WRECD OF A PASSENGER STEAMER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8366, 23 February 1907, Page 5

WRECD OF A PASSENGER STEAMER.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. Received February 22, 8.25 a.m. LONDON, February 21. Severe gales have been experienced in England and Northern Europe, the wind having a velocity of sixty miles an hour. The Great Eastern Railway Company's steamer Berlin, from Harwich, on' the coast of England, was wrecked near Rotterdam, South Holland. She was driven ashore at 5 o'clock this morning at Voorne Island, on the coast of Holland, and quickly broke amidships. Tugs and lifeboats vainly tried to approach, but heavy seas running prevented them. A few persons were still clinging to.the wreck at noon, but the chances of rescue were hopeless. The Berlin had 120 passengers, including Mr Arthur Herbert, the King's Messenger, and 16 members of a German Opera Company from Covent Garden Theatre. The crew numbered 60. Only two have been saved. Bodies recovered number 25. Received Last Night, 9.42 o'clock. LONDON, February 22. Lord Knolly has telegraphed to the manager of the Great Eastern Railway Company as follows:—King Edward and Queen Alexander desire me to say how horrified they feel at the foundering of the Berlin, and the terrible loss of life. Mr Herbert was the bearer of important despatches to Denmark, Russia, Germany and Persia. A parcel of diamonds and a dozen mail bags were lost. The wreck is attribued to the breakdown of the engine. Captain Parkinson, of Belfast, who was a passenger, was the only man heretofore saved. He swam for an hour in stormy, icy water, amid corpses and wreckage. He declares that he saw a hundred people who were on the foredeck swept into the sea. Desperate efforts were made throughout the day to reach the wreck. A lifeboat and a tug established communications, but the hawsers parted. Those on board could hear the cries of the survivors on the Berlin's aftdeck. Those on board the Great Eastern steamer Amsterdam, which passed in the evening, heard the cries. Efforts at rescue were continued during the night. Received Last Night, 9.50 o'clock. LONDON, February 22. . The Operatic Company on board the Berlin included Fraulein Schoene, a leading soprano; Fraulein Buttel, of the Court Theatre, Berlin; and Fraulein Gobel, of the Court Theatre, Dresden. Received This Morning, 12.15 o'clock. LONDON, February 22. The Berlin carried 91 passengers, and a crew.of- 52. Tne vessel was not insured;, and was valued at £70,000. (The Berlin is one of the steamers run by the Great Eastern Railway Company between Harwich and the Continent, as an accessory to its railway service. She is .a fine steel twinscrew boat of 1,775 tons, having two decks and a port awning deck' and was built in 1894 at Earle's yards, Kingston-upon-Hull. She is over 300 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 16 feet deep. Her commander is Captain J. Precious ).-.,'