BURNT AT SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 169, 17 July 1918, Page 4

BURNT AT SEA.

Following on the news that the American barquentine Hoko Head has been burnt at sea comes news of the loss of the five-masted schooner Crescent by the same means (says the "Shipping List"). From particulars as cabled, the Crescent was en route froni Sydney to San Francisco with a cargo of copra when the disaster overtook her. Although every effort was made to subdue the flames, the inflammable nature of the cargo made the task of saving the ship hopeless. On June 2, after a desperate Vight of 20 hours, the ship was abandoned about 500 miles off the American coast. A course was set for San Francisco, which was eventually reached, after the crew liad been in the boats for 14 days. The Crescent was loaded by Messrs. Burns, Philp, and Co., Ltd., at Sydney, and sailed on March 23 for San Francisco with 1,464 tons of copra below and 350 tons of hardwood.on deck. The Crescent was a wooden schooner of. 1,443 tons gross, and was 240 ft 4in long, 44ft beam, and had a depth of 19ft 4in. She was built in 1004 at Eureka, Cal., by the H. D. Bendixsen Shipbuilding Company, and was owned by the Charles Nelson ■Co., of San Francisco-