THE ATLANTIC HURRICANE

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 15

THE ATLANTIC HURRICANE

m 25 DEATHS AND 33 WRECKS. WEST OF EUROPE SUFFERS. LONDON, March 2. Twenty-five deaths are reported as the result of the gale, and 33 wrecks ; whilst the damage to churches, factories, and farms amounts to hundreds of thousauds of pounds. The Dominion liner Merton is ashore off Roche's Point, Queenstown. There are 90 passengers aboard. - Germany, France, and Holland have suffered severely during the late gales-. , March 3. The storm has damaged the telegraphs in every district of England and Wales, with the exception of a portion of the south-eastern counties. One wire connected England with Glasgow. A heavy swell prevented towing off the Merton, which remains in a critical position. The passengers remain on board. A barque showing distress signals was seen at 10 o'clock oh Sunday night to strike the Prisons Rocks, off Cornwall. She apparently sank or broke up. She is believed to be a German vessel from a portion of the word "Hamburg" on the lifebelts which were washed ashore, with pieces of cases and casks addressed to New Zealand. Undoubtedly the crew perished. A lifeboat and the coastguards^ searched the coast for hours. The steamer Pas de Calais, plying between Dover and Calais in the London- • Paris mail service, with 180 passengers aboard, drifting in the storm with a paddle disabled, narrowly escaped the Goodwin Sands. She repaired the damage when she reached Dover. , ' The ship Cambrian Prince, bound from Coquimbo to Middleborough, foundered in the North Sea. One person was saved and 19 drowned. There is an impression at Lloyd's that the vessel wrecked at the Prisons, off Cornwall, is the Luna. March 4. A lifebuoy, a piece of a boat marked Luna, and several bodies, believed to be the Luna's men, have been washed ashore at St. Just, in Cornwall (opposite Penrhyn). The bodies are stripped of clothing. By the terrible sea running the efforts of the tugs have proved unsuccessful in refloating the Merton. It is feared that her bottom is "badly pierced. Her pas- ; sengers have been landed. | The steamer Killarney lost three lifeboats in carrying a line aboard the Luna. The captain then declared that he had no tow-rope, contradicting his previous statement. The Killarney then left the Luna, which was lost a few hours afterwards with 14 hands. The vessel and \ cargo were worth £10,000. [ The Merion has been re-floated. j ' [The Luna was a composite barque of 901 . tons gross, 197 ft long, 34tt beam, and 19.7 ft depth of hold. She was built by Messrs Randolph, Elder, and Co., of Glasgow, and registered in Norway. The Luna, according to latest shipping files to hand, left Liverpool on February 17 for Dunedin, via Wellington, under charter to Messrs Gracie, Beazley, and Co.]

Forty pounds has been offered as a prize by a Vienna confectionery company for tho best translation of the English word " cako," I tho exact equivalent of which does not exist in German.