware, probably the first
electric telegraph which has been used for fishing
purposes. During the fishing the shoals of her
rings eLterIthe hOrds of Norway at most unexpected
intervals, and at places where often not more than
or two fishing boats are to be found Before the
boats from the surrounding bays and hords can be
summoned to the spoil the herrngs have generally
spawned, and are away to again. To prevent
there repeated disappOnt and losses 10 the fish
emen, the Norwegian Government is about to lay a
submarine cable along some fifty miles OF the coast
most frequented by the shoals, with land stations at
short distances communicating with the fishing VII
lagos. The instant the shoal is in the ofiing,
therefore (and it can always be known at distance
by the whales which surround ~, message Will be
sent along the coast telling each village the ford
bay which it has entered. Alas for the poor herriDgs
What will become of them now that science enters
the deep ganst them and their enemy turks in their
watery home They may elude whales and fishing
boats, defy tides, winds and waves but what can
they do against the electric current They will
splash heedessy the queer looking rope on the
bottom withou. thinking that it is telling their
oers and the way they have taken, and guiding their
pursuers to the destruction of them ALL
London Times June 5.
AZ
Although Norfolk and New-YOrk striving TO OBJ
tain the first trip of the Great Eastern to their ports
yet we have no doubt that it will be made to Port
land; in fact the Grand Trunk Railway Company have
already issued in Europe their printed circulars,
nouncing the fact that they had completed their ar
rapgemens with the owners of the Great Eastern to
ticket passengers by her through Portland to Canada
and the Western States.
After Capt. Harrison, who is to command her, had
given our harbOr personal examination, and found
it, both in depth of water and facility of access, supe
nor to any American port, her owners entered into
arrangement with the Grand Trunk Company to
make her trial trip here, provided suitable wharf
mOdations could be furnished. The Company then
called upon Portland to know what she would do to
secure this steamer; and the city promptly responded
by saying that we would build such wharves as the
engineers said would be necessary. Legislative
authority to build these wharyes was obtained, of
them is completed and the other 80 far finished that
can be made ready in month or six weeks from this
time. The Portland Board Of Trade has correspondent
with the officers of the Company, and has letters
from the Secretary, Mr.. Yates, advising that the
steamer "would be ready about midsummer" Ii is
understood that she will be launched in August, but
sometime must eapse after she Is atOat TO finish her
upper works for she is to have accommodations for
500 first-class 1000 second and 200 third-class
passengers.
There is only one contingency in our opinion that
will prevent her making her first trip 10 Portland, viz
her charter by the Government to take troops to
China. Should the continue and additional troops
be required, as she could carry 10000 soldiers and
tbair ppnt he
a charter as would justify her owners in pOstponing
her trip TO America.
The wharves built for her harbor are 200 feet
in length, extending into the harbor at right angles
with the shore front Of the Grand Trunk Railway At
the end of the wharf completed there is 80 feet of
water at low tide, and ~ at high water
These wharves are 100 feet wide and the distance
between them 300 feet that her main side ports at
which she discharges, aud which 400 feet apart
will be in the center of each wharf. The distance
from outside TO outside of these wharves being 500
feet, the Great Eastern will show $50 feet beyond
them, 90 feet beyond each wharf Her length is
$50 feet, or rather than eighth of a mile.
Her depth from deck to keel being 90 feet, at high
water her gunwales will be something above the ridge
pole of the freight houses her wharves, which
% feet high Her upper deck is flush, and affords
promenade of over one quarter of a mile around It.
Her screw propeller is "a feet in diameter and her
sidewheels 90 feet in diameter. About 600 tuns of
iron will be used in her construction she being divided
transversey from keel 10 upper deck into ten water
tight compartments and these again divided longitude
nally fore and aft Portland Adv. June Is
@..~-.-....-
SINGULAR EFFECTS OF ELECTRICITY.-A singular
at