EXCITING INCIDENT AT SEA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7539, 21 January 1896, Page 2

EXCITING INCIDENT AT SEA-

S.S. MIOWERA PICKS UP A DISABLED STEAMER. Sydney, Jan. 21. A passenger describes the picking up of the disabled steamer Strath Nevis by the s.a. Miowera. The vessel had been long missing, having left Victoria (British Columbia) on October 13th, with 165 Chinese passengers and 39 of a crew, bound for Japan. When 1700 milea out she lost her propellor during a heavy gale, and drifted away for 60 days on the Great Japan current. The provisions ran out, and those on board were living on flour and tinned salmon, which comprised, the cargo. At the rate the vessel waa drifting, she would have been on the American coast in ten days. The s.s. Miowera, on meeting her, got a tow-line out, but it parted the same night. She then stood by the disabled vessel, but the tremendous sea prevented a second line being brought into use for 42 hours. Eventually a volunteer crew from the Miowera launched a boat and got hold of the line. The wind afterwards increased to hurricane force, and the hawser, being unable to stand the strain, snapped off. The sea was so terrific that it seemed as if the Miowera's engine-rooms wonld be flooded. The wind carried the vessel so near to a lee shore prior to the cable parting that the Miowera headed seaward, and the strain on her was so heavy that hor stem was brought under water at times. When the cables parted the Miowera lost sight of the Strath Nevis, and after cruising about for many hours next day she abandoned the search and proceeded on het voyage. Those on board only heard of the safety of the Strath Nevia on their arrival here.