Tragedy of the Sea.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIL, Issue 7302, 10 June 1895, Page 4

Tragedy of the Sea.

A cable message in the Australian Star states that particulars of a mysterious occurrence at sea have been received from Lowestoft. The details of the tragedy are of a most ghastly description. The master of a fishing smack noticed a foreign barque off the cost, evidently in distress, and sent two men in a boat to render assistance to the vessel. The men did not return, and a second party was sent out to the strange barque. They, however, failed to discover any traces of the first boat which had been despatched from the shore. There appeared to be no person on the strange barque, and the men boarded her. There they were surprised to find all the boats belonging to the ship in their proper places, and for a time there appeared no explanation for the desertion of the ship. A search, however, revealed that a tragedy of a terrible character had Deen enacted on the vessel. The bodies of four men were found in different parts of the ship, two of the corpses being those of the men who had firsc been sent to render assistance to those on the barque. The mate of the ship was amongst the murdered men, and his death was evidently caused by a cut which appeared on the forehead. Two foreigners, members of the crew of the barque, who were found dead, were each armed with knuckle-dusters. In was evident there had been a mutiny on board, and that the mutineers, after killing the men sent to their assistance and scuttling the ship, made their escape in the boat which put out from Lowestoft. The barque sank shortly afterwards.