The Hongkong Government Gazette.
All the compass courses given in these directions are to be varied according to the stages and strength of the The Tides.
The use of a ground log for both course and distance is therefore recommended, the ship's course being rially affected both by the strength and set of the tide.
It is high water at the Full and Change of the Moon in the neighborhood and to the Eastward of Gutzlaff between thand 12 o'clock.
In the river off Wúsung, High water occurs at the Full and Change about 1 hour 30 minutes. The rise is uncertain, ranges from one fathom to fifteen feet. Its velocity is from 14 to 44 knots, but it is affected both in velocity and action by the prevailing wind.
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From the Saddle Islands to Wusung the tide generally sets N.W, by W., and S.E. by E. when fully made if no cause as N.E. gales or heavy rains interfere. The flood makes first to the Southward, then S. W. and gradually ad to N.W. at half-flood, which is its direction at the strength of the tide.
The first of the Ebb sets to the Northward over the North Bank, and in like manner changes round to the ward, gradually running the strongest when S.E.
It is at the turn of both tides that most caution is necessary to avoid being set out of the channel.
Round the S.E. edges of the South Bank the flood sets W.S.W., and the ebb the contrary way.
Leaving the position off Gutzlaff at a quarter ebb, a vessel will carry the flood to Wusung if there is any wind.
By a meteorological register kept at Shanghai, the prevailing winds for the last seven years appear to have The Winds.
nin,-
ary,
.N.E. to N.N.W. and generally N.N.W.
ruary,......................N.E. to N.W. and generally Ñ.W.
12.
.N.E. to S.E. and variable.
.E.N.E. to S.E. chiefly S.S.E. and variable.
.E.S.E. to S.S.E.
..S.E to S.S.E.
July and August,....S.S.E.
September,..
October, November,.. December,
...N.E. to E.
N.E. to N.W. ‚N.W. and variable. ......N. to N.W.
Temperature The Temperature by day and night, taken by a self-registering Fahrenheit's Thermometer in the open air in shade, at Shanghai from 1848 to 1854, gives the following as the extreme ranges, and the average mean tempera- Shanghai,
e of each of the months for those seven years,-----
ary, ruary,
Maximum by Day.
Minimum Average Monthly
by Night.
67.
18....
Mean.
41
July,
65.
19............ 42
August,.
75.
28..
50
September,
Maximum by Day. 100.. 100....
92........
Minimum Average Monthly
by Night.
Mean.
64....... 63. 51...
85
84F
77
79:
33.
59
October,..
90.
37
67
87
37.
69
November,
99....
58...........
75
December,
80............ 77............
25........... 19...........
56
46
The mean average height of the Barometer in the Spring and Winter months is above 30 inches, and in the The Barometer. emer months below it, viz: for January to April, inch 30.25. From October to December, inch 30.34. From
r to September, inch 29.83, ranging lowest with southerly winds and during the N.E. monsoon season.
January is generally fine. In February thick fogs occur. March is damp and disagreeable. April has more rainy The Weather.
s than any other month, except June which is the wettest month. In May there is but little rain, and that little
ars in heavy showers. July is hot, dry, scorching with considerable rain in the form of evening thunder-showers. rand August are the hottest months. In September the S.W. monsoon is wholly broken up, and the tempera
very changeable. In November the Winter fairly sets in, the first frost appearing from the 12th to the 20th. cember is the driest month of the year, and the weather clear and freezing, though fogs are of occasional occur.......
In May, June, and July fogs also occur.
:ce,
The summer gales are, strongest from the S.E, and generally give good notice, the Barometer beginning to fall etimes as much as 24 hours previous. The rules for judging the Barometer on the Chinese Coast generally hold for the neighbourhood of Shanghai. A rapid fall of the Barometer betokens a Gale, and a high range the con- ance of Northerly winds.
Captains can deposit their Chronometers and have them rated by Transits, at the observatory of Messrs Kupfer- mid & Dato, Shanghai. Their observatory in Church Street, is in Latitude 31 deg. 14 min. 08-9 sec. N. Longitude, ours 6 minutes and 2 seconds East of Greenwich.,
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Competent Foreign pilots (English and American) will be found cruizing in the neighbourhood of the Saddle. ads during the summer months, and at the entrance of the river outside of Gutzlaff in the winter. No Sailing ections can do away with their usefulness to the stranger, where the safety of the Ship depends so much upon a rect knowledge of the tides. The signal of the authorized pilots is, a flag half red and white horizontal with the
r of the boat in black.
1:”
GEORGE HENRY PREBLE,
Lieutenant, U. S, Navy, 25.
OBERT C. MURphy, Esq.,
U.S. Consul, Shanghai.
SHANGHAI, November 3d, 1855.
R-Agreeably to an order from Commodore Joel Abbot, Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Naval Forces in the East India and Seas, &c., &c., to me directed, under date July 25th, 1855, to co-operate with you in carrying out an agreement entered into between f and His Excellency Chaou with reference to the marking and buoying the Yang-tse-kiang, dated July 21st, 18551 have the- to report that the following marks, &c., for improving the navigation of the Yang-tse-kiang up to Wúsung, have been decided upon, now being placed and erected at the expense of the Chinese Authorities.
STA Light vessel of one hundred and thirty-one tons burthen has been moored with heavy chains and anchor in four fathoms at Low Water spring tides, near the Southwestern extremity of the South Eastern part of the North Tuug-sha Banks. This placed in Latitude by observation 31° 09′ 15′′ N., Longitude by the mean of several observations by the three Chronometers of the Macedonian 121° 59′ E.: and bears by Compass from the centre of Gutzlaff N.N. W., from which she is distaut 25 miles. This places her on the inner edge of the outer bar marked on Collinson's Chart of the river, and well up towards the North bank. In , in, she should never be brought to the Westward of W. by N. in a ship of heavy draft, or to the Southward of West with a vessel. The Light ship will be readily distinguished from ordinary cruizing vessels, from having her two lower masts and top- Tay aloit, and from her hull and masts being painted a bright red, also from having inverted Cones of basket work six feet in dias aced over each of her topmast heads. For the present at night she will hoist an ordinary ship's light until a better one can be 1. She is provided with a set of Marryat's Signals in order to communicate when requisite with vessels in the offing. She has on European Captain and Chinese crew to attend her, and it is hoped will prove a rendezvous for the European Pilots, whence they It is proposed that when from her a stranger is observed to be running into any danger, she first fire a gun to is attention, and then hoist Marryat's Signal in Part V. No. 1680,—“ Vessel is running into danger," followed by the Compass e course to be steered to avoid it.
ed in-bound vessels.
OND.Contracts have been entered into for building a Beacon tower of masonry to be twenty feet square at its base, and fifty and tapering off to ten feet square at that altitude, and to be surmounted by a mast or spar fifty additional feet-thus making its right one hundred feet.
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Beacou will be erected on the South shore near what is known to pilots and others as the "Three Trees." When completed, on is to be white washed, and the mast painted black to afford the most distinguishable contrasts, and will be seen in any ordina“. day before losing sight of the hull of the Light Ship.
RPA Large nun buoy painted red has been placed upon the South Eastern extremity of the Wúsung North spit in three fathoms Lowest spring tides..
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ru--A Large wyn buoy painted black has been placed upon the North Eastern extremity of the Wúsung South spit in three fathoms water at Lowest spring tides.