THE "PRIDE OF THE YARRA" TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14355, 27 October 1908, Page 10

THE "PRIDE OF THE YARRA" TRAGEDY

,AN EPISODE IN THK EARLY HISTORY OF OTAGO. Anent the many alupping disasters which have occurred of late in and adjacent to New Zealand waters, it will be ink-vesting—not only to those persons now living who may remember the sad event, but to the young of this generation—to '■e-record the dire calamity which, in 1863, befel the Rev. Mr Campbell (principal of the' Dimcdin High School) and all his family, when, after a long voyage from England, they were just about to set foot on the shove of their new home.

It was on July 4, 1863, between 5 and 6 o'clock in the evening, that the steamer. Pride of the Yarra, a small iron, 6crcw boat, took on board at Port Chalmers from 10 to 50 passengers for Dunedin— there was no railway then,—some joining her at the jetty, others alongside the s.s. William Miakin (which had jU6t arrived from Invercargill), and one family, consisting of nine souls, from on board the ship Matoaka, which had] only the previous day arrived from London. At the hour of starting it was dark, and, the evening being peculiarly dull, there was a difficulty in exactly estimating the number on board, or in recognising the persons of whom Hie living freight was composed ; but snch was the number generally believed to have started. The majority were on deck, but the ladies— including Airs Campbell, wife of the Rev. Mr Campbell (principal of the High School, Dunedin), who was one of the Matoaka's passengers—sought what proved to be the fatal shelter of the cabin, along with her husband and five young and interesting children, attended by two maidservants (Fanny Finch and Mary Roberts). In the same place was seated a Mrs Henderson, an engaging young person, who had arrived in the colony by the Chili on the occasion of her last passage, and who had only been lately married. Its other occupants were several gentlemen, nil of whom were saved with the exception of one, who came to be recognised as a Mr Sumervillc, a station-holder of Wangamii. The night being an unpleasant one, some of the passengers of the William' Miskin and others — five altogether— squatted themselves in the. partiallyoccupied hold, the hatches being left oft. In the cabin there was a light, and the party in the hold had also teen furnished with a candle; those in the forecabin (if any) were in darkness. Thus freighted, the Pride steamed, going at her usual speed, and she had the reputation of being the fastest boat in the port. Captain Spence was personally in charge, and at the wheel was an experienced audi steady steersman ; and it so happened that one of the Port Otago pilots was a passenger, though, of course, not interfering with the guidance of the vessel's course. As she steamed on parallel to Sawyers' Bay the lights of the Favourite (steamer) were recognised, as' that vessel was on her way down to Port Chalmers from town, and as the two vessels approached the Favourite seemed to be steering right down upon the Pride, and occasionally keeping so much of a starboard course that her port lights were concealed. v This course being apparently preserved, the Pride's helm was ported, and die was kept, well over to the starboard side of the channel, which at that particular place was defined by a bluff rocky headland ; but there appeared still more necessity for porting the helm, and " Port!" "Hard a-port!" were alleged to have been the orders. A collision being now almost imminent, there was a cry of " For God's sake reverse .the engines!" and, simultaneously with this, they were reversed— but all too late. Both vessels going still at a considerable rate of speed, the Favourite ran stem on to the Pride, catching her at a point about a third of her length from the bow,'or nearly on a line with her mast, .listing her over to port, and cutting right through her port side' This was the collision,, as said to have been seen from the deck of the Pride of the Yarra.

