MARINE CASUALTIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 20 September 1909, Page 3

MARINE CASUALTIES.

LOSS OF A SUBMARINE. " Pbess Association. — Coexright. ■ - Sept. 20, 10.40 a.m.) ;,, . . 1- 1 , '= ■..-, T..,.IiONDON, Sunday. " The Admiralty has abandoned the .salvage of the submarine Cll, which was aunk in a collision off Yarmouth on July 15th. - THE MISSING STEAMER iWARA- . _ '-■,■ TAB.. ■-'.•• ANXIETY AT CAPETOWN. FEARFUL WEATHER OFF THE *, ' " . ' COAST. ' SHIPS THAT WEATHERED THE STOBM. Cape papers to hand 'by the steamer Ayrshire recently tell of the anxiety felt all along the South African .coast for- the safety- of the overdue iiund linei WarajSah, The disa-peaxanceof the steamer was, of course", .the general topic of . conversation ■Bs ' (Capetown, "^hen the Ayrshire •"' well-informed /opurion-'.Tiirivfld-s^eni. to in-line to the view" that^'-had: 1 the suddenly foundered,; r the* mass;, of wrckage whifcb/musV have beenrreleasad from thY 'decks 1 , ihd .elsew'fiere would have been sighted before long, the assumption, threforej being that ths probably completely disabled vessel, cinripl by strong currpnts . >n 1 by the tempestuous -weather far out of the course of passing ste'imers, ", has . not yet (been 'sighted by the vessels, engaged" in the search. Certainly in the absence of any' 'ij-sjver/ of floating •wreckage, it With anly re:ison-ilili ; to suimise that 'v ship may still be ailloat. ■ '■•'■ •• The most a'ceapVib!* theory is that she has niet with n't *.-:deni to her main steam pip^-'O'jbab'y an rsplpsion, -which hij cr* I *'*! c -ieal of damage and placod '\>v engines out of ••-tiou. If taia h.id ->c < ;'i"ol, :h-« pro bable conrse of th> commander of the vessel -would have been to rig 'whafc'sail; he.<eould aa-1 st.xu-l oDf '.lie coast until the damage enuM paireaV' Possibly, in view o£ t*n» heavy' weather, he would stand-oyt to sea as best he could to avoid any danger of getting on the rocks. This wouldl account for the vessenot being .sighted, ' for she would be out. of the beaten track. Also, if she drifted with, the current, she would be ['carried, out of the" track in a southerly, direction. ' That a modern vessel 'of ,10,00 C tons, flted with all the latest life-say .ing apparatus, water-tight compart ments, and double' bottoms, should iome to grief well off the coast, anr leave absolutely' no' trace of herself ipems ' incomprehensible. : All outward-go=ing -yssels were unanimous regarding tho heavy nature of the weather off the,. South African coast at the time the Wara >.ali sa.iled. The storms seem to have sprung :.up; on Tuesday,' July '27. Th. Waratah, leaving' Durban on the Mo n ■lay'; 'night, ; July 26, would have encountered the full force of the gale. .. Despatches received from . Yolso--'iama contain particulars of the burning at sea. of .the Japanese s'eamei Cfihookar Maru on June 14, when over L4O lives were lost. The victims were made iip of .the entire crew of 16 jiands, together with 132 fisher folk— >>oth men and women. The disaster jocurred near Apmori, anol ; wha v made he tragedy more pitiful wa3 the fact iat-thg' vessel wag/so close toshoTe ;hat there neel have been no fatalities jjnt for the fact that fog obscured the burning vessel. The majority of those aboard the vessel were fishornen returning to their homes in Japan •se villages, and the first inMnsation >f; danger received by the passcngora ras. when flames burst from the bun--ers and drove them for temporary afety to: .the rigging.' From there nany dropped into the Bea exhausted * overcome by the smoke, while o'.liits jumped overboard to meet a more leiciful, death,-, and others were literliy Toasted to' death. . There were loats aboard- the steamer, but.no lifeiuoys, and the former were rendered iseless, being -carried away through ilnmainsss in lowering them and the >v.ereagetness,3 U -of the panic-Btrickeu passengers to-^secure places therein. Che fog eventually c lifted, and the ■-eamship Benton Maru rescued with lifficulty twenty-seven persons, all of ;hem suffering more or less from serere burns and other injuries.