SLOOP SUNK

Southland Times, Issue 20010, 26 October 1926, Page 7

SLOOP SUNK

THE BERMUDA HURRICANE. TWENTY SURVIVORS. London, October 24. The Admiralty announces that twenty survivors escaped when the sloop Valerian was sunk in the hurricane off Bermuda on Friday.—A. and N.Z. TOLL OF WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. FREIGHTER ALSO LOST. A HUNDRED DROWNED. (Rec. 8.15) Hamilton (Bermuda), Oct. 24. The loss of the British sloop of war Valerian and the British freighter Eastway with a total loss of 100 lives, damage to many buildings, and unprecedented loss of harbour shipping is the toll of the hurricane which swept Bermuda on Friday morning. It is believed that 80 of the crew of the Valerian were lost. Nineteen survivors were picked up by the H.M.S. Capetown from a raft on which they had been afloat for twenty-four hours. According to one seaman the Valerian turned turtle. Captain Osher, the Commander, and one officer were saved. The ship sank at one o’clock on Friday afternoon when returning to the Bahamas whence she had sailed to carry succour to the hurricane stricken victims of a month ago. Die cruiser, Curlew, also returning to the West Indies, answered the Valerian’s call for help, but failed to locate her. During the storm the cruiser Calcutta broke from her moorings and was secured with great difficulty by the Wisteria. The schooner Luciline picked up the third officer and eleven of a castaway’s crew after a steamer had founded. They were drifting in the sea at the mercy of the storm. —A. and N.Z.