MANY WRECKS REPORTED AROUND THE COASTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18939, 9 December 1929, Page 1

MANY WRECKS REPORTED AROUND THE COASTS.

BOY S GALLANT EXPLOIT SAVES LIVES OF CREW. (Received December 9, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, December 3. The exceptionally violent gale which struck southern England on Friday night and continued yesterday was renewed with severity to-day, and the forecast indicates a continuance of the stormy weather. At its height the velocity of the wind yesterday was 108 miles an hour, which is a record for England. This figure was recorded in the Scilly Islands. Off Haitland Point, on the rugged coast of North Devon, the Cardiff steamer Radyr, of 2000 tons, with a crew of twenty-one, was lost, after ippealing for help, which, owing to the mountainous seas, could not be given. She then disappeared. Lifeboats from Appledore and Clovelly attempted to put to sea, but the vessels could not be launched. After several unsuccessful attempts Padstow lifeboats put to sea to search for survivors, but it is unlikely that any could have survived. The last heard from the vessel before she settled down was that the crew were taking to the boats. Reports of many other shipwrecks and disasters at sea during yesterday’s gale are coming to hand. The crew of the small French steamer Ortais, of Trouville, which went ashore at Penzance, probably owe their lives to the daring exploit of a young man named Laity. dgh seas and dangerous rocks prevented the lifeboat from approaching the Ortais, and the hurricane rendered hopeless attempts to save the crew by using the rocket apparatus. Laity dashed into the sea and gained the rocks, from which he was able to a rope to the Ortais. While so engaged one of the crew was washed overboard, but Laity rescued him. All the crew were saved. Temporary repairs to her rudder having been effected, the Blue Star liner Andalucia, bound from London to South America with 122 passengers was able to dispense with the assistance of the Admiralty tug which was dispatched from Plymouth in answer to her earlier messages. The crew of the barge Mystery of Harwich, which broke away from her moorings in Dover Harbour and was driven ashore, were saved by a breeches buoy. The lifeboat from Newhaven succeeded in taking off the crew of the fourmasted Norwegian barque Magln Koch, which was driven ashore near Eastborne. The crews of the Shoreham and Selsey lifeboats had a very hard time, spending the whole of Friday night and part of Saturday at sea in efforts to assist the Hungarian vessel Honved, which, however, was in the end able to proceed. All shipping was storm-bound yesterday in the Mersey River. Reports from Brest this evening stated that several vessels are in imminent danger off the coast. Signals asking for assistance were received in the late afternoon by several wireless stations on the south coast of Ireland and England from vessels which had become unmanageable in the stdrm, and several others reported themselves in temporary difficulty. Cross-Channel services were suspended owing to the storm, but were resumed to-day under great difficulties. All Imperial Airways services were stopped. Falling trees and chijnney stacks brought down by the gale accounted for the sixth death on land yesterday.