2. No vessel which has anchored outside Prince Rupert's Rock, is allowed to remain at anchor there longer than twenty-four hours, for which a special leave must be immediately applied, and which does not exempt the vessel from entering and clearing at the custom-house in the usual manner. 3. No vessel is allowed to anchor in front of the fort, so as to mask it, or prevent it from taking a range of the whole entrance to the harbour. The sterns of vessels anchoring to the eastward in the harbour, must in consequence thereof, not lay more westerly than in a S.S.E. direction from the flagstaff on the fort, and the bows of vessels anchoring to the westward in the harbour not more easterly than S.b. W. from the same. When the cargo or part thereof, is intended to be entered for exportation, the vessel has to anchor to the eastward of the fort, or immediately to remove thereto. No vessel must leave the port after sunset, except with night pass. 4. No boats are permitted to take a rope from, or make fast to any vessel before she has anchored. No persons are permitted to go on board or leave a vessel before the captain of the port has been on board, and given such permission. By non-compliance here with, the offender after summary inves tigation by the police-master, will be fined in a sum of 5 to 25 pieces of eight, according to circumstances. 5. To the captain of the port, shall be immediately reported whether there are any sick persons on board; if the vessel comes from a place where any contagious disease is prevailing; if any gunpowder, arms, or warlike stores are on board; and if there are any passengers. All persons are considered as passengers who are not proved to belong to the crew of the vessel. If the captain of the port forbids a passenger to go on shore, the master of the vessel is answerable that such passenger does not leave the vessel before a permit from the police is obtained. 6. Ship's papers, manifests, and other documents concerning the articles and quantity of the cargo, must be delivered to the captain of the port on demand. 7. After the vessel is brought to anchor, the master has: First. Within two hours to report himself at Christiansfort, which again must be done before the anchor is wayed or the vessel removed to another place, and before his departure he has to present there his custom-house clearance. Second-Within two hours after his arrival he shall deliver to the police office an exact list of the passengers who have arrived with him, under a penalty of from 25 to 200 pieces of eight. Third. And within twenty-four hours make an entry at the custom-house. Should he commence to discharge cargo before the vessels is entered at the custom-house, he will be liable to a fine of 300 dollars. 8. Vessels coming into the harbour after sunset must show colours the next morning at sunrise, and then immediately be reported to the fort; and, if any passengers on board, at the police-office before 9 o'clock. In such cases the master may, when there is no sickness on board or at the place from whence he came, land passengers well known to him and entirely unsuspicious; but he is then responsible as well for accidents which may arise therefrom, as for the personal appearance of the passengers at the police-office on the following morning. 9. None of a vessel's crew may be discharged, or left on shore here without the police-master's permission, and every change of the crew shall be noted by the proper authority on the muster-roll, before the departure of the vessel. Every person who may be on board when a vessel departs, shall, if belonging to the crew, be duly entered on the muster-roll of the said vessel by the proper authority, and if a passenger, be provided with a lawful passport, under a penalty of from 25 to 200 pieces of eight, to be paid by the master. 10. All vessels shall moor immediately after having anchored; the jibbooms must be rigged in, the spritsail-yard laid fore and aft, and everything that might prevent vessels from warping or sailing in the harbour taken on board, and not again be rigged out until the vessel is hauled up and ready to sail. No boats, stages or spars are permitted to lay astern of any vessel. Anchors by which the vessel is moored must be provided with buoys and shortened buoy-ropes. 11. Except in extraordinary cases, no boats are permitted to discharge or load at any wharf after sunset; none of the crew of vessels lying in the harbour (masters and mates excepted) may be ashore after the evening gun has fired, unless they are provided with a pass from the police. After sunset no boats are allowed to lay at any other than the King's Wharf, and must not be detained for their officers later than 8 o'clock, 12. It is prohibited to warm pitch, tar, turpentine or oil on board; to. throw dead animals overboard; to careen vessels for the purpose of scraping or cleaning the bottom. It is also prohibited to throw ballast overboard, liable to a penalty of from 150 to 300 Rdr. W. Ct., of which one third will devolve to the informer. A place for discharging ballast will be pointed out by the harbour-master. 13. It is not permitted to fire guns, musketry, pistols, or other firearms in the harbour after sunset, except in cases of distress. 14. Any one that loosens or cuts away a buoy, will be imprisoned immediately, and liable to the severest punishment. 