The Loss of the British King.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXX, Issue 8435, 27 April 1906, Page 3

The Loss of the British King.

A despatch from Boston, dated March 1-ith, says :—Suffering, mental and physical, and numerous acts of heroism in saving life rarely equalled in the records of tragedies of the sea, attended the loss of the Phamix line steamer British King, which, on March 11th, in a raging Atlantic storm, layered about 150 miles south of Sable _Hl_id, and carried to death 27 members of the crew. Thirteen were rescued from the sinking vessel by the Ley land liner Bostonian, bound from Manchester to Boston, and 11 by the tank steamer Mannheim, from Rotterdam to New York. Five others, who had been drawn into the vortex where the British King sank, were picked up by the Bostonian from a frail bit of wreckage they had grasped after a desperate struggle in the whirlpool. Captain James O'Hagen, of the British King, died aboard the Bostonian from terrible injuries sustained in trying to save the ship, the rescued include James Flanne gan, second officer; J. D. Crawford, chief engineer ; Adolphus Brew, fourth engineer ; and William J. Currie, steward. Others were coal passers and sailors, mostly gians, and one stowaway from New York. Two lifeboats of the Bostonian were crushed, and the volunteer crews were thrown into high-running seas while engaged in the work of rescue, but all safely reached the steamer again They were rescued by lines thrown from their own steamer. A second boatload of rescuers was thrown into the sea, and were only rescued after an hour's work by their comrades. The British King sailed from New York for Antwerp on March 7th, with a miscellaneous cargo and 150 cattle. Previous to the appearance of the rescuing stejte's every small boat -of the King had be._P_eu-olished and there was no -way of escape.