OCEAN LINER WRECKED.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1686, 22 June 1904, Page 48

OCEAN LINER WRECKED.

PASSENGERS 2ND GREW SAFE.

p„ AND o. STEAMER AUSTRALIA.

STRUCK ROCKS AT POINT

NEPEAN.

MELBOURNE, June 20.

The if. and O. Company’s steamer Australia, inward hound from London, the rocks at Point Nepean about 2 o’clock this morning, and became a\ total ''•wreck. >

The Australia was in charge of Pilot Denis'at the time of the disaster. A lifeboat removed the passengers safely, and the members of the crew were also landed without loss of life. The chief officer states that the bottom of the steamer was stove in, and the witter put the fires out. 'The wires are working badly between the Heads and Melbourne.

A passenger states* that the stewards .quickly and quietly awakened the passengers and informed them of the disasters The vessel grated the reef and then bumped heavily. / The boats, were all launched and in readiness without any confusion.

The passengers were .first assembled in -the smoking-room, where the position was explained to them. « The ladies were then placed ih the’ boats, the men following next. The engine-room quickly filled with water and the electric lights were extinguished.

The night was dark with rain squalls. A strong northerly wind sprang up as the vessel, which was going at full speed, made towards the Heads. The sea, however, was smooth, i The steamer struck "the Corsair Rock. The impact was tremendous. The vessel’s hull was stove in, and the fires were put’out. 'There were forty-nine .passengers rajboard, all asleep in their cabins at the time.

Despite the shock, there was not the slightest trace of a panic. The look-out at Queenscliffe observed distress rockets, and a lifeboat and pilot steamer were immediately despatched. At daylight five tugs were standing by. The lifeboat removed the passengers, and .the pilot-boat took the crew to Queenscliffe.

HOW THE PASSENGERS ESCAPED.

LAMP CONDUCT OF THU CREW

IMELBOUERNE, June 20. The pilot steamer Victoria arrived this afternoon with the passengers and the .greater portion of the -crew of the Australia. The remainder •are standing by until all the personal effects of the passengers have been landed.

Latest reports state that the Australia lies half a mile north of the Petriana wreck, close up to Point Nepean. .She is resting on the rocks from the bow to well under amidships, in twentyfour feet of water at flood-tide. The vessel : has a -consrderaible list to starboard. Tbo bottom is badly stove in and the bolds are full of water.

{Experienced seamen aboard the ship consider there is no chance of re-float-ing the . Australia. When struck. The water rushed so rapidly into the vessel that numbers of passengers in the after part of the steamer had to wade up to their shoulders in water when escaping.

’The look-out man on the pilot steam'©r Victoria first /noticed the signals of distress and went in search. Owing to the darkness, he went outside without finding anything, but. discovered the wreck on the return journey. : jit is difficult to understand how the disaster happened, as the Australia’s position is nowhere near the entrance, of channel, which the lights at Queenscliffe and South Channel clearly indicate.

.The captain states the pilot was picked »up four -or five miles outside. ‘Captain /Cole was -standing on the bridge, alongside the pilot, when the •vessel '-struck.

She was steaming at the rate of fourteen knots and a half at the time. He immediately gave the order to close the watertight compartments. There was no excitement or panic. The pilot stated that when the disaster, happened he became delirious, and was taken heilovi-, where he recovered.

VESSEL LIKELY TO BREAK UP.

MELBOURNE, June ; 20

Captain Wymark, marine surveyor, reports that the holds of the Australia are full of water. •'Outside the spot where the vessel sebtied down the. swirl Of the tide is never vfltill, except for a few minutes at slack water. ,Nothing could be done to-day towards salving the cargo. If a south-westerly-jßtde springs up the steamer must break *P.

The loss of the vessel will fall on the Peninsular and Oriental Company, which U its own underwriters. The insurances on the which include a considerable consignment of tea, are mostly in British offices.

The Australia was one of the finest boats of the famous Peninsular and Oriental fleet. She was built for the QueeuV jubilee trade of 1897, so that she had been running for about seven years, and like* the China, which met with a mishap in the Red Sea on one of her early passages, was a great favourite with passengers. The tonnage of the Australia was 6701, and the horse-power 10,000. She left London on. May 13th for Melbourne and Sydney, via "Fremantle and Adelaide, made a good passage through the Mediterranean, arrived at Suez on May 26th, and touched at Colombo on the 6tli inst. Captain A. J. Cole was in command of the vessel. The news of this fine steamer’s wreck at the very threshold of the entrance to Port Phillip would cause intense excitement in Melbourne, where many of her passengers would have relatives and friends; and the further news of the safety of all on board would naturally be received with every sign of gladness. Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale are the two pillars of the gates, so to speak, of Port Phillip—Nepean on the right hand entering, Lonsdale on the left. Belli points are furnished with lighthouses. The famous ‘“Rip” lies between the two. Port Phillip harbour is a lai’ge sheet of water. Its length from the heads to Mel-