PREVIOUS GREAT DISASTERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13394, 30 May 1914, Page 3

PREVIOUS GREAT DISASTERS.

DREAB TOLL OF THE SEA

WRECKS OF THE PAST.

There have been, many instances during the past fifty years or so of appalling loss of life through wrepks, though few. of the cases on record can compare in magnitude with:, the. Titanic and ; Empires of Ireland disasters. The Austria, an emigrant steamer, was bujrnt in midAtlantic in September, 1858, and of 587 pei-sons-,^>n- board only 67 were' saved. In the same rmon,th .occurred; the wreck of the St. Paul, on, the way from Hongkong to Sydney, with 327 Chinese emigrant aboard. She was wrecked, on the island of Rossell, and- only w ohe of the emigrants escaped being massacred and devoured by the natives. .

An American emigrant vessel,, the Lima, was wrecked on the rocks off Barfleur in 'February, 1860, and about 100 ■lives were- lost. . About the same date the i ' Hungarian * a . new . British matt steamer, was lost otf the", coast of Nova : Scotia, all on board "to the number. of, 205 being drowned. ' The American steamer Lady Elgin was, in September, 1860, sunk through a collision '■ with the schooner Augusta on Lake Michigan, and ' of the 385 persons on board 28/7 were lost, including' Mir Herbert Ingram, M.P. , founder of the. Illustrated London News. ■ ...-.--.■ . : " ■

The- foundeiiflg of another emigrant ship, the Eagle Speed, took place near Calcutta in August, 1865, when 265 coolies were drowned. In October j 1870, the Cambria, an iron, screw steamer, was lost in a eborm off Inishtrahiilj N.W* Ireland, about 170 .lives being lost", Great loss of life was occasioned by the wreck of the Northfieet,' a. yesel laden with railway iron for- Tasmania (then, Van Diemen's.Larid) and carrying many navvies. She was mil into by a foreign steamer "off Dungeness : in January^ 1873, and about 6CO perisned., ANOTHER -WHITE STAR LINER .

. WRECKED. The White Star Company sustained a serious loss" hi April, *1875, when their steamer, the Atlantis, struck oh Maagher rock, west of Sambro. She was said to have fallen short of coal steaming for" Halifax. About 560 lives were lost, the captain and 442 others being saved. In December, 1874, the Japan, a Pacific mail steamer, from Yokohama, took fire off Hongkong, and many lives were lost. The Pacific, steamer^ bound from Victoria, 8.C., to .-California, 'foundered 'pff Cape Flattery ',iti November, 1875, and 150 perished. ■ ' • • . One of the many mysteries of the sea occurred in 1876. In . August ■of that \ year the Great Queensland-, with 56.9 souls on board, and a cargo of explosives, sailed for Melbourne, She is supposed to have Tjlbwn up at sed, pieces of wreckage being found neat* Finisterre. A similar fate overtook the iron ship Cairo, found for Australia in January, 1877. She- carried much gunpowder, and is said to have been wrecked off Tristan or Gough Island. At any rate she disappeared. The steamer Eten was wrecked near Valparaiso in July, 1877, and about 100 lives, were lost. The steamer Atacafna was wrecked "in November of the same year, "ear Copiapb, 104 j being drowned. . ' * OTHER STJiAMERS THAT WERE H LOST. The wreck of the Princess Alice, an iron saloon, steamer, belonging to the

London Steamship Company, occurred on September 3, 1878. She was returning from Sheerness with over 900 persons, principally women and children, when she was run into by the steamer By well Castle in the Thames, near Woolwich, and sunk with the loss of between 600 and 700 lives. .

The next big disaster was the wreck of the Canadian steamer Borussia, off Carmma, on December 1, 1879. She sprang a leak in the Atlantic and sank, 160 persons being lost and 184 saved by boats. The Union Company's steamer Tararua, which was Avrecked off Waipara Point, New Zealand, 1 on April 28, 1881, caused the loss of 130 lives. In the ensuing month was reported the capsize of the steamer Victoria on the Thames, Canada, when several, hundreds were drowned. The Daphne, a coasting steamer, heeled over during her launch on. the Clyde, on July 3,' 1883, and 124 persons were drowned.

On April 18, 1884, the list, of maritime tragedies was added to by the collision between the 'Glasgow steamer State of Florida and' the barque Ponema in mid-ocean, off the Canadian coast. Both vessels sank, and about 123 people perished. In July of the same year, the British steamer Laxham and the Spanish steamer Gi jon .were both sunk by collision in a fog off Cape Finisterre, about 130 persons perishing. About 150 lives were lost by the foundering- of the steamer Benton, off Singapore, on April 28, 1887. On March 9, 1888, the City of Corinth was sunk by collision, with the Tasmania, near Dungeness. . The Quetta, a Queensland liner, struck and sank off Cape York, Torres Strait, on February 28, 1890; when 133.' were drowned out of 282 aboard

