WRECK AND LOSS OF LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10832, 16 August 1898, Page 5

WRECK AND LOSS OF LIFE.

DISASTER IN BASS' STRAIT. AN AMERICAN VESSEL DRIVEN ON FLINDERS' ISLAND. ONLY TWO SURVIVORS, jßr Telegraph.— Association.—Copyright. L.vuntestox, August 15. The American barquentine C. C. Funk, bound from Puget Sound to Melbourne, timber laden, has been wrecked near Flinders Island, and 11 (including the captain, bis wife, and two children) out of 13 on board drowned. The fate of the survivors is unknown. The vessel has broken up. The disaster occurred 10 days ago, but the details are scanty. Later. Joliannsen, one of the survivors of the barquentine C. C. Funk, states that the vessel encountered a severe gale on July 28. Six feet of water was found in the hold. The steam pump was damaged and unworkable, but water was reduced by degrees, but a second gale was encountered two days later. The captain got a sight, and found lie was 20 miles out in his reckoning. He ordered a sharp look-out to be kept for land. On August. 1, at daybreak, land was descried ahead. The vessel was tearing before a tremendous gale, and before she could be hove-to she was in the breakers, striking Flinders' Island broadside, with a terrible crash. The captain got his wife and children on deck in their night garments. The woman was very brave, but the children were crying bitterly. The boats were ordered out, but were dashed to pieces as they were swung out. All bands took to the rigging, each officer carrying a child, and the captain supporting his wife. Joliannsen and Keog, the two survivors, went to the forecastle head, and ultimately jumped into the sea, where they secured a plank and were washed ashore. Suddenly the vessel canted seaward, and the masts snapped off, throwing the living freight into the angry sea. The names of those drowned were Captain Missen, his wife, and two children, chief officer Hansen, second officer Stumps, crew— Olsen, Neilson, Hecles, Jolinsen, and Donton. [The C. C. Funk was a wooden barquentine, built by H. Reed, at Coos Bay, Oregon, in 1882, and owned in San Francisco. Her dimensions were:—Length, 163 ft; breadth, 36.8 ft; depth, 13.9 ft; tonnage, 540.]