BARQUE RAMMED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 495, 2 July 1932, Page 1

BARQUE RAMMED.

Wheat-laden Craft Sinks, With Eleven Men. CAPTAIN AMONG DROWNED. United Press Assn. —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received July 2, 11.30 a.m.) London, July 1. The four-masted barque Melbourne, laden with wheat, was sunk off Fastnet as the result of a collision with the British tanker Seminole. The Seminole, which rammed the Melbourne, brought fifteen of the Melbourne’s survivors to Queenstown. Eleven were drowned: the captain, the first and third officers, the boatswain, the chief steward and six sailors. The Seminole was practically undamaged. After the impact the crew jumped overboard. Many were asleep between the fore and mainmast and probably became entangled among the rigging or were unable to reach the deck. The Seminole launched a lifeboat and pulled towards the swimming survivors. One was sent to hospital at Queenstown with an injured leg. The others, who were clad only in shirts and trousers, are suffering from exposure. . Those drowned were all Finns. The only Englishman aboard was saved. Ile’is S. Theobald, who says that after sighting the Fastnet Light at eleven in the night he heard a siren blowing, and the members of the crew were called on deck, as a collision was imminent, but not all were able to respond in time. Immediately afterwards there was a terrific crash in the forepart of the ship, which dived nose first in four minutes. Apparently the stem was cut off. The Melbourne, of 2961 tons gross register, sailed three months ago from Port Victoria, Australia, with a cargo of wheat for Britain. The vessel, which was built at Port Glasgow in 1892, belongs to Captain Gustaf Erikson, a Finn, who is the only man in the world to-day who is able to operate a large fleet of square-rigged ships and make them pay. His fleet, which numbers thirty vessels, contains all the big sailing ships left in the world. Twentyone of his sailing ships, including such famous vessels as the Herzogin Cecilie, the Archibald Russell, the Winterhude, Lawhill and the Olivebank (which recently visited Auckland), loaded at Australian ports this year. At her last inspection, at Melbourne, in December, 1929. the Melbourne was classed 100 A 1 at Lloyds. Her master, at the end of last year, was Captain T. Schutt.