TERRIBLE MARINE DISASTER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 995, 27 March 1891, Page 32

TERRIBLE MARINE DISASTER.

DISASTROUS ACCIDENT NEAR GIBRALTAR. A STEAMER COLLIDES WITH A WARSHIP. OVER FIVE HUNDRED LIVES LOST. LATEST PARTICULARS. (per press association.) London, March 18. The Anchor Line steamer Utopia, 2715 tons, bound from Genoa to New York with 850 passengers on board, chiefly Italian emigrants, collided with the British ironclads, Anson. and Rodney, anchored off Gibraltar. The Anson’s ram tore a hole in her 30 feet wide, and the Utopia sank in ten minutes. Five hundred and seventy lives weie lost. The boats of the Channel Squadron rescued many. In the confusion, a launch belonging to the Immortality was smashed, and several Englishmen were drowned. The electric lights of the warships enabled scores to bo rescued during the night, and a Swedish corvette also saved - many. London, March 19. Further particulars received from Gibraltar state that a strong current was running at the spot where the warships were lying, and swept the ill-fated Utopia ; right across the Anson’s bows.

A fierce gale was also raging at the time, and the gallant efforts made by the British sailors to save the lives of those who were struggling in the water are said to have been such as have rarely been witnessed before. Gibraltar, March 23. The verdict on the bodies recovered from the wreck of the Utopia was “Accidental death.”