WRECK OF THE COLLIERS WELLINGTON & CYRUS.

Evening Post, Volume X, Issue 17, 9 March 1874, Page 2

WRECK OF THE COLLIERS WELLINGTON & CYRUS.

LOSS OF SEVEN LIVES. The immunity which this port has enjoyed for some years from violent tempests was rudely interrupted last Saturday by one of tbe most severe gales ever experienced here. It was of very brief duration, and the casualties directly referable to its effects were comparatively trifling, although indirectly it led to two of the saddest shipwrecks which have yet cast a gloom over this community. For several days beforehand there had been indications of strong wind approaching, and on Saturday inoruingthe rapid barometrical depression announced the close proximity of a storm. During the morning it blew strongly from the northward, freshening to a gale towards noon. Shortly after noon, the gale quickly increased to a perfect hurricane, which from 2 to 4 p.m. raged with a fury uuequalled here for many years past. The wind was not at all of even strength, but came in terrific squalls, which appeared to sweep all before them. In the streets it was almost impossible to stand, and the loss of hats was so severe, that we anticipate a serious rise in the price of that article of attire. Not only hats, but sheets of iron roofing, great planks, branches of trees, fences, and brick ' chimneys, were whirled about in the blasts, and the panes of glass in several exposed windows prudently took refuge inside the houses, although as they were smashed in doing so, they might as well have remained at their post. In the harbor and on the wharf the scene was a very remarkable one. Frequently the whole bay was hidden by the dense spray, and there was quite a heavy sea running, often breaking over the pier. Early in the

afternoon the schooner Unity, which was lying to windward of the wharf, was driven against it and had her stern planking stove in, but her crew succeeded in hauling her off sufficiently to avoid further damage. Several small boats were swamped, and a hulk driven ashore. Later on, the threemasted schooner Melanie, which was warped on the lee side of the wharf, broadside on to the gale, and had been feeling the force of the wind very severely, broke loose from her moorings and drifted stern on against the iron stern of the Glenlora, which proving the harder of the two, the schooner's stern was completely carried away. She was then eased off to bring her head to the wind, which ought to have been done before. The Ocean Mail strained very heavily, and her chain warping had to be supplemented by great hawsers, and even then she nearly dragged up the mooring palls as if extracting so many great teeth. However, although they bent, they did not break and she rode secure, as also did the Glenlora and Cissy, with like aid of hawsers across the wharf. Daring the afternson, two men were blown oif the wharf into the harbor, but fortunately were picked up at once. The hurricane attained its climax soon after 4 o'clock, and then rapidly lulled, only an ordinary gale blowing by 5, which had fallen to a calm by 6. Rain fell in small quantities dnring the day, and a thick drizzle, with a fresh breeze from the opposite quarter — S.E. — prevailed throughout the evening and night. As the s.s. Wellington was known to have left Lyttelton soon after 6 on Friday evening, and therefore necessarily must have been in the Straits during the extreme height of the storm, considerable apprehensions were felt as to her safety, especially when night closed in bringing no tidings ot her. She had all the Southern volnnteer representatives on board, on their way to the prize tiring at Napier. Her arrival at 10 p.m. happily dissipated these fears, but she had had enough to do to make her port. Captain .Carey reports the gale as one of the most severe he has ever encountered on these coasts. The full power of the engines proved insufficient to make head against the wind, or even to hold her own. The fore and main trysails close reefed and the fore staysail were set to keep her by the wind, but were blown to ribbons, and the steamer drifted helplessly to leeward, heavy seas breaking. over her. Her saloon skylight was smashed, but a tarpaulin being promptly thrown over, only a little water found its way into the saloon, and none into the sleeping bearths. The Heads were sighted at 3 p.m., but the force of the gale at lirst, and then when it moderated the extreme thickness of the weather, prevented the steamer reaching the whari until 10 p.m. The schooners Ruby and Canterbury experienced the full severity of the storm, but rode it out safely hove-to. Early yesterday morning, the melancholy news was in circulation that the well-known collier belonging to this port, the ship Wellington, 696jtons, Captain Hill, owned by Messrs Tonks and Beck, and the barque Cyrus, 317 tons, Captain Andrews, owned by Captain Williams, both of which had sailed from Wellington in ballast for New- | castle, N..S. W., last Friday night, had been wrecked, and several lives lost. The deplorable truth soon was ascertained, and a bare outline of the facts, obtained from one of the surviors of the Wellington, waa given in an Extra hastily published yesterday morning, Fuller details since have reached us, and the accurate facts appear to be as follows :—: — The ship Wellington left this port on Friday evening, and beat against N.W, winds until noon next day, when it came on to blow a gale from that quarter, reducing the ship to her lower topsails. During the afternoon the hurricane described above was experienced in all its fury. The fore and nmen topsails were blown out of the boltropes, and the maintopsail then had to be taken in, but even though under bare poles, the ship was laid almost on her beam ends. At 5 p.m. the foretopmast staysail was hoisted, and an unsuccessful attempt made to wear the ship, which then was off the White Bluff. About 7 p.m. the wind, which previously had lulled, shifted to the S.E , the ship then being about six miles from Cape Campbell, a tremendous sea running. At 830 the lower fore and main topsails were set, and soon afterwards the upper fore topsail and topgallantsail, and the -ship headed for Terawiti. At 11 pm. land ahead was reported, and directly afterwards the alarm of " Breakers ahead f ' was given by the look-out. Captain Hill at once altered the ship's courfce, supposing the land to be Terawiti. Just then a blue light was seen burning on a vessel ashore to leeward, and directly afterwards the ship struck, and in a surprisingly short time was completely dashed to pieces, and all the boats swamped but one, which the captain and nine others succeeded in getting safely round the point, and through Chaffer's Passage into this harbor, reaching the wharf yesterday morning at 6 o'clock, all being much exhausted. The mate, Hammill, the City of Newcastle hero, managed to swim ashore. All behaved with the utmost bravery and coolness. The cook of the Wellington — Wilson by name — had turned into hid bunk at the time of the catastrophe, and was never seen again. One of the seamen named Bush ton, succeeded in swimming ashore, but was found by the survivors of the Cyrus in sitting posture, and leaning against a bush — dead, having succumbed to exposure and exhaustion. The first-mate escaped by means of a life buoy. The experience of the Cyrus was almost identical with that of her sister ship in misfortune, but the attendant circumstances are even more disastrous and heartrending. She too encountered the full fury of the storm, and after the change of wind, was standing to the northward to clear Terawiti, but owing to the thick drizzling weather in the darkness of the night mistook the bearings of the land, and struck on the rocks only about ten minutes before the Wellington, and some 40 or ."30 yards distant from the spot where bins so soon afterwards wa3 wrecked. The boats were swamped immediately, and sevtral unsuccessful attempts were made to get a hue ashore, by which those on board mi^ht land. Mr Robert Smith, the second m.ite, and a seaman named George were nasbed away, and drowned in the first effort. Then came the most distressing feature of the whole dreadful scene. On board the Cyrus, as passengers, were Mrs Wrigglesworth, wife of Mr Wrigglesworth, photographer, of this city, and her two children. Mrs Wrigglesworth was standing on the deck beside Captain Andrews, each holding a hand of the younger child, while the elder sat close by. Captain Andrews intended, directly a line could be landed, to swim ashore with one 1 child, and then return for the other and its mother, but his heroic plan was suddenly frustrated by a tremendous sea breaking over them and washing him overboard, so that he only just was able to save himself by catching a rope as he went over. The mighty Wave broke the ship in two, and carried away the deck house, which, dreadful to relate, fell right on Mrs Wrigglesworth and the two children, crushiug them to death. It is needless to say how

