examiners. Of the masters who have been passed, we find that eighteen were examined at the Trinity House, London, four at Dundee, three by the Marine Board at South Shields, and one by the Trinity House, Newcastle; of the mates, four were examined by the Trinity House, London, and four at Dundee.

In the schedule arranged to the printed regulations issued by the Board of Trade, other boards of examiners than those just enumerated, are included. They are the branch boards, consisting of the Sub-Commissioners of pilotage at Beaumaris, Gloucester, Milford, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Great Yarmouth, Trinity House, Hull; Trinity House, Leith; Board for Licensing Pilots, at Glasgow; Ballast Board, Dublin; Commission of Pilotage, Liverpool.

We trust that by bringing these Boards thus prominently under the notice of the public, it may stimulate men to exertion. Much will depend in their giving a fair and liberal interpretation to the intentions of the Government in promoting this measure, whether or not it will be attended with the success which it eminently deserves. We shall continue to watch its progress, and give it all the support in our power.

A LIST of Masters and Mates in the Merchant Service, who have voluntarily passed an examination, and obtained Certificates of Qualification for the Class against each assigned, under the Regulations issued by the Board of Trade.

41 Ecaudor, 394 tons ... Tr. Ho. London.

28 Renovation, 325 tons Ma. Bd. S. Shields.

66

6 T. G. Hinson 1

6 C. W. Decker... 2

66

14 J. Thompson

1

66

14 H. Caithness

46 14 John Wilson

3

66

16 Joseph Kirkup. 3

66

2

26 Useful, 214 tons Ma. Bd. S. Shields. 31 Navigator, 130 tons. Ma. Bd. S. Shields. Tr. Ho. Newcastle.

23 J. J. Robinson. 2 28 Earl Grey, 571 tons Tr. Ho. London.

(as Mate.) No. of Register Ticket, 20,225.

FLOATING WRECKS.

(Continued from page 43.)

Unknown, lat. 20°, north of Cape Finisterre, 23rd November; vessel about 500 tons, flush decks, painted ports, dismasted, waterlogged, and abandoned. Reported by Madras. [Appears to be the Henrietta Wilhelmina, and alluded to further on, and in page 43.]

Large Vessel, 26° north-west of Scilly. Reported by the Lord Stanley. Shipping Gazette, December 19th. [Mentioned in page 43.] Large Barque, 45 north, 49 west, 4th November; from 600 to 700 tons; waterlogged, and abandoned, mainmast and bowsprit standing. Reported by the Glasgow, May, arrived at St. John's, N. B. Shipping Gazette, 20th December. [Reported in same position in page 44.]

Unknown, 58° north, 12° west, 14th October; about 450 tons, timber laden, waterlogged, and abandoned; reported by the Reliance, Briggs. Shipping Gazette, 20th December. [Reported as before; some typograpical error in position.]

Glenview, of Belfast, about 700 tons, 46° 1' north, 13° 4' west, 17th October; abandoned, waterlogged, and timber laden, sails loose and shattered. Reported by the Prince Albert.

Charlotte, of Prince Edward's Island, 43° north, 53° west, January; dismasted, waterlogged, and abandoned. Reported by the Lochibo. A Ship, 400 tons, 44°5 north, 13° west, 11th October; waterlogged and abandoned. Painted ports and round house, heavy sails in ribbons, topsails furled; two kegs and set of sails in maintop; quarter boat gone and long boat. Reported by the Windsor Castle, arrived at New Orleans. Shipping Gazette, 23rd December. [Possibly the Hope, of London, which is traced in four positions in page 42. She is also about a degree and a half of latitude south of the Glenview, but seen six days before her. A strong south wind might have drifted her to the place of the Glenview.]

Barque, about 500 tons, 46°4 north, 43°.8 west, 7th December; waterlogged and abandoned, mizen and bowsprit standing, decks washed off, and high poop. Reported by the Belmont, from St. John's, N.B., arrived at London. Shipping Gazette, 26th December. [Perhaps the Blake, of Liverpool, mentioned in page 43.] Vessel, 250 or 300 tons, 39°9 north, 33°8 west, 16th November;_waterlogged, part of foremast standing. Shipping Gazette, 20th December. [Likely to be the Lancer, of Sunderland, mentioned in page 42. Her drift since the 26th of October.]

Packet, of Yarmouth, 40° north, 40° west, 28th September; was from Port au Prince for England. Shipping Gazette, 26th December. Jane Charlotte, schooner, of Prince Edward Island, 45°1 north, 55°1 west, 31st November; abandoned. Reported by the James Moran, from Dundalk, at St. John's, N.B. Shipping Gazette, 2nd December. Blake, of Liverpool, 46°5 north, 48°.8 24th November; masts all standing, no rigging, and full of water. Reported by Francois. Shipping Gazette, 29th December. [Reported, also seen on following day by another ship; position corresponds very well, allowing for drift.]

