FAMOUS WRECKS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 248, 14 July 1921, Page 5

FAMOUS WRECKS

ON NORTH COAST OF NEW SOUTH WALES. The north coast of New South Wnljs, where the steameis Fitzroy and Our Jack recently foundered, has a long toll of shipping disasters and loss of life. Among the early shipwrecks on this coast were those of the Cawarra and the Yarra Yana. The Cawarra was a small steamer wjaicli was wrecked at the entrance to Newcastle in 1866. Of the GO on board only one was saved, and, curiously, he was rescued by the only survivor (Johnson) of the famous Dunbar wreck. In 1877 the steamer Yarra Yarra was Inst with all hands outside Newcastle Harbour. The most memorable wreck on this coast was that of the Cattorthun, a steamer that was wrecked on tho Seal Rocks, off Cape Hawke, when on her way from Sydney to Hong-Kong. This was on August 8, 1894. The death toll was 65.

The wreck of the Maitland with many deaths, and of the Merkworth, with nine deaths, off Sydney on May 8 and 9, 1898, will be remembered by many. It is noteworthy that the big storm that caused these tragedies is known to this day as the Maitland Gnle. It was in the night of September 19, 1917, that the Canonbar sighted a lifeboat near North Head. In if were 11 survivors of the wreck of the Nerong, of the North Coast Co., and the bodies of two .men who had died from exposure. Another lifoihad been lost as the ship went down. The survivors had been in the lifeboat for 13 hours. Ona of the most dramatic Meries of the perils and the heroism of the North Coast was that of tho foundering of the Myola, oro of the three collier.; whoso loss led to an important marine inquiry. The other vessels were the Undola and the Tuggerah. Tho Myola, an up-to-date collier, on April 2, 1919, foundered off Norah Tlcad, ■ with a loso of four lives. It wds a block night, with n heavy sea, as the South Bnlli, another collier, plugging through tho dirty weather, glimpsed at times the stern light of tho Myola. Only at intervals was that light seen, because of the huge seas. When the South Bulli’s chief officer rxiw the light of the Myola disappear again, no suspicion was raised in his mind that the Myola had disappeared beneath the waters. But to his astonished cars came tho cries from the. crests of the waves, and ho sighted a white boat adrift.

With struggling men in the rough seas the chief officer stopped the. South Bulli’s propeller, a dangerous though nn heroic thing to do in such heavy weather, in case tho drifting men in the water might be cut up. Then began a splendid search in the darkness in the shin’s boat for survivors. Lines were thrown over from the South Bnlli by tho captain, and one life was thereby saved almost miraculously. A swimmer at tho Inst gasp clutched the lino, and though buffeted by the waves, one moment high above tho South Bulli’s and tho next yards away, he hung on, and by prompt action of tho rescuers was at last hauled aboard. The Myoln's captain was picked up by the ship's boat when clinging to a plank. The heroic launching of tho South Bulli’s boat will long bo remembered. The story of tho Myola survivors was that a tremendous wave shifted tho cargo and caused tho collier to heel over. It was a matter of a mo’Xliit. Tn that moment efforts wore made to cut away the boats; but tho deck wont from under tho crew before the boats could be launched.