16th Maveh.
A Notice has been issued from the Coast Inspector's Office to the effect that the Tungsha Light Vessel is to be removed for repairs on or about the Ist of April next, and replaced by a lorcha, with two red and two white lanterns suspended from her yardarms, and provided with a gong for use in thick or foggy weather. "It may possibly happen," says the Acting Deputy Coast Inspector's notice, "that one or both of the vertical lights on one yard-arm of the temporary Light-vessel may be obscured by her own mast to a vessel that is approaching her when she is swinging across the channel." We are informed by the senior pilot here, a man with thir five years' experience, that this notice has caused the gravest dissatisfaction, if not actual dismay. among the pilots belonging to the port.
No one who has any acquaintance at all with shipping matters here i ignorant of the difficulty and dangers connected with making the entrance of the Yangtze, and the indispensable importance of having a proper light ance was recognised when the light iously exhibited by the Tungsha altered to a groupsible eleven miles in:
ud when the vessel s double-note fog siren, giving a low and a high note, to be sounded every 1}s minutes. this siren being audible at a distance of four or five' miles, and! enabling a steamer groping her way in in thick weather to pick up the! light-ship with certainty. Tu these days, when so many steamers powerful clectr ights. to put an ordinary lorcha at Tungsha; provided with four lanterns, two of which are liable to be obscured by her own st. is a concession to economy h should surely attract the attention ut the Marine Insurance Companies, and of the shipowner and agents in Shanghai. Tustead of the fog siren, this vessel is to be! provided with a gong, which will be worse than useless to the pilots and captains of vessels, every pilot-boat every junk and lorcha being similarly provided. Even if the gong is heard ina tog, how is the! pilot to know that it comes from the light-vessel and not from a junk o lorcha endeavouring to protect itself from a collision The recent alters tions, on which we have from time to time congratulated the Light-house Department, of the lights on the China coast have been specially made that they might not be mistaken for steamers lights: and it is. alm inconceivable that such a retrogi step as that new announced sh be contemplat If it is absolute to her mast being sprung. to remove the Tungsha lightship at this, the very worst time of the year, when th her is so prevalent at the mouth she should be ced by of at least eq size. wh n be trusted to keep her position, and to which a proper light and the fog siren can_ be trans ferred. On at least one former casion, when another lightship not available, a barque of sufficient tonnage was chartered by the, Customs, and an adequate temporary arrangement was made. But the course generally followed, and a much tore satisfactory one, has been to remove the Tungsha'lightship for repairs in the winter and sh bapae her by the Newchwang light-ship, which is not used in the winter, the latter being brought up to Shanghai for overhaul as soon as the Tungsha was ready to resume her duties. To trust the safety of the large steamers that now come, daily to Shanghai to such an inadequate vessel Office now proposes, greatly increases the risks incident to navigation of the mouth of the Yangtze, and will in any case cause much avoidable dela:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.