SURROUNDED BY SHARKS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XII, Issue 2374, 2 June 1906, Page 7

SURROUNDED BY SHARKS.

STEAMER BRITISH KING GOES UNDER.

Battered literally to pieces by the seas in a raging Atlantic hurricane, the Phoenix line steamship British King, bound from New Y'ork for Antwerp, foundered on Sunday evening, March 10th, about 150 miles south of Sable Island, and 27 members of her crew were lost.

Suffering, mental and physical, and numerous acts of heroism in saving life rarely exampled in the record of tragedies of the sea attended the loss of her. Thirteen men were rescued from tho sinking vessel by the Leyland line steamer Bostonian, bound from Manchester to Boston, and 11 by the German tank steamer Mannheim, from Rotterdam for New Y T ork. Five others who bad been sucked down into the vortex into which the British King was engulfed were picked up by the Bostonian from a frail bit of wreckage which they had grasped after a desperate struggle for life in the whirlpool.. The Bostonian arrived at Boston on the afternoon of March 14th, and the details of the disaster became known.

Captain James O’Hagan, of the British King, died on board the Bostonian from tne effects of injuries received in trying to save his ship. Two lifeboats from the Bostonian were crushed to fragments, and the volunteer crews which manned them were thrown into the high running seas while engaged in the work of rescue, but all were safely landed on hoard the steamer. 'When the first lifeboat was lowered from the Bostonian, the small craft was swept against the stern of the big ship and destroyed, and several of the seamen were injured. Yet, despite the boisterous condition of the sea, the volunteers were rescued by lines thrown out from the steamer.

Another attempt to reach the sinking ship was successful and 13 men including Captain O'Hagan. were taken from the British King to the Bostonian. Then, again, a powerful billow carried the lifeboat against the side of the ship and destroyed it. and the life-savers were thrown into the sea. to lie rescued only after an hour's effort by their comrades. Volunteers from the Mannheim, after a heroic battle with the waves, had taken off 11 from the British King, but after this neither of the steamers, in consequence of the increasing gale, could make an attempt to reach the foundering freighter. Moreover, darkness fell, and it was an utter imposibility to do anything hut wait for the moonlight to guide them to the stricken ship. In the darkness the British King, which was then waterlogged and helpless, plunged down how first, and was lost. BATTLE WITH STORM. For three days her captain and crew, working against unconquerable odds, had tried to prevent, or at least to postpone, their ship's destruction. One day. in the height of the tempest, the deck-load of oil barrels of the British King and all her fittings were carried overboard. Tho barrels and wreckage, forming into a powerful ram both to stern and port, then were driven down upon her sides with crushing force by the breaking waves, opening up the vessel's plates and allowing the water to pour into her holds.

Tho extent of the leak was not understood until the following day, however, and then, although the hands were placed at the pumps, the water gained considerably. The tires had bcmi extinguished and the engines rendered useless by the rising water. At the end of the throe days, when all hands had laboured ceaselessly without rest and with little food, the Bostonian and Mannheim were sighted, and to these Captain O'Hagan displayed the signal for assistance.

Hatches were torn open, and great volumes of water flooded every part of the ship, putting out her fires. Soon the ship became absolutely helpless. The rudder had held for a time, enabling Captain O'Hagan to steady bis ship, but this, too. was swept off.

All this time the wreckage and oil barrels had been gathering about the steamer, and now the billows carried them down with tremendous energy against the sides of the ship. The hull was started badly, but not until the Saturday did the crew realise that the water had entered the ship to such an extent that it s<«omed inevitable tliat she would sink. The seamen suffered constantly from exposure. from the attacks of the waves which covered the ship, from lack of sleep, from hunger, and from bruises and injuries received by being tossed about oil the vessel's deck Bv Saturday the British Kino hid settled noticeably in the water. Realising the necessity of quick no lion. Captain O'Hagan himself wool into the hold and strove to repair tho most damaged sections / It mis while doing this that a 1 rel of oil fractured one of his 1 J 111 spite of this and internal injii/ Captain O'Hayin refused t i r.\ liis cabin. lie ordered that liis 1 bo bound up. and resumed oomtuano

and directed the efforts which were being made to plug up the hole in the ship’s side. But the captain’s efforts to repair his ship were fruitless. The water gained continually, and by Saturday night all hands were forced to take refuge on the main deck. The cattle were swept overboard giaduallv by the seas and drowned. At six o'clock on Sunday morning Captain O'Hagan sighted the Mannheim, and shortly afterwards the Bostonian.

The perils of rescuers and rescued were made worse by the fact that a school of sharks hovered round the doomed ship all Saturday and Sunday, and also whilst the work of rescue was being carried out.