15. No porter or labourer shall be employed without being provided with a written permission from the police-master, and his plate as ordered 16. When an alarm is fired, viz., two guns in quick succession from Christiansfort, the half of the crew of each vessel (or more when demanded) shall with the master or mate proceed to the King's Wharf, and there place themselves under the command of the captain of the port; when the alarm is fired on account of fire breaking out in the town, the crew shall bring with them two or three small sails, axes, buckets, boat-hooks, a runningtackle, and can-hooks. 17. Masters of vessels lying in the harbour, shall, whenever any of their crew are taken sick, make immediate report thereof, to the officer of health, who is to inspect that no other than regular physicians attend the patient. In every case where this order is neglected, the master of the vessel will be liable to a fine of 500 pieces of eight. 18. Masters of vessels bound for Danish ports, or for Hamburgh, shall report themselves at the post office eight days before they intend to sail. 19. All orders from the captain of the port with regard to order in the harbour, must be immediately complied with, as those who do not conform thereto will be punished according to the existing laws, and have to pay all expenses thereby incurred. No excuse of ignorance of the existing laws, even those which may not be mentioned in these regulations, will be valid. 20. Every master of a vessel entering this port is to ask for a copy of these port regulations, for which he will pay three cents. By order of the Government, St. Thomas, January, 26th, 1838. L. J. ROHDE, Captain of the Port. PROPOSED LIGHTS.-Colonel Butterworth, if the sanction of the Bengal Government can be had, proposes to anchor the Torch light-ship, now at Calcutta, on the 2 fathom bank, and to erect a light-house on Tree Island, if the money be subscribed; this is all that is required for the lighting of the Straits. We hope to see our mercantile community join in the movement, for we certainly are sitting here in utter darkness. The loss of the Pachathe running ashore of the Singapore on 24 fathom bank, and the continual loss of ships on the Paracels and Pratas will doubtless have their proper effect. FIXED LIGHT AT POINT DIVY, COROMANDEL COAST.-We have just received the following from our esteemed correspondent Captain Biden, at Madras. Madras Marine Board Office, 15th February, 1851. Notice is hereby given that a fixed light, visible about twelve miles off, will be exhibited on and after the 1st of May next, from a column erected about two miles north-west of the low sandy extremity of Point Divy. The following notice is taken from Lieutenant Fell's sailing directions for the Coromandel Coast; the spit therein alluded to having 1 fathom on its south-eastern edge. "Point Divy in lat 15° 57' 40" N., long. 81° 15′ 00′′ E. Bears from Masulipatam Flag-staff S. 6° E., distant eleven miles and a half. This point is very low with a narrow sandy spit, extending from it about two miles and a half in a south-east direction. In rounding this point with a fair wind during the day vessels ought not to come under 6 fathoms till to the northward of it. Between Point Divy and False Point Divy the coast ought to be approached during the night with great caution, as the bank of soundings extends but few miles to seaward, having soundings of 100 fathoms, seven miles to seaward of a line of 6 and 7 fathoms. "From Point Divy to Masulipatam the coast trends nearly north and is safe to approach to 44 and 5 fathoms." After the above date the light at Masulipatam will be discontinued. REMARKS ON THE ENTRANCE OF THE RIVER MIN, WITH DIRECTIONS FOR entering.—By Commander Cracroft, H.M.S. Reynard. VESSELS bound for the river Min will find excellent anchorage in the northeast monsoon under the White Dogs, where it is recommended they should wait for the proper time of tide before attempting the bar. It is high water at the White Dogs, two hours before the tide has done flowing at Rees Rock: with a leading wind, therefore, vessels leaving the White Dogs about an hour before high water, are sure to carry the tide with them as far as Woga Creek (where the opium vessels are stationed); if bound higher up the river, and they cannot ensure the tide through the Kinpai Pass, it will be proper to anchor there, and wait for low water slack, before attempting to proceed further. The flood tide sets to the southward, and the ebb to the northward right across the bar; in the north-east monsoon therefore, should the wind become scant after a vessel has passed the Knoll, the ebb will be a weather tide. In his directions for entering the river, Capt. Collinson gives marks for passing the Knoll to the northward: since his survey was made, however, I have reason to believe this channel has narrowed considerably, and as these marks are also difficult to make out, I have never availed myself of them, but always taken the channel to the southward of the Knoll. Pilots may be procured by sending in to the opium vessels in Woga Creek, but I have never employed one, and the following marks, which I have used ten times in H.M. late screw sloop, Reynard, during the years 1850 and 51, will lead a vessel safe through the south channel in the deepest water. 