TIDINGS OF THE STRATHMORE.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VII, Issue 330, 7 March 1876, Page 7

TIDINGS OF THE STRATHMORE.

The Du.ledin papers of Wednesday, Ist instant, publish tidings of the missim.' shi". Strathmore and the rescue of a number of her passengers. It will be recoHeced that tlie public verdict was that the missing vessel hid met with a. fate similar to that of the Cospatrick—destroyed by fire at sea. Happily, however, the calamity which befel the Strathmore was not such a. fearful one, and there is yet ro m for hope that the survivors will number more than the twenty reported by telegram last Week. The information yet to hand is provokiugly meagre, and the publie will await further intelligence with deep interest. The Times of date above quoted says : The message received yesterday from Bombay, via Sydney, states that a ship touched at Galle on the 24th of February and landed twenty survivors of the Strathmore, from Loudon to New Zealand. She was wrecked on Crozet Island in July, 1875. They were rescued in a wretched condition on January 22nd by the American whaler, Phoenix, which fell in and transferred them to the John Bentley. Mr Crombie was landed at Galle. Mr and Mrs Wordsworth, Mr Walker, and Mr Keith remained on- board the Phoenix. The captain and mate of the Strathmore were drowned.

The Strathmore was a fine iron ship of 1472 tons register, commanded by Captain Macdonald, a seaman of considerable experience. She sailed from London on the 19th April, 1875, with a large and valuable cargo, and had the followiiKj; passengers, the number of souls on board, including officers and crew, being about 90 : —Chief cabin —Mr Percy Joslen, Mr Spencer Joslen, Mr and Mrs Alfred Walker and child, Mr Hylton Keith, Mr Thomas Henderson and Miss Maggie Henderson (children of Mr Henderson, C.E.. of Brogdan and Sors), Mr Fred. Bentley, Mr S. D. Crombie, Mr Charles Wordsworth, Mrs Frances Wordsworth. Second Cabin—Mr and Mrs James Riddell, Mr James Blair, Mr and Mrs Theophilus Maville, and Mr T. H. Tinnock. Mr Henderson is now in Dunedin, and he yesterday telegraphed to Bombay, to ascertain, if possible, whether his son and daughter, Mr Thomas and Miss Maggie Henderson were among the survivors ; but up to the time of closing of the telegraph office no answer had been received. The Crozet Islands are three in number~-Hog, Possession, and East Island, with outlying rocks, and are to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, situated in about lattitude 43 degrees S., and longtitude 50 degrees E. They are entirely uninhabited, very sterile and barren, and are seldom visited by vessels, and only then by some chance whaling or seating ship. As the master and mate are specially mentioned as having been drowned at the time of the wieck, it may be inferred that the others landed in safety ; but as only twenty survivors are said to have been rescued by the whaling ship it may be that the remainder perished through the hardship and privation their sojourn on such sterile and barren islands exposed them to. However, these are mere conjectures which the telegraph will soon set at rest. In the meantime, we hope for the best that can possibly come;