lho lavontc. which was a paddle-boat principally employed in towing, was, as has bewi dcEcrib'ed, on liar %-aj- i'rom Ihinedin Bay, where, late in the evening, she .had towed up a barque. She was in charge, of Car tain Adams, and steered by C. Murray, both of Whom were on the bridge, where the wheel was stationed, and it was a 'coincidence that on board of her also there was oiks of the pilot's staff, who was a witness of the accident. According to the description given, no lights of a steamer ahead were seen from the bridge, and it was a subject of remark among those on board that the Pride of the Yarra did not seem to have passed, when, suddenly, from amidst tit? darkness, her lights, gleamed forth— a masthead light, and' what was apparently the light of her furnace or small cabin windows. She was at the same moment recognised by the 'puffing of her hi-.di-pros.sure engine, and so dose was she that, as had already been perceived from her own decks, a collision was seen to bo. inevitable, and, before the orders to stop the engines of the Favourite had effected any material change in her 6peed, the collision was an accomplished fact. Such at least was the account given. As the water was heard to rush into the Pride of the Yarra's hold, and as the deck was felt to subside below the fickle surface, the crowd on deck advanced, with all the rapidity which love of life could inspire, to the point of attachment of the two vessels. Here also the hands of the Favourite approached, to rescue the many who were claimants for assistance, and who were struggling hard to get upon the safe side of her bulwarks. There was hurry and confusion not a little, of course,' but all t-b;< haste that could ha used was needed, for down and down still was the motion of the vessel and, with Mis exception of the first few who caught the Favourite's bulwarks, all were partially immersed, and becoming more deeply immersed as the Pride was •sucked head foremost into the dark yawning gulf. And, naturally, as the crowd pressed forward to the onlv place of hope, their aggregate weight depressed the boat stilt more at the wry point of danger, aggravating the critical character of their position, until at last all were llound'.-rino-in the water, and were only saved Incatching hold of each other 'as, one hV one, like a chain of living links, th-jy were drawn over the side of'the Favourite". While, this was going on the Pride had gradually turned, so as almost to hi abreast of the forepart cf tlv Favourite, and sonic of those who woiv nearer the stem wore able to save theni-ielves, a> the majority had done in the scramble at the hows. Of those in the hold, one young man from Port Chalmers, who had all his effects and some amount of money with him, was one of the first out, and yet he was up to the neck in water, and was only, like many more, provident hill v saved. The worst situated, and, as it proved, (ho worst fated, were those in the cabin. Captain Wilson, of the William Miskin, and Mr Thomas Kingston, who were here seated, just succeeded in making their escape as the water was running in breast-high. A lame gentleman, captain of the cutter .Alpha, who war, near the door, was also pulled out by Captain Spence. But the family of Mr Campbell, happy in the knowledge: of their arrival at their new home, and so unhappy in their fate at the very threshold—(hey must have been pressed down and suffocated by the rush of cold, chilling, choking water, under circumstances of a-eotiy from the contemplation of which the mind must withdraw overcome with utter horror. Cribbed, cabined, and confined, they had not even the drowning man's hop?. So thorough woe. the surprise, and s-) sudden the scaling of their fate, that itis said no cry or scrca.-.i of despair wan heard to rise from the lips of the fated family. .Another moment, and tha l'rids of the Yarra, and all within her, dead or dyinc, went- down, only a few dark objects—come said swags, some thought men—being seen floating over the scene of the disaster. One man at least was said to have got" separated from the general rush, and to .have floated off, crying weirdly for "Help! oh help!'' mid courage was given him" by those on board with tonuses of help, Lines were thrown

