A COLLISION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 5 June 1923, Page 6

A COLLISION.

WHAT OF JEWELS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN.—COPYRIGHT (Received 8 p.m., June 4.) ■ London, June 4. The steamer Graphic, from ■Liverpool, collided with. the cargo steamer Balsam in the Belfast Lough. The Graphic had a big hole in the waterline .and took a heavy list. The skipper made an instantaneous decision and steered for a sandbank, and ran the ship ashore. Two hundred passengers were summoned _ on. deck, many- women in night attire, and were hastily transferred to lifeboats as they were. There was no panic, women and children behaving admirably, until tugs and other harbour boats appeared a few minutes later. The Graphic sank but not a life was lost, though if .an accident had happened a few miles, down the lough, there must have been a heavy casualty list as the steamer would have foundered in five minutes, before there was time to launch the boats. One traveller, in the excitement of the mishap, forgot to take £50,000 worth of jewels from his cabin, though he picked up a camera and was taking snapshots on deck when a steward tapped him on the shoulder and handed him the case containing the forgotten • jewels.—A. and N.Z. Cables.