1st. Bring the breakwater, a large remarkable rock, close to the White Dogs, a little to the right, or nearly under that part of the North Island (Tong-sha) which resembles a dome flattened, and keep in that position, on about a S.E.b. E. bearing. As soon as the high land to the northward of the entrance of the river is clearly distinguished, the Sharp Peak in the foreground, which cannot be mistaken, will appear nearly in the centre of, but under, a gap formed by two very high hills in the rear; let the Sharp Peak be kept in this position, and after the White Dogs become too indistinct to be any longer a guide, this mark which will fill up the gap as the vessel closes the land, will bring her safe through the channel in the deepest water, as far as Rees Rock, which may be passed from half a mile, to a mile and a half to the northward, but the distance must be judged by the eye. 2nd. Two islands, called the Brothers, apparently in the middle of the entrance to the river, and appearing, especially in hazy weather, like one island, will now be seen; the inner one has a whitewashed mark on its southern face; this mark kept open to the northward of the outer island, bearing about N.W.b. W. W. will lead over the inner bar past Sharp Peak Point in the deepest water, should it be necessary to work in tack to the northward as soon as the mark appears to the southward of the outer Brother. After having cleared the entrance, keep as nearly as possible in the centre of the river, as the mud banks shelve considerably; the only danger is a patch on the rocky ledge which extends nearly across the channel off Temple Point, and has only eight feet water on it at low water springs; this patch was discovered by Commander Luard, H.M.B. Serpent, in March 1851. It is scarcely necessary to mention that the tides run very strong here, the ebb in the rainy season like a sluice for eight, and even nine hours; the rise and fall at springs is about eighteen feet at Temple Point. P. CRACROFT, Commander R.N. Trinity-House, London, Notice is hereby given, that this Corporation having issued directions to the Masters and Mates of their several Light Vessels to the following effect, viz. In the event of any light vessel being driven from her station, the master or mate, whichever be in charge, is carefully to consider whether she has driven to such a distance, or in such a direction, as to make it dangerous to Shipping to continue to shew her Lights, and if the distance or direction be not such as to endanger the safety of Vessels running on their course, the Lights and Balls are to be continued in the usual manner. But, should the Light Vessel have driven so as to be of no use as a Guide to Shipping, the usual Lights and Balls are, in that case, to be discontinued, and two Red Lights substituted, one at the end of the Davit forward, the other on a Stancheon beside the Ensign Staff; and a Red Flare Light shewn every quarter of an hour during the night. And further, when vessels are observed from a Light Vessel to be in distress, or to require assistance : If in the day time, two guns are to be fired on board such Light Vessel, each at an interval of five minutes, and repeated every half hour until assistance be observed approaching. If in the night time, two guns are to be fired on board such Light Vessel, at similar intervals, each followed by a White Rocket thrown in the direction of the Vessel in distress, and these signals are to be continued until the required assistance has been rendered. Masters of Vessels, Pilots, and other Persons are earnestly requested to take such necessary note of these Regulations as may be useful both for the avoidance of danger to themselves, and for aiding their endeavours to render assistance to others. MANNING THE NAVY. The following return to an order of the House of Commons, dated 18th February, 1852, for copy "of the recent Correspondence between the Admiralty and the Treasury, on the subject of the formation of a reserve of Seamen for manning the Navy," has just been published: Admiralty, 10th Feb., 1852. SIR.-I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to state to you, for the information of the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, that the measures necessary for manning the fleet in case of any emergency have from time to time been under the serious consideration of this Board. The Lords of the Treasury will be fully aware of the deep importance of the subject, and the many difficulties that surround it, but my lords do not consider that these difficulties should deter them from bringing before parliament proposals for an arrangement, which may at the same time tend to the advantage of the country and of the maritime population, by rendering less necessary the recurrence to impressment. As a first step their lordships propose to raise by voluntary entry a "naval reserve," composed of able seamen, whose services may be immediately available in case of need, The proposed reserve to consist of 200 petty officers of the 1st class. 800 ditto ditto 4,000 able seamen. 2nd class. The petty officers to be entered in the "reserve," shall have served a period of not less than six years, and the able seamen not less than three years in her Majesty's service, with certificates of good conduct. All men entered for the "reserve" to be borne on the books of a ship in commission, and furnished with leave tickets, renewable at the end of every year so long as they are retained. The reserve men shall be at liberty to serve in a merchant ship, provided their voyages are confined to the home trade Shipping, as defined by the act 13 and 14 Vict., c. 93, s. 2; they shall also be liable to be called out from time to time for such periods and in such proportions as the Admiralty may direct. When called out for active service, they shall be liable to be retained for a period not exceeding five years, and at the expiration of that time shall not be liable to compulsory service in the navy. Reserved men shall not be liable to ballot for the Militia while retained. Their service in the Royal Navy will count towards pension and Greenwich |