to him and over him, hut there was no capacity lo seize.. them; he gave one more, but a weaker cry, and when the Favourite was so shifted as to approach the' position from which the sound had come, the 'people peered down upon the blank face of the black water, but nothing could he seen. . After half-an-hour's delay all who were rescued were taken to Port Chalmers, and towards midnight they were reshipped to Dunedin by the Golden Age. Most fortunate if was that the two boats ' clung together even for the short time they did, though it was not more than three or four ininutfs. Had they driven apart after the first concussion, who can say how few there might have been left to* tell tbe tale? Next day (Sunday), 11 bodies of the unfortunate sufferers by the accident were recovered by flic aid of a professional diver named Watson, whose services were as expeditiously as possible obtained by the Harbour "Department and tbe police. He was assinted by another diver named Wheeler, from the Heads. Mrs, Camphell's was the first hedy to be .aieed to the surface—the features placid and little changed, the hands as if cfossed upon the bosom. Then rose the body of a handsome young women (Mrs Henderson), even yet move life-like. Next came the broader figure of an aged and bearded man, and, as it rose, the attention of the spectators was momentarily directed to a young man who, with the words "My father!" fainted away, and fell upon the steamer's bridge, Tho body of Fanny Finch, who w;:s in the service of Mr Campbell, and who was one of a large family who were passengers by the same vessel (the ship Matoaka), 'came next; and she wk followed by the dead forms of two of her youthful charges— an infant and a little boy,—both so fair, so young, and absolutely go life-like that it war, difficult to believe they were not in full life, as they appeared to be. _ Poor Mr Campbell, whose family, with himself, had thus perished in one fell swoop, seemed by his attitude to have most realised what had come upon them, stretching out his arms as if alarmed and stunned by an impending danger. The old maidservant of the family (Mary Roberts),'a second boy, andt another child completed the sad catalogue. It was _ a glimpse of the light of life amid _ its shadows to see the. rough-and-ready diver retire to a secluded corner and weep bitter tears over the young and the fair whose <lead images he had rescued with apparently unshaken nerve from their first terrible grave. The body of a twelfth sufferer by the collision was recovered by drags of the harbour boats at no great distance from the wreck. It proved to bo that of a carpenter named Hammond, and was probably the man whose cries for help were heard from the deck of the Favourite on the night of tho calamity. ' THE INQUEST. The inquiry into the causes of the accident was opened in the long-room of the Provincial Hotel, Dunedin, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, July 7, the bodies having previously been brought up to Dunedin from Port. Chalmers by the steamer Golden Age. Dr Thomas M. Hocken (coroner) conducted the inquiry, with the following jurors:—Messrs John Cargill (foreman), R, 13. Martin, Tickle, A. M'Landress, John Bourko, John Switzer, James Smith, F. J. Moss, Oliver, A. •L. Thomson, Alexander Cummins, Driver, and 0. H. Gillies. The inquiry was continued on Wednesday, and then adjourned till Friday, so as to allow an opportunity of attending the public funeral on Thursday. It was continued on the Saturday and Monday following, when "The jury found that the deaths of Thomas Hewett Campbell, Julia M. Campbell, Kdwardi Hewett Campbell, Duncan Ernest Campbell, Muriel Campbell, Lilian Campbell, a male infant (Alfied Campbell), Mary Roberts,' Fanny Finch, Elizabeth H. xVnderson, Charles Sommerville, and William Hammond were caused by drowning while on board the steamer Pride of the Yarra on her passage from Port Chalmers to Dunedin on Saturday July 4, 1863, owing to a collision between that vessel and the steamer Favourite, off Blanket Hay headland, which collision was caused by the culpable negligence of Caplain William Adams and of Charles Murray, the captain and mate of the Favourite. "While exempting Captain Spence, of the Pridu of the Yarra, from culpable negligence, the jury cannot help considering that he did not show tliat good judgment which every shipmaster is supposed to possess in steaming his vessel at the rate of seven knots an hour on so dark a night, and where the position of an advancing steamer was so uncertain as to cause, apprehension of danger. Also, ,that the class of vessel to which the Pride of the Yarra' belongs is unsuitcd to tho present traffic of this harbour, and not fit to encounter with safety, while loaded with passengers, the strong gales that occasionally occur. "The jury would earnestly suggest that a Government inquiry be instituted as to the degree-of responsibility of the Marino Board of New Zealand, or of its officers, ii: allowing the lax and insufficient state of the steamboat traffic to remain unconlong as it has been, and wi:ich has climaxed in this most heartrending and disastrous result.' 1 ' ' This was, of course, a verdict of manslaughter against the caplain and mate of tiic Favourite, who were subsequently committed for trial. The case was beard ui the Supreme Court, Dunedin, on September 24 following, before a special jury. At the clcse of the case for the prosecution, .without hearing evidence for the defence, the jury found a verdict of " Not guilty." THE FUNERAL. The funeral took place on Thursday, i July 9. A proclamation by his Honor the' I Superintendent of Otago' of a public funeral was received: with general satisfaction, and it was responded to with an impressive unanimity. Every place of business was closed,' and the grief displayed on the painfully memorable occasion could scarcely have been profouuder. No band even played the solemn strainrof the "Dead March." "The one prevailing dominant characteristic of the whole procedure;' remarked the Otago Daily Times, " was solemn decorum of arrangement and deep earnestness of sorrow. Perhaps tho bitterest pang of (he many friend.; of Iho dead now buried in the cemetery at Dunedin will be the thought that they were not present at the end. To such wo have offered the just consolalion that the actual circumstances suggest. No human remains could have been treated with more kindness—with more reverential regard. And, as the solemn procession moved slowly lo its goal, a whole city turned nut to mourn."