Messrs. Rickmers, of Bremen, started last year a regular monthly line of steamers from Middlesboro', Antwerp and Hamburg for the Straits, China and Japan. The steamers of this line call at Penang, Sing; pore, Hongkong, Shanghai, and one or two rts in Japan, coming home the same way.
The Maria Rickmers (Capt. Berg), which arrived here on Friday last, is quite a new vessel, and exactly represents the type of the steamers intended for the line.
She is a finely modelled steamer of about 5,000 tons register, and when she left Hamburg had about 9,300 tons general cargo on board. She is 427 feet long, 50) feet 6 inches wide, and 30 feet 6 inches moulded depth. She has a large poop aft, and a most capacious bridge house amidships of 100 fect long. The poop as well as the bridge-house fare to. be tued for cargo and steerage passengers, or pilgrims, being well Ventilated with good number of ports in the sides. These cargo spaces can also be used most advantageously for some kinds of freight which have to be separated from the other portion of the cargo, and may therefore be used with advantage for camphor and similer produce.
'The officers', engineers' and spare staterooms for about 12 passengers, and the saloon, are in a steel house built on top of the bridge-deck. All the officers are most comfortably lodged. There is a messroom for engineers, and another one for the officers of the ship. The mess-rooms are very nicely fitted up, all in polished mahogany and maple, and both are in connection with.a large pantry. 'There are separate bathrooms for officers and engineers, besides a third one for the captain; in fact, the utmost care has been taken to make' the officers on board as comfortable as possible. The saloon and captain's private room are most elegantly fitted up, equal to any first-class passenger steamer.
Special attention has been paid to the loading and discharging arrangements, nine Rerricks being fitted on deck to lift heavy swerful steam winches and nine steel
loads. The steam steering gear is in the engine-room, and is controlled by a wheel from the steering house on the bridge forward. A powerful screw gear is placed at the after end of the poop. Water ballast is carried in a cellular double bottom from stem to stern.
The vessel is fore and aft schooner rigged with pole masts. On the bridge deck are four large boats, the two life-boats being of seamless steel, this being the case with all the other new steamers recently built for Messrs. Rickmers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.