THE ELI WHITNEY DISASTER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 67, 9 March 1877, Page 3

THE ELI WHITNEY DISASTER.

We summarise what appears to be the more correct statement published in the Wellington Argus of Saturday evening last. By this it seems that there were two lives lost, there being only one child. Our contemporary says : —The people on the hulk were Edwin Davey, his wife Amy, and theii infant child Alfred Ernest. Of these three, who, last night, were living and well, two —the mother and child-— now lie side by side in the Morgue, awaiting an enquiiy into the cause of their deaths. the cause of wreck. This morning there were various conjectures as to how the accident happened. Captain Williams at first supposed that a heavy gust of wind had burst the bow port, which fell in and caused the vessel to sink head first; or that she had started a plank. Captain Chambers, of the schooner Clio, however, gives the following information. He says his vessel was lying between the wharf and the hulk, but to windward of the latter 100 yards or so. He was on deck about 12.30, and saw the steamer Taupo coming from the wharf close under the Clio's stern, so close that he hauled up the boat at the stern of the vessel. As the steamer passed he heard some one, whom he took to be the mate, call out that there was a hulk ahead, and then heard a bell ring, which he took to be the alarm bell in the engine room. Two seconds later he saw the steamer run into the hulk about midships, and heard a crash. The steamer then dropped astern, and lay off a bit for about ten minutes, and was apparently being examined as to w r hat injury had been done to herself. At the end of the time named she steamed ahead. Captain Chambers, of the Clio, about twenty minutes later went below to get a drink of water, and on coming on deck again, about two minutes after, found that the hulk had disappeared. About ten o'clock in the evening he had seen a light in the fore part of the hulk, but when the collision occurred no light was observable, so Captain Chambers was under the impression that there was no one on board then. He heard no cries, but as he was to windward of the hulk and the wind howled and roared fiercely this may easily be accounted for. Several persons on the wharf also heard the Taupo strike the hulk. davey's story. The story of the terrible mishap given by Davey is simply this :—Some time after they had gone to bed, his wife woke him up with the exclamation " What water is that!" He rushed up on deck with his wife and child, and saw the vessel going down at the bows. He at once pulled the boat close up and rushed down the_ cabin for some clothing for his wife, as it was bitterly cold. When he came up he found the vessel going under, and before he could do anything she had sunk under them. Davey caught hold of a large plank which floated close to him, and while clinging to that he saw his wife with her child near him. He got her on the plank, and tried to calm her fears by telling _ her they were safe as long as they drifted towards the beach. A heavy wave, however, soon rolled their plank over, and swept both into the sea. Davey got on again, and assisted his wife to do the same, but the child was gone. They continued to drift, and as they passed the hulks, India and European, they cried for help. Still they drifted on with the force of the wind, their raft every now and then being rolled over by the heavy seas. They saw, as they passed the Adamant, a boat being lowered, but it did not reach them. The plank was washed upon the beach, but Davey, who was too much exhausted to help his wife off, crawled up the bank, knocked at Mr. Meech's door, and called loudly for help. The door was opened, and he remembered nothing more till he awoke from a swoon a long time afterwards, and called for his wife. Davey informs us that he thought the sea had stove in the bow port of the hulk. He never heard any noise resembling a collision.

The body of the child was picked up on the beach, about fifty feet from where the mother was found, just at dawn this morning by Mr. William Davis and Mr. James Minty, and was conveyed to the Morgue. Captain Williams estimates his loss at £3000, that is for vessel, gear, and coal, of which there were 750 to 800 tons on board. There is not one penny of insurance on any portion of the property.