A VESSEL IN DISTRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 19, 24 January 1898, Page 5

A VESSEL IN DISTRESS.

BEACHED AT SYDNEY.

The four-masted schooner King Cyrus, of San Francisco, Captain Christianson, arrived in Sydney from Newcastle, coal ladenf on January 18th. The captain reports leaving Newcastle on the previous Sunday morning with a full cargo of coal and deck cargo bound for, Honolulu, and that after getting clear of the land during a heavy breeze from the south with dirty weather, the vessel commenced to leak badly. The vessel wpv.s then headed for Sydney, and arrived at 10.30, in tow of the tugStormcock. The crew were.in a very exhausted condition, Jiiivinjf hjjqn at the pumps continuously since nooii of Sunday, as the vessel had over 4ft of Avater in her hold. On arrival, the leak steadily gaining, it was deemed advisable to. let the vessel rest on the bottom to prevent her foundering, so she was taken into Double Bay and beached on soft .bottom. The crew were all very thankful to get into port, forit had been a desperate fight for life, and but for the decisive action of Captain Christiansen his owners must have lest a very fine vessel. The officer in charge when the King Cyrus was beached, said she settled by the stern, with her bows heading about S W., but at daybreak she swung round with the rising tide, beading west to the

wind, which at that time came from that quartei. She was then driven dangerously close to the steam yacht Isis, lying at her usual mooring?, necessitating the removal of the steamer to a safer anchorage. The draught of the King Cyrus, with her cargo of 1,229 tons of .Newcastle coal, was 17ft forward and 17_ft llin aft yesterday afternoon at near high water, so that, unless removed before low water last night, the vessel would be (piite safe resting on a soft bottom, with but some 12ft of water round her. At the time of the visit there were still several feet of water in her hold, the hissing sound from which as it washed through the coal could plainly be heard on deck.