FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22608, 22 December 1936, Page 6

FIFTY YEARS AGO

SHIPPING DISASTERS Two major shipping disasters in Australian waters within a Week caused something akin to consternation oO years ago." The following message from the New Zealand Herald's Sydney Correspondent appeared in the issue of December 22, 1886:--"The shipping disasters of the last -few days form the most prominent subject. of discussion in Sydney, 'lhe fact that within a very few months four large steamers have been lost on the coast, two of them occasioning gre at loss of life, has aroused wide attention. Ten days ago a large and nearly new ship of between two and three thousand tons steamed straight upon the rocks at Jervis Bay, about a hundred miles from Sydney, in broad daylight, although in misty weather, and apparently at full speed. Fortunately no lives were lost in this disaster to the Coraugamite. A few days later the disaster to the, Keilawarra was attended with fearful loss or life. The night was perfectly clear and the sea smooth and the wiud almost nothing when this vessel ran full into the ship Helen Nicholls at top speed. "For the present the effect is to make people chary of going to sea tor pleasure, and" it would not be at all surprising if these disasters on the Australian coast made themselves felt in » reduction in the number of New Zeal ami tourists at the approaching holiday season."