OCEANA-PISAGUA COLLISION.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14307, 19 March 1912, Page 7

OCEANA-PISAGUA COLLISION.

DETAILS OF THE AFFAIR

EUROPEAN CREW'S EXEMPLARY

DISCIPLINE

"United Pros-. Association—By Electric TeiegTaph—Copyright.

LONDON, March 17

The Oceana, which collided vjith tho German barque Pisagua, off Boachy Head, carried a crew of 280 and 40 passengers, the remainder intending to join her at Marseilles. It is estimated that four of tho passengers were drowned. Tho bodies of a stewardess, a Lascar, and a lady passenger have been found. Possibly half a dozen of the crew perished.

There was a terrific crash when the vessels collided, and a hole twenty feet wide was made in the Oceana, causing a great inrush of water. The discipline of the officers and the European section of the crew was exemplary, but tr.e Lascars huddled together, alternately wailing and screaming, and terrifying the otherwise courageous women-folk, who were awaiting their turn to get iuto tho boats as patiently as the men.

Lifebelts were distributed, and there was amnio boat accommodation. The swamping of the first boat is attributed to an accident to a block rope. Miss MacFarland. a clergyman's daughter, was tho only occupant rescued. She- stated that her father and mother and some ladies were drowned.

Thirty-two passengers arrived in London, some dressed in their night clothes, oome wrapped in blankets and towels, while others were merely bareheaded;

The ship's carpenter, who was lyin.z in his berth at the moment of the collision, had a leg smashed, and a passenger had an arm fractured.

Tho captain and the remainder of the crew quitted the Oceana only when sho was settling down.

Within twenty minutes sho heeled over, her stern rising. Dense smoke renounced an explosion. Sho lies on an even keel.

Tho Pisagua's damago is worse than was thought. Sho arrived at Dover in a sinking condition. The Oceana sank six miles off Eastbourne. It is now believed that 17 persons were drowned.