earnestly and deeply we sympathise vrith Mr Wrigglesworth in his sudden and most terrible bereavement. A visit yesterday afternoon to the scene of these disasters brought the spectator face to face with one of the most extraordinary scenes of destruction and ruin it is possible to conceive. So rapid and complete had been the process of demolition, so thoroughly had the waves done thwir work, that it is no exaggeration to say the two vessels were torn plank from plank. Nay more, in many cases the massive beams themselves were absolutely disintegrated— literally ground into splinters, almost into powder, while the great iron bolts were twisted as if thin wire. The remains of the two vessels were strewn far and wide over the rocks, and so entirely "mixed up" that it was impossible fora spectator to tell of which the wreckage had formed part only a day before. A more fatal place for a wreck could not be conceived. In every direction the shore is studded with sharp, irregular, and jagged rocks, on which a dangerous surf is always breaking. Once on those rocks, the only wonder is that a soul escaped alive to tell the tale. At low tide to-day, the wreck of the Cyrus, consisting of a mere heap of debris, was high and dry, and in the afternoon some men managed to get on to it, and commenced to save anything which was worth taking. A report was current that some Maoris had seen two bodies underneath the mainmast, but it lacked confirmation, and up to two o'clock no trace of any of the drowned ones had been found A very large number of people, principally women, many of whom had children with them, and some even wheeling perambulators, were on the scene of the wreck to-day. More than one party were picnicking there, and boiling their kettles by fires of the wreck wood. It is impossible to conceive a more complete wreck than that of the two vesvessels. In fact, the general appearance resembles more the ruin to be expected from a violent explosion than the work of water. — „