THE QUETTA DISASTER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5709, 4 March 1890, Page 2

THE QUETTA DISASTER.

137 SAVED AND 145 DROWNED. EXTRAORDINARY RESCUE OF A YOUNG LADY. PILOT KEATING SAFE : HIS STORY. (ByEectric Telegraph.— Copyright.-— l\sr Press Assent ion,~Llecßived Miroh4 1.10, urn.) Brisbane, March 3. The revised list of passengers and others on board thp ill-fated steamer Quetta shows that 137 persons were saved, while 145 were drowned. The cargo was insured for L50,()00, and 1 the steamer for L 42,000, principally in English and Australian offices. Miss Lacey was rescued in a most miraculous manner. She clung to a raft until mid-day on Saturday, when, she left it and tried to swim ashore. The current carried her away, and then she kept floating without support for 24 hours, having been in the water 36 hours before being rescued. The reported drowning of Pilot Keating proves to be incorrect. He was among those rescued, and states that only a slight shock was felt when the steamer struck, and in about a minute and a half the after engines stopped. The water waa Up to the bridge, the stern of the ship standing high up out of the water, the propeller and longer part of the keel being visible. The Quetta, he says, appeared to hang in that position for half a minute, when she listed to port and sucked him (Pilot Keating} down with her. On reaching the surface again the. | Pilot and Captain Reuter, a passenger, found an overturned boat, which they paddled with their hands to the shore, a mile and a half off. On the way they picked up four Lascars and towed them , astern.