WRECK OF THE STEAMER TARANAKI.

Wananga, Volume 5, Issue 49, 7 December 1878, Page 613

WRECK OF THE STEAMER TARANAKI.

Tauranga, November 29. The steamer Taranaki has been totally wrecked on the Karewa. The passengers are safe on the Island. The Staffa has gone to fetch them. No cargo will be saved. ° Later. No further particulars are as yet obtainable respecting the wreck of the Taranaki. A dense fog has prevailed for the last three days. Karewa Island is five miles outside Tauranga Heads in a N.N.E. direction. The rock is very rugged, about o.">0 feet high, and there is very deep water about. It is three miles from the mainland. It is said that the Taranaki was insured altogether for £16,500. Another telegram says:—Great excitement was caused in Tauranga by the news that the Taranaki, due early in the morning, had been wrecked in a fog on Karewa, a small island, five miles outside the harbor. The news was brought by part of the crew, headed by the mate and parser, who rowed up in a skip's boat. The following is a verbatim account of the disaster :—" I am a fireman on the Taranaki. We left Auckland at 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, with about eighty passengers. The weather was very thick, and at midnight the ship came to anchor somewhere near the Hole in the Wall. About 4 a.m. the ■weather cleared, and we proceeded, but later it thickened again. I was on duty from 4 to 8, at which time I turned in. I had been asleep about an hour and a half when I heard some one shout, " Stop her," and then " Full speed astern," and almost immediately after the steamer struck. There was no great shock. The engines were turned on ahead for a minute or two. When I went on deck there seemed to be no confusion. Everyone kept quiet, the passengers behaving remarkably well. Captain Malcolm told us to lower the boats directly. In a few minutes this was done, and we then proceeded to land the passengers on the island. At 11 o'clock all the passengers were landed, and a portion of the port watch, tinder the mate, was despatched to Tauranga for assistance.'' It was calm when the Taranaki left Auckland at 4.30 p.m.; a fog set in, but it lifted. There were seventy-five passengers aboard, and many women and children, and 25 in the forecabin with the crew, making a hundred aboard. About breakfast time the -weather was calm but foggy. The ship struck heavily and bumped four times. The passengers then saw fronting them a precipice 300 feet high, the bowsprit almost touching the cliff. The engines were kept full speed ahead as long as possible, until there was no danger of slipping off into deep water. Captain Malcolm was quiet, and excellent order was kept. There was some delay before the boats were got out, but the women and children were safely landed,

though a slight temporary confusion arose through eagerness to get into the boats, but nothing to speak of, a word quieting thera. About two hours after striking, the chief officer was desoatched to The vessel begnn to settle down at the stern, and all the compartments below the decks began to fill. Provisions had by this lime been put on the island for the people, and in a short time the Lancashire Lass and Watarah came up. and the captain intended to put the women and children on board the cutters, but then the steamer Stafta was sighted coming up,' and in a short time all the passengers, with such as was saved, were put on board. The pas-enters heartily cheered the captain as they were leaving he having elected to remain by the wreck all night. The ship was three miles out of her course when she struck, and it is supposed she drifted when anchored. The fog was so thick that the land was not seen until within a few yards off, perhaps 30 or -10. The vessel lies on the port bilge, and being broken cannot possibly be got off. Some of the cargo may perhaps be saved if the weather keeps fine. The Taranaki broke her back last night, and the stern part sank in deep water. The sea made a clean sweep of the cargo. The Staffa went down from Taurangu this morning, but has not yet returned. The passengers are offered the option of coming back to Auckland, and proceeding by the West Coast, or remaining until the return of the Hawea. The steamer Staffa visited the wreck of the Taranaki to-day. Her back is broken, and the after part is sunk in deep water. The remainder is breaking up fast. All the cargo has been wnshed away, and tho sea is strewn with fragments. A heavy swell from the east renders operations difficult. At a meeting of the passengers of the Taranaki, held at the agent's office this morning, it was resolved to present Captain Malcolm with an address, and also to raise a subscription for a purse to be given to him. There was much excitement and sympathy on the arrival of the boat yesterday with the intelligence of the wreck of the Taranaki during an unusually dense fog. The Staffa arrived here at 10 o'clock last m'o-ht with the passengers. This morning Captain Malcolm came up in the Lancashire Lass, owned by the agent, which had been laying off the island all night, and reports that during the night the Taranaki broke up into pieces, and all that is now to be seen of her is her bows lying up on the rocks.