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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7660, 19 June 1896, Page 2

The steamer Drummond Castle was one O£ the five "Castle" line of steamers, established in 1872 by Sir Donald Currie, which has made itself a name, not only for safety, but for speed and comfort. The line maintains a weekly mail service between London and South Africa. The Drummond Castle was a steamer of 3.GG3 tons, and has been running in the Cape trade for some years. She was provided with watertight bulkheads and other appliances for minimising risk in case of accident, but the suddenness with which the disaster occurred uo doubt prevented theae being brought into service, and so extensive were the damages to the hull that the fine steamer foundered in the short space of three minutes, carrying with her many precious lives. A glance at the map makes it very plain that the Drummond Castle must have been a long way out of her course, Molene being one of a number of islets between the mainland and the larger island of Ushant, from which the steamer should have had a good offing. It is not stated in the cables whether the Drummond Castle was homeward or outward bound, but judging from the locality of the disaeter we should say that she was bound up the Channel, and if this was so no doubt those on board would have been counting the hours when they would be once more upon the shores of the Homeland. All the crew apparently having perished, it is unlikely there will ever be any explanation as to how the vessel got out of her course and went crashing on to the rocks.