WRECKS OF COASTING VESSELS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIX, Issue 4052, 13 March 1874, Page 2

WRECKS OF COASTING VESSELS.

Messrs Houghton and Co, of Dunedin, received from Captain Leys, of the Wallabi, the following telegram :— " Br.ig Silver Lining went ashore at Kakanui this evening (March 9th). Ship and cargo totally lost." The schooner Randolph, Captain Gray, wan lost off Lyttelton Heads on Saturday. The Teasel wbb on her way from Pigeon Bay with a load of firewood, and when lying off Little Port Cooper becalmed, and having no way on her, a squall caught her, and she capsized. The men were able to cling on to her bottom, and ultimately got into the dingy ; the schooner going down into deep water. By this time » southerly gale was blowing with great fury, and the men with difficulty were able to make the pilot station, much exhausted, the captain having to bale out the boat with his sou-wester. The pilot boat at this time was at Lyttelton, having come up with the s.s. Mongol, or assistance would hare been rendered. It took the men over two hours to pull a distance of a quarter of a mile, to heavy was the gale. The handy little schooner Mary Van Every, long a regular trader out of Dunedin, has been totally wrecked on Molyneux bar. The in* - telligence was first conveyed to Captain Thorneon, the Harbor Muster, in a telegram despatched on Saturday afternoon by Mr John Barr, Deputy Harbor Master at Port Molyneux, and^ was briefly as follows : — " Mary Van Every a total wreck j crew saved." The Mary Van Every left here on tke 23rd of last month with a cargo of railway iron for the Molyneax. She reached her destination in due course, and after discharging and loading, »Hde an attempt to leave on her return on

Friday evening last. The tide was a quarter ebb, and a nasty sea was running on the bar. The steamer Lady of the Lake took the bar fair end on, but when at about the centre of it she grounded, and at the same time the schooner took the ground just inside the bar. The next sea lifting the steamer Bhe forged ahead, and the sudden jerk snapped the tow rope. 3?hua the schooner was left at the mercy of the rollerr, and her fate was not long in doubt, for a succession of seas Btruck her broadside on and cast her up on the rocky beach south of the bar. The Mary Van Every was about ten years old. She was a faithful little craft, and was once owned by Mr Findlay: latterly Captain Dawson, her master, haa owned a large interest in her. ' **