LOSS OF A STEAMER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 91, 17 April 1906, Page 5

LOSS OF A STEAMER.

A despatch from Boston, March. 14. says: Suffering, mental and physical, and numerous acts of heroism in the saving of life rarely equalled in' the records af tragedies of the sea, attended the loss of the Phoenix line steamer British King, which,. on Sunday fast, In a racing Atlantic storm, foundered about 150 miles south of Sable Island, and carried to death. 27 members l of the crew. Thirteen were rescued from the sinking Teasel by the Leyland liner Bostonian, and. 11 by the tank steamer Mannheim. Fire others, who had been drawn into the vortex where the British King sank, -were picked np by the Bostonian from a frail bit of wreckage they tad grasped after a desperate struggle in the whirlpool. Captain James CHagen, of the British King, died aboard the Bestohian from terrible injuries sustained in trying to save his ship. The rescued men brought here include James FLmnegan (second officer), J. D. Crawford (chief engineer). Adolphus Brew (fourth engineer), and William J. Curry (steward). ' The others were coal passers and sailors, mostly Belgians, and one stowaway from New York. Two lifeboats of the Bostonian were crushed, and volunteer cr,e-ws were thrown into the high-running seas while engaged in the work of vescue; but all safely reached the steamer again. They were rescued by lines thrown from thgdr own steamer. A second boat load of rescuers was thrown, into the sea, and 1 only rescued after an hour's work by comrades. The British TCfntr sailed from New York for Antwerp on March. 7, with a miscellaneous cargo and 150 cattle. Previous to the appearance of the reacu ing steamers every i small boat of the King had been demolished, and there j was no way of escape. The vessel was owned by the British Ship Owners' Gbn. .pany, of Liverpool.