COLLISION AT SEA.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4263, 24 January 1901, Page 2

COLLISION AT SEA.

THE RESULT OF SAILING WITHOUT LIGHTS. Shortly after clearing the Lyttelton Heads on her run to Wellington _ on Tuesday night, the Rotomahana ran into the schooner Kestrel and completely wrecked the little vessel above her deckline The collision took place off Point Gibson, 'thirty-three miles north by (Hast half-east of Lyttelton Heads. The night was calm but very dark- The Kestrel was carrying no lights, and the Rotomahana was right on top of the ketch before she was seen. Both vessels were travelling in the same direction, and the steamer struck the little schooner on her starboard quarter, dismasting her, making a complete wreck of her rigging, and breaking a few planks off her stern. The schooner’s rigging also got entangled iu the steamer’s anchor, and this helped to complete the wreck. The Rotomahana hardly bears a sign of the collision. A boat was immediately lowered from the steamer to see if the crew of the Kestrel required assistance, and finding that they were all right and that the vessel was intact below her deck, preparations were commenced to tew her hack to Lyttelton, so that within three-quarters* of an hour of the accident the Rotomahana had headed ■ for Lyttelton with the Kestrel in her wake. Within ten miles of Lyttelton Heads the Mount was met with, and that steamer completed the work of towing the Kestrel into port. The Rotomahana then continued her voyage to Wellington, reaching here at 4.15 yesterday afternoon, about four and a half hours late. The Kestrel is a schooner of 51 tons, and is owned by the Kaiapoi Produce Company. She was bound from Kaiapoi to Collingweod,. with a cargo of produce, and left Kaiapoi at six o’clock on Tuesday evening.