TERRIBLE COLLISION AT SEA.

Waka Maori, Volume 10, Issue 5, 10 March 1874, Page 63

TERRIBLE COLLISION AT SEA.

Two Hundred and Twenty-Six Lives Lost. There is an account in the late papers from England of a dreadful accident at sea—a collision between a French steamer and an English sailing ship. There is a group of islands, nine in number, called the Azores, situate about 800 miles west of Portugal, in the track of vessels sailing between Europe and America. The Erench steamer (Ville du Havre) when off these islands, bound from New York for Havre (a commercial port on the west coast of France) with mails and passengers, came into collision with the sailing ship the " Loch Earn," of Glasgow, at 2 o'clock on the morning of the 22nd of November, and was sunk in the brief period of twelve minutes, with nearly the whole of her crew and passengers, numbering 313 souls. Many of the cabin passengers were gentlemen with their wives, and families, who were leaving America to spend the winter in France. Among the survivors are children who have lost their parents, and parents who have lost their children; others, their sisters and brothers. From the time of the vessel sailing from New York a thick fog prevailed, which necessitated the most careful attention on the part of the captain and officers. On the night of Thursday, the 20th November, the fog began to clear away, and on Friday a breeze sprang up, which raised a somewhat heavy swell. Friday night was a bright starlight night, and passengers and crew, relieved to some extent from the danger which surrounded them during the fog, retired to rest with hopes of a pleasant voyage to France. The captain, who had scarcely quitted the deck since the vessel left New York, went to his cabin about 12 o'clock, leaving the second officer in charge. The passengers were all in bed, and everything seemed going on well. About 2 o'clock a.m. on Saturday, the 22nd, all were startled from their slumbers by a dreadful crash, which seemed to shake every part of the vessel. Men, women, and children rushed on deck in their night-dresses, to see the bows of a large vessel projecting over the deck of the " Yille du Havre," and to hear the rushing of the water into their own ill-fated vessel. The " Loch Earn," a large vessel belonging to Glasgow, bound from Liverpool to New York, had struck them on the starboard side, just about midships, cutting a hole in her deck twelve feet deep, and breaking in the iron plates of the steamer for twenty-five or thirty feet. There was rather a heavy sea on at the time, but very little wind. The terror which prevailed among the passengers paralyzed their efforts to save themselves. Many threw themselves on their knees in prayer; many giving themselves up to despair on hearing the water rushing into the vessel, and, feeling that she was rapidly sinking, never quitted their state rooms—fathers, mothers, and children going down together. At this moment there was no outcry, but all seemed to meet calmly the death that wassoon to overtake them. From the force of the collision the mainmast and mizenmast fell, smashing in their fall the two large boats of the steamer, and killing numbers of passengers ; and from the rapidity

■with which the vessel went down, the crew were only able to launch the whaleboat and the captain's ei* In twelve minutes from the time when the two vessels came into collision the " Ville du Havre" had gone down, carrying with her the whole of the crew and passengers, with the exception of the second lieutenant, who was in the whale-boat, which was in his command, and seven of the crew, who had scrambled into the captain's gig.

The " Loch Earn," after getting clear of the " Ville du Havre," kept on her course for a mile, and then nove-to and launched four other boats to pick up the passengers and crew, who were floating about on the sea, some on pieces of plank and on life-buoys, others on casks, or anything that would serve to keep them afloat. Those who were on deck when she sank and afterwards floated, were picked up ; but a number sank to rise no more. One lady who was saved lost her husband and four children, three young ladies lost their parents, and one young man lost father, mother, and sister. One gentleman goinowith his sister to France for the benefit of her health, found that she was among those who had gone down in the vessel. The scene on the deck of the "Loch Earn" was most distressing. Those who were saved had lost their all; the ladies and gentlemen who escaped had only time to rush on deck in their night-dresses, and all owe their safety to the circumstance of being able to reach something floating when they rose to the surface. Their sufferings during the time they were in the water were intense, the cold rendering- them almost lifeless. "When taken off the pieces of plank into the boats, but little life remained, and they must soon have fallen into the water from cold and exhaustion. On examining the bows of the " Loch Earn" it was found that she was much damaged; and when an American ship, which was afterwards discovered to be the " Tremontain," hove in sight, signals were made to her, and she hove-to. It was found she was bound for Bristol from New York, and the survivors, eighty-seven in number, were transferred to her', where every attention was paid to them bv Captain Urquhart. The "Tremontain" came to anchor on 30th November in Cardiff Roads, and sent the survivors on shore, where they were received at several of the hotels in the town. The captain of the steamer was amongst the rescued ; he was picked up by one of the boats after having been an hour in the water. Among the passengers was a United States judge, travelling to Eranee in company with his wife. As the ship was sinking, he was seen to clasp his wife's hands, and just before they became engulfed, he exclaimed, " Let us die bravely." One lady is reported to have been rescued with a bag of gold, said to have contained £2OO, round her neck. The first-class passengers included Captain Hunter, of the American navy, and his three daughters. Of the daughters two were rescued; the other and the father were

drowned. _ As they stood on the deck, the father, while taking an affectionate farewell of his daughters, expressed his belief that his.daughter May would be saved. " I know God will save you," he said; " there is something for you to do ; you must go on again." Miss May Hunter and her sister Annie were two of the twenty-seven passengers who landed at Cardiff. Tim is the fourteenth large Atlantic liner totally lost, with great sacrifice of life, since IS4O. The " Loch Earn" afferwards encountered some heavy gales, and so much damage had been done to her bows in the collision that by the 28th of the same month she was in a sinking state. She fell in with a ship called the "British Queen," and all her people were transferred to that ship, and the ' : Loch Earn" abandoned to her fate.