The Miowera at Sydney.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7204, 30 October 1894, Page 4

The Miowera at Sydney.

The Sydney Morning Herald of the 15th instant has the following regarding the Canadian mail steamer Miowera, which arrived at that port on the 13th instant :— Thirteen months have passed sinoe the Canadian-Australian mail boat Miowera list sped on her way from Sydney towards Vancouver. To summarise her troubles ■within that period is to say that twioe she has been ashore in dangeronspositione—once on a reef at Honolulu, and later on a rook off Norway. Once with a bole 18 feet long in her hull, and off Norway considered by aime a wreck. Here she is now, however, ia port, lookiDg in every respect as smart as a ship can. After the acoident at Honolulu she steamed across to San Francisco, •where it wae proposed to dook her, but the charges were so prohibitive that she oontinued her voyaga up to Viotoria (8.C.), and there underwent repairs fcufficient to enable her to steam from Oape Horn and home to Neweastle-on-Tyne, where her builders, Messrs 0. Swan and Hunter, overhauled her. On 25th July last, under contract to Messrs A. Cook and Son, she sailed from the Tyne, having on board 120 passengers, gathered from all parte of Kngland and Scotland, for a cruise in the "Western Fjords. Whit happened at two a.m. on that trip is given in the following acooutit brought by the steamer itself :— " Captain Ktott and a pilot were on the bridge at the time, and, it beooming apparent that the vessel had grounded badly, instructions were given to the deck offioer to immediately warn and assemble the passengers, while the crew generally turned their attention to preparing the boats in order to take the tourists off in the event of the situation being regarded as dangerons. •_. Very few minutes sufficed to ascertain the bearing of the steamer. She was on a ledge of submerged rook, and every moment's delay was calculated to inorease the danger of her position. A general instruction was therefore given by the captain for all on board to make ready with all poesible speed for thd boats, which had by this time been swung over and lowered. The passengers manifested the utmost reliance on the coolness and judgment of the officers of the Miowera, and no panic occurred. The weather was oalm, and within half an hour every passenger had been ianded on the island. Later the passengers and crew, to their great relief, descried a Norwegian steamer approaching, and to this vessel all were transferred and taken to Bergen." Meaara Cook and Son looked after the welfare of their patrons. The steamer was got off by the Salvage Association, repaired, and steamed round to Plymouth, where she embarked passengers for Capetown and Sydney. A run of 19 days 12 hours took -her from Plymouth, to the Cape, and the passage thence to Sydney occupied 20 days 13 hours 15 minute?. The actual steaming time from Plymouth to Sydney waa 39 days 16 hours 28 minutes. Immediately the steamer was signalled on Saturday a- number of Captain Stoti's friends went off to meet him, and gave him a hearty welcome back after his misfortunes and severely anxious experiences. The steamer cams up from the Heads and went straight to Mort's Dock to be put in order to take up the running to Vancouver next Thursday. It happened that on Saturday the Wariimoo was lying at Mort's Dock, and the sister ships were on view there in the afternoon lying side by side. Many improvements have been made in the Miowera during her absence. Not the leabt ie the insulation of pait of her holds for the conveyance of butter, frozen meat, &o. Her cabina and saloons and passenger accommodation generally are in very £ne order, and her engineers state that her machinery never ceased after leaviDg Plymouth until stopped at the Cape, nor between the Cape and Sydney.