THRILLING ADVENTURES OF THE SURVIVORS. TERRIFIC EFFECT OF ONE GIGANTIC WAVE. AN AWFUL SWING FROM A DAVIT. EXEMPLARY BEHAVIOUR OF ALL ON BOARD.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 35, 9 August 1895, Page 2

THRILLING ADVENTURES OF THE SURVIVORS. TERRIFIC EFFECT OF ONE GIGANTIC WAVE. AN AWFUL SWING FROM A DAVIT. EXEMPLARY BEHAVIOUR OF ALL ON BOARD.

(Received August 9, 11 a.m.) Stdnbt, Thi3 Day. Mr. Crane Bays the captain, the first and second officers, and Captain Fawkes surveyed the scene from the bridge, over which the seas broke from time to time, and from there directed the operations with ttio boats while the men were under direction. The third oflioor worked to get the starboard boat out, in order to have the women safely off the vessel, as sbe threatened to go down any minnte It was seen that the steamer must go down before many seconds olapsed, as she was settling by the stern. A sea which appeared to tower as high as the top of the mast, st-uck the doomed vessel, and swept her from stem to stern. When it had passed Captain Shannon had disappeared from the bridgo, washed away by the sea, and with him bad gone the first and second officers and Captain Fawkes. Of the bridge itself but |a remnant was left. The furious Bea found other viotiins in those who were clustering round the efforts to launoh the Btarboard cutter. The cuttor was smashed id atoms, aiid every hope was fast beingabandoned by the few whom the fury of the waves left on the sinking vessel. One last dosperate effort was made by those of the crew who were left - all the offioera having gone. They determined upon a oolleotive attempt, and got the starboard lifeboat safely lowered. A second or two later the Catterthun rolled over and sank." The boat contained some of the Chinoso crew, and they pioked up several other Chinese seamen who wore floating on wreckage in the vioinity oE the steamer. Mr. Crane himself was drawn down by the sinking Bhip, but soon came to the snrfaco again, and then swam to the boat. Captain Fawkea states : —The ontlook was dirty, the weather being squally, and the gale howling and shrieking through the rigging with a lury whioh aooountsd for the tremendous boa running and breaking over the reef' and the steamer. Boat after boat was carried away, and the poop and the after part of the veßsel were going steadily down when a mountainous son swept the vessel from end to end and carried everything before it. The bridge on which we were standing was smaßhedup, and Captain Shannon, the two offloers, and myself were thrown into the boiling sea. All this happened in a few seconds aB it seemed to me. 1 did not learn till after what terrible effeot the sea had. It swept away the starboard outter, wbioh was at that moment on ttio point of being launched. I think this sea carried away most of the passengers and crew. The men made desperate efforts to pass tbo passengers into the boats whioh were lowered into the water, but the rush of water constantly carried the boats inboard. About this time the port lifeboat was .smashed and carried away by a sea, one or two of the crew going with it. Neither they nor the boat were seen again. The sea seemed to rage more furiously as the officers and orew made their heroic ondeavoors to launoh boats, and even had they succeeded in this it is doubtful if any of the smaller boats would have <lived. Yet it was a very noticeable feature of this terrible scene that calmness and good disoiplino prevailed amongst nearly all on board. Dr. Copeman says: — When work was transferred to the starboard cutter I went forward and got into it with some others. Several attempts were made to get the outter into the water, bnt the pitiless seas breaking over the vessel, hampered the work terribly. Ultimately a giant wave broko on board and smashed the cutter to pieoes. Those who were in it were thrown into the water, exoepting myself. I managed to cling to a spar of a davit,' and ' bung there in a desperate oondition for some time. I judged the time to be hours,-* but it could only have been a very few minutes. The breakers were rolling over the reef with a terrible roar, and the sea was a seething chasm beneath me. How I clung to the spar I do not know, but at last I heard a boat splash into the water, and hoard a hail beneath me. I then let go my hold, and dropped into the water. With good fortune I sank right in front of the lifeboat. A moment lator the Catterthun disappeared entirely. Wo made a careful searoh of the wreak before wo left, and stood by until daylight. Mr. Fraser was an engineer proceeding to Fort Darwin. Ths Lorings were English tourists. Captain Shannon was a married man with two children.^ ,^,, - r , r - 'The offidera wars 'married men with the exception of Mr. Adams, who was to have been married in six months. The engineers were single men. A looal shipmaster says he is astounded to hear that the vessel was so oloße in. ,He oannot understand what would oanse her to be so close to shore. The {Seal .Rooks are so muoh further eastward than Port Stephens that there could not bo any mistake, as to the lights. Captain Craig, an old officer in the China trade, thinks the course must have bean] altered too soon. Had the Bteamer gone on; another quarter of an hour, she would have! oS*W!d-*he BWBiljk^xr' ,- 1 . w} r p. The Teasel was a Btaunou ship. She Had; no double bottom with modern water ballast! tanks.buthada watet ballast tank, though nob' of the latest pattern. This would probably] oanse hereto sink more , rapidly thin otherwise. ,rf a juji OAa st I The Catterthun was an iron Borew steamer; of 2179 tons gross, 1987 tons under deok, and. 1406 tons net, built in 1881 by W. Doxford and Sons, of Bunderland. Her diment ■iocs were— length, 302 ft Sin ; breadth,; ]

36ft Sin : depth, 23ft 7in. U he engines were on the compound principle, with ojlindors of 40in and 70in, and & stroke of 48in. Captain Matthi*s, whose wife was amongst the passengers, visited Wellington in 1886-7 in the ship Hnmpsteadi