THE COLUMBIA DISASTER

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10239, 31 August 1909, Page 4

THE COLUMBIA DISASTER

SIXTY PEOPLE DROWNED. 1 [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.] (Per Press Association.) Received August 31, at 8.5 a.m. ™ Monte Video, August 30. It is estimated by the officials that 60 of - the passengers of the Columbia < were drowned. [The Argentine steamer Columbia, with excursionists from Buenos Ayres, oil their way to ■ attend the national fetes in Uruguay, while entering the Monte Video outer harbar' at six in the morning collided with the North German Lloj'd steamer Schleisen. Tile former sank; and 60 people, chiefly excursionists, mostly women and children, were drowned, and 70 including the captain and the bulk of the crew, who numbered 48) were saved. The Columbia was cut in two, so that the' forepart sank almost immediately, and the aft portion in a few minutes, with the tops above water. The majority of the passengers were asleep. 'The panic was terrible. Small steamers hastened to the scene, but the heavy sea and torrents of rain impeded the rescue. Many of those rescued, the majority of whom were clinging'to the masts, were more or less seriously injured. Only three women were saved'from the Columbia. Seven of those rescued died after they had been taken to land. Bluejackets from the British cruiser Amethyst showed great gallantry in saving, by means of a ship's boat, many of those struggling in the water.]