SEVERE GALES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13846, 4 September 1908, Page 5

SEVERE GALES.

MANY VESSELS WRECKED. TWENTY LIVES lost. i EXCURSIONISTS' EXPERIENCE. By Telegraph—Press Association.— Copyright. London, September ,2, . Heavy storms have. been experienced in the English Channel, and many wrecks are reported, from some of which exciting and plucky rescues ' have been made, the lifeboatmen on the various stations having a busy time. • The sailing-ship Amazon, laden with coal, was driven ashore in Swansea Bay, and became a total wreck. Twenty out of a crew of 28 were drowned. The desperate struggles of the doomed men to save themselves were watched by thousands who lined the shores of the bay, and who were unable to help. The excursion steamer Queen, ] with 160 passengers aboard, broke her steering-gear in the heavy seas in the Channel, and drifted on to a sandbank at Selsey Bill, a headland at the south-western extremity of Sussex, 15 miles from Portsmouth. She grounded on the bank, and heavy seas broke over her decks, the position being one of the greatest danger to all on board. Signals were made, and at midnight a lifeboat went to the rescue. Lifebelts were served out to the eight women and three children aboard, and they were then thrown into the arms of the lifeboatmen,,all being successfully caught. The lifeboat then took them ashore, and the male passengers and crew waited till the morning, when all were rescued.