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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4123, 8 June 1874, Page 2

The Albion from Melbourne brings intelligence of tlio occurrence of ono of the most distressing wrecks that have for years past taken place in Australian waters. The vessel was the British Admiral, and tho scone was King's Island. Tho ship, a fine one of 1800 tons, was on her voyage from London to Mclbourno, with a limited number of nominated immigrants on board, and of her passengers and crow not fewer than seventy-nine have been drowned, and only nine saved, the master and the first and Becond officers being amongst the lost. Until an inquiry has been held, we shall not learn the full particulars of tho disaster ; but the few facts reported are sorrowful enough. The wreck is attributed to the fact of the master's chronometer—-and there would appear to have been only one on board —having got out of order. It is stated that the officers lost 'their reckoning, and thus, while running at haphazard for the land, in the dark of tho night of the 23rd of May, the ship ran among the rocks on the west side of King's Island. Tho weather at that timo was very stormy all along the southern coast of Australia, and a very powerful sea must liavo been running in upon the island, for the ship seems to havo been overwhelmed ; almost at once, passongersand crew were washed away by the merciless waves. As we have said, only nine were saved, and in half an hour the ship herself was in fragments. The part of tho coast on which tho British Admiral struck, is stated to be only about two miles from where the ill-fated Notherby went on shore ; but by the merest accident that ship found her way into a small bight, between tho rocks, and her proximity to tho shore enabled all, or nearly all, of those on board to escape with their lives. But a more desolato shore cannot' woll be conceived, or one more treacherous to tho navigator. The land is low, and can scarcely be discerned at all in the dusk, not to say tho dark of night. Dangerous rocks extend from a milo to a couplo of miles seaward, with deep water botweon them, so that even if- a vessel should escape tho outermost rocks and then discover her danger, it would be impossible to beat out to sea again, or escape sudden wreck. King's Island lies in the way of ships inward bound from the long voyage, and especially of thoso _ which purposo passing through the Strait, but the only lighthouse on tho island—that at Cape Wickham—-is so placed, on tho north end of tho island, as not to be of the slightest use as a warning to vessels approaching from tho west. It is not oven of use to tho vessels engaged in the Tasmanian trade, excepting tho coasters which carry on the Circular Head trade. The south end of tho island is not lighted, and on the whole long lino of tho coast, west and east, there is no habitation, or mark of any kind for the advantage of the 'mariner. Shipwrecked seamen on that coast find literally that they havo escaped from drowning to run a very great risk of perishing by starvation. In tho present case, as in that of tho Netherby, tho survivors found their way to the lighthouse, where surplus stores aro usually kept by tho Tasmanian Government, in caso of wrecks such as that just reported ; and they there obtained a small ketch which convcyod them to Mclbourno. It is hard to beliovo that tho derangement of one chronometer should havo led to so great a disaster. Seldom docs so largo a ship, and especially one carryingpassengors, proceed to soa without a duplicate chrouomotor ; while it might have been expected that ono or more watches of a superior class would have been in possession of the officers or the The ship, however, is lost; and her name is added to a long list of vessels wrecked on King's Island. The subject of lighthouses is at present receiving attention in Victoria as woll as New Zoaland, and tho fate of tho British Admiral must necessarily press upon the attention of tho Government of .Victoria and Tasmania (as tho island belongs to tho latter), as woll as that of Now South Wales—which is almost more interested in tho matter than cither of the two Colonics named—tho necessity of lighting the Island at the most eligible point for warning vessels that have lost thoir correct reckoning, either by accident or tho incompetency of thoir navigators, of their proximity to tho land. Tho bonos of hundreds of shipwrecked mev. and woinoii strew that shoro ; and vessols have been wrecked there the fate of which was only ascertained years afterwards and by accident, whilo others are supposed to havo met the same fato though no trace of thorn has ever been discovered. King's I Island is little bettor than a trap for tho mariner bound through Bass' Strait, and

it is the duty of the Governments more immediately interested to prevent the occurrence of similar disasters in future, as far as that can be accomplished by tiro erection of a powerful light on the west coast, halfway between tho north and the south end of tho Island.