Barque, 43° north, 48° west, 28th November; abandoned. Mizen and mizen rigging standing, mainmast and all above head of foremast and bow

sprit gone, decks and side stove in. Reported by Olive and Eliza. Shipping Gazette, 30th December.

A Wreck, 14°3 north, 27°.9 west, December 6th; with painted ports. Reported by the St. Hiliers, Hamens, arrived in the Downs. Shipping Gazette, 30th December.

Granite, of Liverpool, 39° north, 65° west, 23rd December. [About sixty miles south of the Gregg, of London. Seen December 1st.] Pagoda, 42°.9 north, 21° west, 23rd January; crew and passengers saved by the Dram Alley, from Para; encountered much bad weather. Shipping Gazette, 2nd February.

London, brig, 39° north, 20 west, January 10th; dismasted, waterlogged, and abandoned, bowsprit standing, timber laden. Reported by Tiberius Crowell, arrived at Apalachicola. Shipping Gazette, 2nd February, [Possibly the Hope, of London, last seen 20th October, see page 42.] Lord Lynedoch, 638 tons, St. John's, N.B., to London, December 23rd; abandoned on this day, being full of water, fore and mizen masts gone, maintopmast off by the cap, and cabin and forecastle washed away. Crew saved by the Cambridge, arrived at New York, 31st December.

Unknown, about 100 tons, January 18th; dismasted schooner, apparently Dutch, passed this day, direlict by a French fishing boat, put into Torbay on 19th January.

Henrietta Wilhelmina, about 500 tons, Corunna, 1st January. The wreck of about 500 tons which was fallen in with on the 23rd November, near Cape Finisterre, and subsequently drifted landwards, near the Sisarga Islands, is the Henrietta Wilhelmina; she is timber laden; and the wreck now lies upon rocks, and in a very dangerous position. John of Liverpool, 182 tons, December 31st., Douglas, Isle of Man, 7th January. This vessel, dismasted and abandoned, was fallen in with off the northern end of this island by a trawl boat, but cast adrift in consequence of the violence of the gale.

Brilliant, of Jersey, sloop, Cherbourgh, 11th January. This sloop totally dismasted and abandoned, with no anchor on board, nor rudder at her stern, and in ballast; came on shore near Sartainville, on the 30th ult. Barbados, of London, 322 tons, America to London, 46° north, 32° west, December 3rd, New York, 31st December. Passed by the John George, from Bremenbothis; the Barbados abandoned, long boat gone, mast standing, a signal of distress flying at the maintop gallant mast head, supposed the crew had left her the day previous.

A MARVELLOUS FEAT IN A HURRICANE.

SIR, The Falmouth Packet gives the following feat performed by a vessel in a circular hurricane :

"STORMS.-A curious illustration of the circular theory of storms, has been recorded in the log of the Charles Heddle. For some days, from the 25th to the 28th of February, in this year, she scudded round in a hurricane circle, during which she ran upwards of 1300 miles, and the direct distance made by her, from point to point, was only 354 miles."

The curiosity of the hurricanists will, no doubt, be excited by this account, but as it is ambiguously worded, the captain is invited to send a copy of his

log to the Nautical, for the benefit of his brother sailors, and which I have no doubt, Sir, you will willingly insert.

By the expression "round and round," it would seem that the vessel made more than one revolution.

The first thing that will strike the seaman on reading the statement is that, if the storm was a rotary one, it must have been stationary so as to have enabled the vessel to scud round the area of the circle; for, if the meteor progressed-even at a slow rate-she would not, in all probability, have completed one entire circuit.

The next difficulty is as to the time occupied in running the 1300 miles and more-three days, or seventy-two hours; or four days, or ninety-six hours?

In the one case her rate would amount to about eighteen miles and a quarter an hour; in the other to not quite fourteen miles an hour.

We require to know the "wherabouts" also; the changes of wind, &c. There have been examples of these storms remaining stationary for some time, but whether sufficiently long to admit of a vessel scudding round the circle, I think doubtful.

I trust that the captain of the vessel named, will feel a pleasure in affording the necessary information.

To the Editor, &c.

I have the honour, &c.

[We hope the captain will attend to this request.-Ed. N. M.]