FATE OF ATLANTIC AND OTHEJ* LINERS. The City of Paris, an Inman. Atlantic steamer, with 680 passengers, and 370 pi a crew aboard, left New York on March 19, 1890, for Queenstown. On March 25, the ♦ starboard engine broke down. Tlie inflow of water stopped the other engine, and eventually the vessel was without machinery or sailing apparatus — a helpless log. Help arrived on' March 28, and without losing a single life the vessel was towed .into Queenstown. '

Another Atlantic liner, the Egypt, leftNew, York on July 10, 1890, and was burnt at sea a, week later. AH hands" (95) were saved by the Cfustav Oscar. The wreck of the British, steamer Utopia, in March, 1891, resulted in great loss of life. She was conveying 830 Italian emigrants, with a crew of 50, frohi Naples to New, York. During a gale she was sunk by collision with H.M.S., (ironclad) Anson, at anchor in the Bay of Gibraltar. About '538 passengers and 26 of the crew were .drowned.

On January 14, 1892, the Namchow^ a British steamer, foundered off Cupchi' Point, China, and 509 lives were lost. BIG STEAMERS GO DOWN. "

The wreck of the Union Steam;- ; Ship Company's steamer Wairarapa on the Great Barrier, on October 29, 1894, will still be fresh in the- minds of New ; Zealanders. Whilst on the voyage from Sydney to Auckland she was lost, the captain and 125 others being drowned. - The Castle. Line steamer Drummond Castle, came to grief on the Pierres Vertos, Molene Island, off Ushant, about midnight on June 16,. 1896. The captain, 103 of the crew, and 147 passengers were drowned. Perfect order and much heroism was displayed during this great calamitv. In June, 1897, the T. and O. steamer, Aden was wrecked off Socotra, in the Indian Ocean. About 100 lives, were lost. The Mbhegan, one of the 'Atlantic Transport Company's steamers^,, was wrecked on the Manacles, off Cornwall, oh October ;14, 1898, when the captain and 106 others were drowned. During storms in the Atlantic, in March, 1899, no less than eight British, one American, and one German, steamers were lost, involving 255 deaths; In 1902 the Huronian, an Allan steamer, was lost at sea, and the Camorta, steamer, sank in a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal with a crew of 89, and 650 native passengers.

By the wreck of the Eliugami.te, nt the Three Kings, whilst on the voyage, from "Sydney to- Auckland, on November 9, 1902, over , 40 lives were l6sb t K 148 being saved. 'Great heroism, fortitude, and Buffering were characteristics' q£. this calamity. Some of the passengers landed on the Three Kings; and > were rescued there from by the Zealandia, others rowed in an open boat to Hotihora, where they were tended by the Maoris until picked Tip by the Clansman ; whilst a party on a raft, after being adrift for 4£ "days, wasyteventually saved by -a warship and brought into ■ Auckland. These latter suffered terrible . privations. One boat, which got safely away from the wreck, disappeared. , One of the most famous wrecks of recent years was the collision between the White Star liner Republic ' and ' the Florida, in a/dense fog off Nantucket Island on January 23, 1909. Six lives were lost. The story of the. wreck gained fame through the important part which! wireless telegraphy played in bringing other vessels to the rescue, and thus preventing a worse djsaster. • . IN SOUTHERN- WATERS. '

■ A disastrous \ wreck in Xew Zealand waters .was that of the Union .Steam Ship Company's steamer Penguin; which struck a few mile's from Cape Terawhiti, on the West Coast, near Wellington, on the. night of February 12, '1909, and sank! in about half an hour. Upwards of ! 70 persons were' drowned. The night was fairly clear until, about 10 p.m., when Pencarrow light should have been visible. The captain was in the act of turning the vessel when she struck on the starboard side, the rock tearing a big hole in the 'hull, near amidships. The survivors had a terrible experience; arid the beach was strewn for niiles with wreckage 1 . — . The disappearance of the Waratah off the coast of Africa is a maritime mystery," which has never yet been cleared up." This Blue anchor liner left Durban for London with 200 souls aboard in July, 1909. It is supposed, that she capsjzed in a gale on the 28th >oi Ithat month. Not the slightest trace- of any wreckage or other relic ,of ; the 'vessel, was ever discovered. > , . SOME RECENT DISASTERS. In 'August, 1910, the British steamer Fifeshire was wrecked 20 niiles south of Cape Guardafui. Part of the crew arid passengers were landed at Aden, but 'a boat containing 24 occupants was lost, It was on September 20, 1910, that the collision occurred between the Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic, and the Hawke, in the Solent., Both vessels were seriously damaged. - The Adelaide Steamship ' Company's steamer Yongaila, with over 160 aboard, was lost in March, 1911. Wreckage came ashore on the' Queensland ( coast,. and it is supposed that in a heavy storm she struclc a« rock ; and sank. None of her company survived. . ' The P. and O. liner Oceana. collided with the German bai'que Pisagna; off Beachy Head, and shortly afterwaids, sank Seventeen lives were lost., The Adelaidp Steamship Company's Koombana, with 39 passengers, went missing in a cyclonic storm off the West Australian coast, in March, 1912, and has not since been heard of.