SIXTH DAY

Northern Advocate, 11 December 1929, Page 5

SIXTH DAY

STORM FIEND UNAPPEASED FORTY LOST IN WRECK. VOLUMNIA CREW SAVED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received 9 a.m.) RUGBY, December 9.

The gale is still raging with unprecedented fury at dawn of the sixth day.

Further reports of damage to shipping have been received at Lloyds. The British steamer Manchester Regiment wirelessed that it had taken on board 45 of the crew of the Glasgow steamer Volumnia, which was abandoned at noon today several hundred miles off the west coast of Ireland. One lifeboat was lost in the operations.

A French trawler picked up six survivors of the Italian steamer Chieri, which sank off Ushant. Forty of the crew were drowned.

Several vessels disabled owing to damage to the steering gear summoned assistance from tugs during the day. Vessels in distress in the English Channel have also received assistance from great ocean liners.

The British steamer Britannic was towed in by a trawler which stood by for some hours before a cable could be passed, owing to the gale.

Several fatal accidents due to wind occurred on land, and three people suffered serious injury through the collapse of a church in Glasgow during a severe thunderstorm. Whole tracts of countryside are flooded, and the Thames is becoming a series of .great lakes, in some places two miles wide. Villages which fringe the Somerset moorlands have been flooded, and 400 homeless people have taken refuge in neighbouring placs. One hundred thousand tons of shipping has been lost, stranded, or rendered in distress. The insurance losses are heavy, but are spread over many companies.

A newspaper aeroplane reached Le Bourget, despite the Channel storm, with which the pilot had four hours battle.

LLOYDS {POSTINGS.

TWO HUNDRED AT ONCE;

CAPTAIN WASHED OVERBOARD.

(British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.30. p.m.) ; RUGBY, December 11.

A serious view is taken in marine insurance market circles in London of losses suffered at sea during the great gales of the last five 'days.

Although no ship of first importance has figured as the casualty reports, it is anticipated that claims resulting from the storm will be very heavy.

Barely have so many telegrams been posted at Lloyds as was the case when 200* relating to a large number of different ships, were received. The full extent of the damage caused to shipping may not be known for over 12 months, for many of the vessels damaged have proceeded, on ■their voyages and will be repaired abroad. There is considerable anxiety regarding 10 steam trawlers of Lowestoft engaged in herring fishing ■which are stormbound in the North Sea, and a broadcast appeal to vessels in the southern North Sea was made yesterday by wireless to keep a lookout for these vessels;

It was revealed this morning that the captain of the Swedish steamer Frieda, whose dangerous plight off Deal caused anxiety yesterday, had been swept overboard by the gale and drowned. The Frieda had been run into while at anchor, and tugs were standing by when the captain was lost. The Frieda which with great difficulty 1 was boarded by lifeiboatmen was berthed at Dover this morning.,

TEMPORARY SUBSIDENCE

THAMES IN HIGH FLOOD.

SPECIAL WATCH MAINTAINED.

(British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.40 p.m.) RUGBY, December 10.

Renewal of the southerly gales caused by a very deep depression approaching from the Atlantic is, according to the weather forecast, likely to be severe on the south-west coast of Britain.

Meanwhile, although a heavy swell has been running, the interval in the gale violence has enabled many ships to mend their steering gear and continue their voyages, or to make for ports when the damage was serious.

The steamer Tynebridge, for instance, has repaired her steering gear and cancelled her call for assistance, and jis returning to Falmouth to land one dead and two injured men. Since yesterday, the Thames has risen nearly one foot at Wolseley, and the rate of flow during the last 24 hours was 9,000,000,000 gallons, as compared with the average flow of 2,000,000,000 gallons for this time of the year.

The authorities have established a special Watch on the river so that adequate warning can be given if danger arises of floods breaking

through the embankments. In London thera is no immediate fear of this happening, but the floods in the upper Thames Valley are higher than when they occurred last year, and more rain, is forecasted. At Reading, which is almost surrounded by water, the river is 26 inches above normal and at Maidenhead is four feet above normal.

/All except one of the overdue Lowestoft steam trawlers, which have been stormbound in the North Sea, have now reported or arrived in port.

SEVENTY-ONE DROWNED.

TWO WASHED OFF STAGE.

(Received 11,33 a.m.) PARIS, December 10.

Seventy-one seamen arc feared to have been drowned in the present storm in the French Channel and on the Atlantic coasts.

Two of a crowd on. the Dieppe landing stage watching the arrival of a steamer were washed off by a huge wave and disappeared.

PACfFIC HURRICANE,

FIJI FEELING EFFECTS. (Received 12.54 p,m.) SUVA, This Day. The hurricane centre is north oi Suva and is apparently travelling south-east. There is a heavy gale at Suva. The barometer stands at 29.15. Taveuni, with the barometer at 28.923, is apparently receiving the brunt of the storm. There are heavy floods in the Navua and Rewa rivers. The water is within six inches of the floor of the Nansori sugar mill and is still rising. No serious damage has yet been reported. It is hoped that the storm centre will pass to the north of Fiji.