EXTRAORDINARY SHIPWRECK AND PROVIDENTIAL RESUCE OF THESURVIORS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 911, 21 January 1868, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY SHIPWRECK AND PROVIDENTIAL RESUCE OF THESURVIORS.

(Telegraphed to Wellington papers.) The American ship General Granfc, Capt. Loughlin, sailed from Melbourne on the 4th May, 1866, for London, with a cargo of wool and six boxes of gold. On the 13th she sighted the Auckland Islands, the weather being thick. It then fell calm, and the ship was found to be close to the land, with a strong current setting her towards the shore. The next day the ship struck against somo perpendicular rocks, higher than her masts, on the western side of the island. Afc every roll of the vessel large pieces of rock fell on the deck, and then the yards and masts went with a crash. The ship being firmly embedded between the high overhanging headlands, the boats had to be launched over the stern of the vessel. With the daylight the wind and sea increased fearfully, and as soon as the boats were got out and filled with the passengers and crew, they disappeared in the boiling surf, and only sixteen out of eighty-three souls succeeded in landing on the island, after being exposed to the elements for three days in open boats. On the 22nd January, 1867, the chief officer and three of the crew left the island in an open boat, hoping to reach New Zealand. Of the survivors landed on the island, nine men and the stewardess were taken off by the whaling brig Amherst, on the 21st of November last, and were landed at the Bluff on the night of Sunday, the llth inst. An official inquiry is now being held into the cause of the wreck. The names of the passengers saved are : — James Teer, Patrick Ooughey, Mary Anne Jewel (stewardess), Nicholas Allen, David Ashworth, Cornelius Drew, Wm. Ferguson, Aaron Haipnan, A. M. Sanguilly, and Joseph Jewel. It is in contemplation to send a steamer to the Auckland Islands, for the purpose of recovering the cargo of the General Grant. The Otago Times recommends a thorough examination of the islands, and the establishment of a permanent station thereon.