HEROIC RESCUE AT SEA.

North Otago Times, 20 April 1906, Page 4

HEROIC RESCUE AT SEA.

A despatch from Boston, on March nth says: .Suffering, menial' and physical, and numerous acts of heroism in saving life rarely equalled in the records of tragedies of the sea allcwlod the loss of the Phoenix line steamer British King, which on Sunday last, in a raging 'Atlantic, storm, foundered about 150 miles south of Sable Island, and carried to death 27 members of the crew. Thirteen were rescued from the sinking vessel by the Ley land liner .Bostonian, hound lrom Manchester to Boston, and eleven by the tank sleajmcr Mannheim, from Rotterdam to New York. Five others, who had been drawn into the vortex where Hie British King sank, were picked up by Hie Uosloiiiaii from a frail ' bit of wreckage they bad grasped after a desperate .struggle in the whirlpool. Captain JamesO'llagon, of.the British King, died aboard the Bostonian from injuries sustained in, trying- to save the ship. Two.lifeboats of the Bostonian were crushed, and the volunteer crews were thrown into the high-running' seas while engaged in the- work of rescue, but all safely reached the steamer again. They were rescued by lines thrown from their own steamer. A second" boat-load of rescuers" was thrown into the sea, and only rescued after an hour.'s work by'llicircomrades. The British King sailed from New. York for Antwerp oii March Tin, with a miscellaneous cargo and ,JSO cattle, Previous to the appearance; of ihc/cseiiiiig steamer, every small" 'boat "of/ the British King had been demolished, and there was no way of escape. The vessel was owned by the British Shipowners' Company, of Liverpool.