S. J.

BOOMS, STOCKADES, AND STEAM-FUNNELS.-In the late affairs at Malluda Bay, against the Borneo Pirates, and at New Zealand against the natives, the severe losses on our side were sustained in forcing or cutting away the boom which the pirates had formed and placed across their river, and in forcing the stockades behind which the natives had posted themselves. In both instances our gallant fellows had to expose themselves to the fire of a sheltered enemy, and their only chance of escape from being shot was in the erring aim of the marksmen; but when the obstruction was removed, and they approached to the "collar work," as it is termed, the enemy fled, or were soon mastered with very trifling casualty. The circumstances under which the above actions took place have led to some experiments at home, in order on any future occasion more speedily to effect their object, with less personal risk. Commodore Chads, C.B., of the Excellent gunnery ship, at Portsmouth, has conducted one of the experiments; and, we believe, Sir J. M. F. Smith, K.H., B.E., the director of the establishment at Chatham for instructing the corps in Military field works, is about to have some stockades constructed for the purpose of proving the most expeditious and least hazardous method of overcoming these formidable barriers. At Portsmouth, last week, Commodore Chads obtained a spare mast, and had it chained fast to a floating buoy in the channel near the Excellent. A breaker, or small cask, which had been prepared for the occasion, was filled with powder attached to the mast, the operation occupying only a couple of minutes. A fuse was then lighted, to ignite the powder, and after a sufficient time had been allowed for the boats to pull off, the explosion took place, tearing off large pieces of the timber, from six to ten feet in length. The experiment was in every way successful, and demonstrated the great advantage of this method of removing such obstruction to armed boats going up creeks and rivers, over the tedious plan used at Mulluda; the one operation occupying only two or three minutes, and could be performed by three or four hands, whilst the other, with a very large force,

took nearly an hour (not "some hours") to perform with axes, &c. was attended with the loss of many lives. This week further experiments by Captain Chads, for testing the practicability of destroying floating booms, and made at the suggestion and by the order of the Earl of Ellenborough, the new first Lord of the Admiralty, have taken place. Tuesday's trial was on a small spar, which was destroyed by the explosion.

Wednesday the experiment was made on a more extensive scale—on two large spars, the lower masts of the Thalia, 42, the diameter of each being about twenty-seven inches and length about ninety feet. A strong chain cable was placed along the spars, then both, with the chain, were strongly woulded together with a ten-inch cable. This was moored some distance from the Excellent, and then a breaker in which a long copper fuse was fixed, and which contained fifty-six pounds of powder, was lashed in a very short space of time under the boom. At about twenty minutes past eleven, the fuse was fired by Lieut. Jenner, of the Excellent, the boat in which he was pulled was rowed out of danger, and in five minutes and a half from the lighting of the fuse the explosion took place. It was a grand spectacle; the water along the whole line of the boom being thrown up to a considerable height, forming a dense mass, above which the fragments of the spars were seen in great quantities. One large piece of at least fifteen or twenty feet in length, the entire substance of one of the spars, was thrown to at least an hundred feet. The demolition was most complete; not only were they splintered, but they were broken short off in a variety of places. The chain, of course, sank; therefore it was not immediately ascertained whether or not it had been broken. This experiment has completely and satisfactorily proved that booms, &c. placed across the mouths of rivers and harbours, may be easily destroyed by means of a very simple plan.

The following is an extract from "Thomus Lediard's History, from the conquest 1066 to the conclusion, 1734; and published by John Wilcox, at Virgil's Head, opposite the New Church, Strand, 1735."

A List of ships cast away in the storm 26th November, 1703.

1.-Reserve, fourth rate, Captain John Anderson, lost at Yarmouth, captain, surgeon, clerk and four-and-forty men saved, the rest of her company, being 175, drowned.

2.-Vanguard, second rate, sunk in Chatham Harbour, neither men nor guns on board.

3.-Northumberland, third rate, Captain Greenaway, lost on the Goodwin Sands, all her company was lost, being 220 men.

4.-Stirling Castle, third rate, Captain Johnson, on the Goodwin Sands, 70 men, of which four were marine officers, saved; the rest, being 206, drowned. 5.-Restoration, third rate, Captain Emmes, on the Goodwin Sands, all her company lost, being 391.

6.-Mary, fourth rate, Rear Admiral Beaumont, Captain Edward Hopson, on the Goodwin Sands, captain and purser on shore, one man saved, the rest, with the rear-admiral, drowned, being 261.

7.-Mortar Bomb, fifth rate, Captain Raymond, on the Goodwin Sands, all her company lost, being 65.

8.-Eagle, (Advice Boat,)sixth rate, Captain Bestock, lost on the coast of Sussex, all her company, being 46 saved.

9.-Resolution, third rate, Captain Lisle, on the coast of Sussex, all her company, being 221, saved.

10.-Litchfield, (Prize,) fifth rate, Captain Chamberton, all her company being 108, saved. She was afterwards got off again.