AID BROUGHT BY WIRELESS MESSAGES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 139, 14 June 1909, Page 7

AID BROUGHT BY WIRELESS MESSAGES.

SLA YON I A FULL OF WATER. (Received June 14, 9.5 a.m.) LONDON, 13th June. The North German Lloyd steamer Princess Irene, a hundred and eighty miles distant, detected the Slavonia's signals of distress sent by wireless telegraphy. Later the Hamburg-American liner Batavia received a wireless message, and rescued the remainder of the passengers. The Slavonia is now full of water. The Slavonia is one of four large vessels of the Cunard Line engaged in the New York-Mediterranean service. She is of 10,606 tons, her dimensions being— Length 510 ft, beam 59ft Sin, depth 22i'fc Jin. She was built in 1903 by Sir J. Laing and Sons, Ltd., of Sunderland, and was commanded by Captain A. G. Dunning. For. a long series of years it was the boast of the Cunard Company that since the starting of the company in 1840 not a jpassenger's life had been lost in its Transatlantic service. The- record was broken in October, 1903, wihen the ' Etruria was struck by a heavy -sea and a passenger was killed. Two years later the Campania was unexpectedly flooded by a big wave, and fivie steerage passengers were swept overboard and thirty others injured. Considering the vast operations of the Cunard Line, the vessels lost ihave been 1 comparatively few. In the eighties the company had a run of bad luck, the [ Balbee, Sidon, Oregon, and Demerara I being lost between 1884 and 1886, and j the Nantes and Madta a. year or two I later. Other losses include the Columbia and the Carinthda, the latter being wrecked on the island of Hayti while on a voyage from New Orleans to Capetown, on 15th May, 1900. The Antonio Lopez, belonging to the Transatlantic Company of Barcelona, is a steel screw steamer of 5975 tons, built by Denny Bros, at Dumbarton for the New Zealand Shipping Company, and running to Wellington for many years undei 1 the name of the Ruahine. Her length was 430 ft, breadth 50ffc lin, and' depth 31ft 6in. She was built in 1891, and classed 100 Al at Lloyd's.