TERRIBLE DISASTERS AT SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8424, 27 November 1890, Page 6

TERRIBLE DISASTERS AT SEA.

WRECKS AND GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. By- the arrival of the China Navigation Company's steamer Chingtu at Sydney, from Hongkong, particulars are to hand of the fearful devastation wrought by the late typhoon amongst the shipping in Chinese waters. We take the following account from the Sydney Morning Herald. FOUNDERING OF A TURKISH WAR VESSEL. By the Mogul steamer Pathan word was received confirming the cable news of the loss of the Turkish nmn-o'-war Ertogrul during a typhoon, and the death of 567 members of her crew. A bandmaster and a lieutenant have arrived at Hyogo, Japan. They state that they left Yokohama or* Sunday, September 14, under steam, and that on Tuesday it came on to blow heavily from the north. They, however, managed to keep on until an explosion took place in the engine room, which rent the vessel to pieces, and she sank in five minutes. To use the survivor's own words, everyone " went crazy." Captain Ali Bey rushed on to the bridge with a lantern, and gave the order to clear away the boats. This was done, but 110 sooner wore they in the water than they were washed astern. He then shouted, " Each man for himself," and jumped himself into the water. Osmun Pasha followed his example, but a falling spar striking him on the head ho sank, and was drowned. Of the total complement of 630 officers and men, only 6 officers and 57 bluejackets managed to reach the shore. The men brought on to Kobe give a pitiable account, of the condition of the survivors. Many of them, they say, were lying on the beach with broken arms and legs, the result of being dashed upon the rooks, and were suffering much agony. Others had received great gashes, and many, it is thought, will succumb before assistance can arrive. When the warship sank she had £2800 in sterling on board, of which £2000 belonged to the crow as wages. The sea off Oshima was a gruesome spectacle. Scores of the bodies were to be seen, bnt the heavy sea did not allow of their being brought to shore. Some of the corpses are horribly mangled. The ceremony of Sogkai, or feeding the spirits of those who have died an unnatural or violent death, was held at one of the Buddhist temples in Hyogo on September 26, in memory of those who wont down in the Ertogrul, Musashi, and Yorinobu. The native journals state that when the Turks took leave of the people of Oshima one and all wept. A UK UMAX WARSUII' TO THE RESCUE. In order to render assistance to the survivors who had reachod an islandnear the scone of tho disaster, H.I.G.M.S. Wolf proceeded thither. Her report is : The Wolf reached Oshima about six o'clock, and the doctor and an officer were at once sent on shore. The survivors numbered 67, of whom only nine were severely wounded, although all were suffering from slight contusions. There were already three Japanese doctors on the spot, but they were insufficiently provide:! with instruments. The presence of the Wolf's doctor was a godsend, therefore, and he promptly dressed tho worst wounds. The men were being housed in a temple and tea-houses, and said they had been very kindly treated by tho Japanese, who had furnished them with food, clothes, and lodging. After tho men had been looked to they were sent on board, and by eleven a.m. 65 had been embarked, two of the most physically fit being left to bury the bodies as they washed ashore. With the two survivors in Kobe, the two left at Oshima, and the 65 on board the Wolf, the total number saved is 69. Some 65 bodies had already boon buried by the Japanese, each body being placod in a wooden coffin, and there were about 25 more awaiting burial. The bodies were washing ashore in great numbers, and generally in one spot near the lighthouse. Many of tho corpses are headless. Osman Pasha's uniform had been thrown up by the sea, but his body has not yet been soon, although an anxious lookout has been kept for it. Decomposition has already disfigured the countenances of the dead, but his body will be known by a special ring he wore. The Ertogrul was crowding on all steam to clear Oshima light on the evening of Tuesday, when she suddenly struck, at about half-past nine, and the boilers at once exploded, blowing the vessel literally to pieces ; the Completeness of tho destruction is borne out by the fact that nothing that can be called wreckage has come ashoro. Her magazine probably caught fire at the same time, and thus added to the utter destruction of the vessel and tho awful loss of life. LOSS OF THE MUSASIII-MARD. The report oomes of the total loss of the N.Y.K. steamer Musashi - maru, Captain Frahm. The first intimation that something had happened to the vessel was the arrival at Kobe of one of the lifeboats in tow of the Boji-maru, tho bearer of the Ertogrul's survivors. Tho unfortunate news was confirmed on September 19 by a telegram from the head otfico stating that telegraphic information had been received there of the total loss of the Musashi-maru, off Kochi, on tho night of the 16th instant, all hands (numbering 66) with the exception of one Japanese, boing drowned. The Japanese quarter-master, the sole survivor, says they met with fearful weather after leaving tho Bungo Nada, during which a large ventilator forward of the bridge was curried away, letting tuns of water get below. They did everything in their power to cover the hole up, but the seas breaking over the vessel rendered it impossible for the crew to get near it. He was on the bridge with Captain Frahm, and so fierce was tho gale and so high were the seas which swept over the vessel, and sometimes over the bridge, that they were compelled to lie down on their stomachs to avoid being carried overboard. The ship was by this time full of water from end to end. It appeared impossible they could last it out, and the end came when a huge sea took them broadside on, and the Musashi-maru turned over at right angles and foundered intan tl}'. A couple of the boats were just then carried away, and 110, with Mr. Miller, the chief engineer, and three of the sailors, reached one and got into her, and lie saw Captain Frahm holding 011 to the other. The captain was, however, washed oil and was not seen again. Those in the other boat were also washed out, but the chief engineer, who had a lifebelt 011, rose to the surface again, but he could not reach the boat and was at last drowned. The survivor: saved himself by getting hold of a couple of oars and the boat's mast, and lashing himself to them. This precaution was probably the sole means of saving him, as he states that the nest thing he remembers was finding himself at the bottom of a fishing-junk, whose crew had picked him up. The Musashi-maru sank 15 miles from land, and off Tosa. A SAILING VESSEL WRECKED. On tho same night that the Musashi-maru was lost, and presumably in the same storm, the sailing vessel Yorinobu-maru, also belonging to the N.Y.K., struck on the island of Ishima, Cape Hino, just at the head of the Kii Channel, and foundered with the loss of 26 hands, only five of the crew being saved. She was likewise from Shimonosoki with coal for Koke. Being a sailing vessel, she carried no foreign officers. One of the survivors from tho wreck, tho only cadot saved of tho 13 who were sailing as apprentices, states that they left Hyogo for Bakan on Sunday, 14th, and that on the afternoon of Tuesday, ltitli, the weather became threatening, and the glass commenced to fall. The captain thereupon, tried to beat back to Hyogo, but was unable to do so, and then tried to beat out from the land, whither Ijc was fast drifting. They tacked and tacked, but to no purpose, and matters reached a climax when they lost their rudder. The captain then "climbed to the mizzen-top-masthead, to which he lashed himself, and cried out to the others to go below. Matters remained thus until they were close to the rocks, when the captain "'called all hands on deck, and bade them take to the weather rigging. Just at this time tho cabin caught fire by the upsetting of a lamp, but the seas breaking over the vessel soon extinguished the flames. At one o'clock on Wednesday morning the vessel struck, and the captain was the first man to be drowned, he mast, which went overboard, burying him in the water. The survivor reached shore with the assistance of a hencoop, after being an hour in the water. He states that having taken off the whole of his clothing he was bitterly cold, and only kept himself warm by holding a couple of the rescued fowls to his breast. By the warmth he received from them he was able to sleep, and he made his bed on the sand.