LOSS OF THE KING OSCAR WITH FOURTEEN LIVES.

Press, Volume XXIV, Issue 3200, 2 December 1875, Page 2

LOSS OF THE KING OSCAR WITH FOURTEEN LIVES.

(From the " Hour," Sept ?8.) On Sunday morning, at an early hour, the steamer Adler, of and from Bremen, belonging to the North German Lloyd's Company, arrived at Hull, and her crew report a dreadful collision off the Humber, on the previous afternoon, between her and a Swedish steamer, resulting in the sinking of the latter with fourteen persons. Tbe collision occurred about twelve miles off the mouth of the Humber, at about 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. The weather was very clear at the time, and it is considered, therefore, that the collision is the result of gross neglect on the part of one of the steamers. The Adler, under the command of Captain Kuster, had a crew of twenty hands, and there were also on board about the same number of seamen, stated to be for a German barque now lying at Hull and about to load for Rangoon, and a large number of passengers, bringing the total number of those on board to be about sixty. Aβ the Adler was nearing the Humber, a large Swedish steamer, deeply laden, which afterwards proved to be the King Oscar, of Helsinborg, bound from Grimsby to the Baltic with coals, was seen leaving the Humber. The two, unfortunately, came into collision, the Adler striking the King Oscar behind the lore-rigging on the starboard side, and causing her to founder in about five minutes. There was not time to launch a boat from the sinking vessel, but Captain Jacobsen and six seamen were picked up out of the sea. Mrs Jacobsen and thirteen seamen perished. But for the seamen passengers on board the Adler being on deck and promptly launching a lifeboat, it Iβ uncertain whether any lives would have been saved, as the watch of the Adler consisted, ac ordinarily, of a few men. The Adler had her bows stove in, and her fore compartment filled with water. She was towed into tbe Humber by a Swedish steamer, supposed the Nordstjernen, from Hull for Newcastle, belonging. It is said, to the same owners as the King Oscar, and that vessel afterwards took the shipwrecked men on board. The Adler was towed to the Humber stern first, there being great danger if she had proceeded stem first of her bulkhead being forced oy the pressure of water. Her bulkhead prevented any other than ttte fore part of the steamer being flooded. The lifeboats were got out and equipped, so as to be ready for any emergency. On getting into the Humber, and under shelter of the land, she wae able to proceed to Hull head foremost, but at a low speed to prevent the water washing into the holes in her bows. It is alleged by some of those on board the Adler that the collision occurred through the bad seamanship on board the King Oscar. The latter's helm was, it is stated, first ported and then starboarded, the latter act causing the collision. The engines of the Adler, when the vessels were in danger of colliding with each other, were put astern, but the motion of the ship could not be so readily changed as to avoid collision. The King Oscar was going full speed ahead at the time the ships struck each other. The captain of the sunken steamer was in his drawers, and some of the others saved were only partly dressed. The dog belonging to the King Oscar is stated to have been saved by a seaman going down a rope and pulling it out of the water.