HELPLESS IN THE ATLANTIC.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1128, 16 May 1911, Page 5

HELPLESS IN THE ATLANTIC.

THE ABANDONMENT OF THE ST. , LEONARDS. Giving evidence at Liverpool in connection with the Board of Trade inquiry into tho abandonment and joss of tho Liverpool steamer St. Leonards in the North Atlantic, on December 7, while on a voyage from Newcastle to Galveston, in water ballast, the master, Captain I'\ E. Hill, described how heavy weather was encountered, and on N'o : vombcr 14 tho vessel's propellor was lost through the shab breaking., consequent upon a (law in tho casting. Immediate preparations, wero made to tow, and sails wero improvised. The French mail steamer La Champagne was sighted, but declined to take the St. Leonards in tow, and witness refused to accede to the French captain's suggestion to abandon. On December 1 an attempt, ursuccesful owing to rough weather, was made to ship a propeller mado by tho St. Leonards' engineers. Subsequently much heavy weather was experienced Tiie steamer rolled and strained heavily, and shipped heavy seas fore and aft. On December 7 the Italian emigrant ship Lazio, with 2500 emigrants on board, was sighted and signalled. She declined to tako the St. Leonards in tow, and after consultation with his officers and engineers, and [earing his steamer—which was then leaking, was uncontrollable, and had drifted between t-.udvo and thirteen hundred miles—would not live through another storm such as thev had passed through, ho decided to abandon, and his crew ol thirty-seven and hims?lf transferred to tho Lazio, ami wr-re landed on December 0 at the Azores