A Tragedy of the Sea.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5274, 3 June 1895, Page 2

A Tragedy of the Sea.

1 A cable message in the Australian Star states that particulars oE a mysterious occurrency at sea have been received from j Lowestof t. The details of the tragedy are lof a most ghastly description. The master of a fishing smack noticed a foreign barque off the coast, evidently in distress, and sent two men in a boat to render assist--1 ance to the vessel. The men did not ! return, and a second party was sent out to the strange barque. They, however, failed to discover any traces of the first boat which had been despatched from the shore. There appeared to be no person on tbe Btrange barque, and the men boarded her. There they were surprised to find all the boats belonging to the chip in their proper places, and for a time there appeared no explanation for the desertion of the chip. A search, however, revealed that a tragedy of a terrible oharaoter had been enacted on the vessel. The bodies of four men were found in different parts of the ship, two of the corpses being those of the men who had first been sent to render assistance to those on the barque. The mate of the Bhip was amongst the murdered men, and hie death was evidently caused by a cut which appeared on the forehead. Two foreigners, membere of hia crew of the barque, who were found dead, were each armed with knuckle-dusters. It was evident there had been a mutiny on board, and that the mutineers, after killing the men sent to their assistance and scuttling the ship, made their escape in tbe boat which put out from Loweatoffc. The barque sank shortly afterwards.