A TERRIBLE TALE OF TEE SEA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1150, 18 September 1883, Page 1

A TERRIBLE TALE OF TEE SEA.

The winter of 1883 will long be retnemcred for the violence of its storms and the unparalleled numbtir of great maritime disasters that took place. Hardly a week seem* to pass now-a-daj, bat wo hoar of gome appalling wreck or collision. Only list month the papers were full of ghastly details about the sinking of the .Oimbm and ,Zenmuir castle. Tq-dny the mercantile fplk can talk of nothing else but the extraordinary disaster to the .Navarre . This' vessel "wai'r screw steamer, about the size of your Unioa Company’s Penguin, and traded between Leith and Denmark. She left Copenhagen for the Scotch'; petti .on: March 2, with 82 % souls on board, the crow numbering 21, and the remainder bqing, ~ passengers, mostly through emigrants for the United States. There were also 60 head of cattle on the deck. The weather was wet and boisterous from the first, and did not become positively dangerous till March 3, when a severe gale sprang up' which'developed into a perfect hurricane. Blinding, showers of sleet and snow prevailed during’ most of;.the night. On Tuesday morning the 4th, the Navarre shipped a tremendous sea, which literally swept the decks clear, carrying away the bulwarks, cabin skylights, boats, and] compass, The water poured below both into the hold and cabins, and the _v«isel soon showed a dreadful list to port. The survivors say that the weather throughout this awful day, was terrible; that tons of icy water swamped the little steamer continually, and that on Wednesday morning the fires were put out. After this the crisis was not long delayed. Both the fore and aft compartments quickly becams flooded, and about noon the Navarra sank with all on board. A short time; before the steamer went ‘down, a German fishing, vessels hove in sight, and'soveral of the sailors of the Navarre managed to launch and man one of the remaining bodts. Witboht’in the slightest degree regarding the agonising appeals made by the passengers’ many of whom were women, they pulled Ito the smack and scrambled on board, villainously sending 1 their boat adrift. Tbo fishing ■ vessel had •none, and could not approach near, enough to, render any ns i 1 unco ; but an attempt was , made on the Navarre to man the last remain- i ing lifeboat. Into this about fifteen smeii jumped, oaring only for their own safety. The result was what might have'been anticipated. The boat got swamped and her occupants disappeared under the side of, th® l steamer. Soon after this, two other fishing ; smacks, seeing the signal of distress, bore down and endeavoured to give aid. Only one of them, the Sir Stafford Northcote, had a boat, and this the skipper and an English- r 1 mm named George Biker courageously launched. Unfortunately the painter snapped before the little cookie shell (for it was no more) could le manned, and once more tho despairing souls on the Navarre saw their surviving chance drift helplessly away. Soon after the last named catastrophe the steamer sank. Tho smacks did their utmpßib / to pick up her drowning passengers, but ; owing to the fearful sea, which ran mountains high, the Sir Stafford Northcote could only save five people, and the other smacks one. This with the ten sailors who escaped , to the German vessel, brings the number of survivors to sixteen, the livesTost being sixtyfiye. This terrible sacr flee was undoubtedly -* owing mainly to the helplessness and incom- s petence o' the captair, who T-st oil selfcontrol directly things began to look bad, and primed himself too freely with whiskey, j When all hope was lost, the passengers are r said to have sa islled themselves with' clinging j to what rigging remained, and waiting .'for the end. As the Navarre was going down, ten persons jump d overboard She sank ■... with about 25 or 80 persons aboard, all standing, as the narrator said, '* easy and strangely quiet" to the very last minute. That* saved, who witnessed these terrible moments, will never forget them, —Home correspou- , dent Exchange. Wells’ ‘ Rough on Corns.’ —Ask for j Wells’ Rough on Corns.' Quick I relief; complete permanent‘cure/ Corns, \j warts, bunions, Moses, Moss and Co, Sydney, Genond Agents.