CAPTAIN SIMPSON'S STATEMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 77, 2 April 1910, Page 5

CAPTAIN SIMPSON'S STATEMENT.

FOLLOWED A WELL-KNOWN COURSE. • (Received April 2, 10.10 a.m.) PERTH, This Day. Captain Simpson, commaaider of the ill-fated steamer, stated that the Pericles was following the course he had travelled on many previous occasions. The vessel's speed at the time of the disaster, was 14 knots, and her position seven or eight miles south of Cape Leeuwin. With the second officer, he was on. the bridge, and was suddenly startled by hearing a gr?4ing noise. This lasted only a few secoc4£», and was immediately followed by the vessel swinging from side to side, and she then began to dip towards tfe© bows. He was soon convinced the vessel was doomed. When the deck became awash he and several offices s left tfee sh%>, but remained in the vwanifcy tuufefl she. sank, three hours after gfrrftrj^ The captain's apiujon, \siotk i&shared by the second officer (Sir. Legge) is tuipt the vessel struck a. sunken. üßcharted rock, Tvbicfi sft»e«fche-bqC4eHiief t£» foro part-out. SHtP Am CARGO. VALUED AT '£750,000. THE MAILS. Tke-Berales -Was fniged.M^a, .quart*' of msi .

half a million. The insurance is divided between English and Colonial offices. The mails lost include 501b of letters and sicwt of other matter from New Zealand. SUNK IN NINETEEN FATHOMS. CAPTAIN'S CARE. (Received April 2, 10.20 a.m.) PERTH, This Day. The Pericles sank in nineteen fathoms. The captain was on the bridge almost continuously from noon up to the time of striking. After the boats had been got clear, he and the officers made a thorough search of the cabins to see if anyone had been left behind. THE PASSENGERS. EXPECTED TO REACH PERTH TO-DAY. "PERTH, Ist April. The steamer with the Pericles' passengers is expected to arrive to-morrow. PROGRESS OF THE COMPANY. The Aberdeen Line has been intimately associated with the London-South African-Australian trade for many years past. Beginning with sailing-ships, many of which were counted among the fastest and most graceful clippers afloat, the company later obtained a fleet of steamers. The names of the sailers were in a number of instances transmitted to the steamers. One of the most renowned of the clipper fleet was the ship ThernioDylae, which delivered a number of tea cargoes from China in extraordinarily rapid times for a sailing-ves-sel. Her steam descendant went ashore at Green Point, near Capetown, in September, 1899, and became a total loss. She was on a voyage from Australian ports to London. Misfortunes have, in fact, been fairly frequent in the history of the Aberdeen White Star Line. Among sailers lost from the fleet were the barque Queen of Nations, which was wrecked near Wollongong, while bound from London to Sydney, in May, 1881 ; the Centurion, which, while making for Newcastle, ftom Sydney, to load coal for Honolulu, was totally wrecked on North Head, Sjdney, early in 1887; the fine ship Smyrna, bound from London for Sydney, collided with the steamer Moto in the English Channel, and was sunk on the 20th April, 1888 ; the Aristides, left CaleU Buena in May, U903, for San Francisco, and was never heard of again. Steamers which have been in trouble include the Damascus, which went ashore on the South African coast, between Durban and Capetown, in March, 1903, while en route from Australia to Loudon. She was subsequently refloated after part of the cargo had been jettisoned. The Nineveh was stranded on the New South Wales coast on the 14th May, 1895, and was got off, considerably damaged ; the Sophocles (foraerly the White Star liner lonic, which traded between London and New Zealand for a number of years) put into Fremantle on fire m December, 1904. She -was on her way to London, and the outbreak was discovered after the vessel left Albany. In 1906 the Aberdeen White Star Line was formed into a limited liability com_pany, into which the Shaw Savill and Albion Company, of London, and Messrs. Ismay Lnray and Company, pro.prietors of the Liverpool White Star .Line, bought considerably. PASSENGERS FRO-M NEW ZEALAND. The following Auckland passengers booked through Thomas Cix>k and Son by the Pericles : — Mr. and Mrs. Bedshaw, Mr. A. V. Dunseith, Mrs. E. Hicks (of Mercer), Mr. and Mrs. Withy (Paruell). Captain W. F. Gardner, late of Palmerston North, in a letter to friends in that town, stated his intention -of sailing for England by the Pericles. NAPIER. This Day. Mrs. Watson, wjfe of Mr. Watson, of the local office of the Government Life Insurance Department, is a passenger "by the Pericles. She has two children with her.