THE RESCUE OF A WARSHIP.

Colonist, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7048, 26 June 1891, Page 4

THE RESCUE OF A WARSHIP.

AN ARAB'S SWIMMING POWERS.

The ' Daily Chroniole* of May 14 says:— A private letter from H.M.S. Undaunted, at Jaffa, dated May. 4, and reoeived in London yesterday, brings the news of a splendid feat performed by the vessel, the command of which Lord Charles Beresford has had about sixteen months. Jaffa, the port of Jerusalem, has an evil reputation among mariners. Vessels of any burden have to lie off the roads, and the ooasting B'eamera are often obliged to carry oh their passengers to Beyrout or Port Said acoording as they are northward or southward bound. In these roads arrived arid anchored an April 23, the Frenoh cruiser Seignelay. On Sunday, April 26, it oame .on to blow hard from the , westward. The Seigneley had no steam up, and the gale increasing, first one anchor parted, then the other, and the gale drove the vessel ashore on a sandbank, about half a mile from the land. The catastrophe, as it appeared to be, took plaOß at ; nightfall, and the Seigrielay's captftia, fearing the vroigfc, lowered a boat, whioh, before it reaohed the shore, lost two oars and its radder.

Messrs Cook's chief boatman, Suleiman, who greatly distinguished himself by saving life from a Russian steamer three months before, plunged into the surf with his brothers and brought the boat. and men safely ashore. The Arab then swam off to the Seignelay with a letter offering assistance, and got back to the shore at half an hour after midnight, having been in the water.some two and a half hours. He reported that there was no hole in the ship, so that there were hopes of saving her. But in the morning she seemed so firmly embedded that the attempt was thought desperate. So the brave Suleiman swath off again through the heavy sea and brought ashore, hanging round his neck, the captain's wife.

In the course of the 27th the Austrian Lloyd steamer tried to render help, but was obliged to abandon the attempt. Then Capt. Lord Charles Beresford appeared on the scene in the Undaunted, accompanied by the gunboat Melita, Commander King-Hall. They found that the heavy sea had driven the Seignelay into shallow water; and the Melita, whioh is of 970 tons and 1200 horsepower, oonld not get nearer than 300 yards from the Frenchman, while tbe Undaunted, whioh is of 5600 tons and 8500 horse-power, could not get further in flsan 450 yards out? si<3e the Melita. In other words, the Undaunted was about half a mile from the Seignelay. However, says the letter, •' with determined work night and day, a steel-wire hawser, fifteen shackles of chain cable, and the help of God, we floated her in fifty-two hours. The French and English worked like Trojans together."