WRECK AT PORTLAND ISLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1165, 29 June 1894, Page 38

WRECK AT PORTLAND ISLAND.

j/> * F~ THE MASTER AND TWO MEN DROWNED. Auckland, June 22. Early this morning the s.s. Poherua arrived from Lyttelton, bringing the mat© and five of the crew of the Sydney barque Alexander Newton, which was wrecked on Portland Island on Monday last, the captain and two of the crew beinc drowned. Those drowned wore:—John Harwood', master; Baker, cook; and Charles Hendrik, A.B. The survivors are:—Thomas Potts, mate; Francis Edwards, second mate (badly bruised); Wm. Hodgson, Charles McDonald, Charles Suckstorff and Alex Olson, A.B.'s. The Alexander Newton was a wooden barque of 309 tons, owned by Wm. Johnson and registered at Sydney. The vessel was leaking freely before she struck. Tho men wore exhausted with work at the pump, and tho wonder is that more lives were not lost. She struck on a rocky reef about 200 yards from the beach of the island, and was reduced to matchwood in a very short time. Captain Harwood met a sad death. ll© was at the wheel when the vessel struck. A sea lifted him and clashed him against the deckhouse. Another sea caught him, and hurled him back on the companionway. He was seen to be bleeding, and the waves then washed him overboard. An inquiry into the wreck of the barque was held by the Collector of Customs to-day. Tho mate, Thos. Potts, gave evidence at length. He had been 28 years at sea. He accounts for the wreck by attributing it to the thick weather obscuring the land, and tho loss of sails. He did not attribute the mishap in any way to the captain, the officers, or the ship's company. Owing to the second mate being in the Hospital suffering from bruises, his evidence was not taken. The survivors of the crew, after the evidence of the mate had been taken, were called in, and had the evidence read over to them. They corroborated in every detail the mate's ev : dence. The Collector will forward the evidence to the Marine Department, Wellington. Sydney, June 22. The barque Alexander Newton, wrecked on Portland Islands, was insured for .£ISOO, the amount being divided between the South British and two local offices.