BURNING OF THE SARAH SANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 36, 11 February 1905, Page 13

BURNING OF THE SARAH SANDS.

HEROIC CAPTAIN'S DEATH. Memories of one of those stirring stories of the sea which fill a bright page in our national annale are revived by the new* that Captain Joha Squier- Gastle, the heroic master of the Sarah JBamia, lias died at Sidcup at the age of eightj two years. In an hour engrave peril, when, hundrede of lives despnded en, his coarage, coolness, and resourcefulness, he played his part: manfully. Hβ Mas in charge of the transport Sarah Sands, bound from Portsmouth. for Calcutta, when she caught fire in Xovember IBST. while abant 400 miles from Mauritius. There were on board about 300 , rank and 81e of the 54th Regiment, Tinder Lieutenant Colonel Mo (Tat, and a. number of women and children, and the ship also carried large quantities of Government stores. On November lltli, in the early hours of th« afternoon, the cargo In the after held was found to be on fire, aud all efforts to get irt the seat of the trouble were in vain. Soon after the preparations had been, completed, the mizzen rigging caught fire, and then one of the powder barrels exploded, blowing out the port quarter. Within a few seconds the ship was abbizi? from the main rigging to the stern. The soldiers and crew were mustered forward. The ship was of iron, and the bulkhead fortnnately withstood the action of the flaaies. The captain directed the e£oru to keep this cool. For over twenty tinr hours the fire rased witUoat any variation, Uufat last the men, who bad worked witliont cessation, got the upper hand, and the flames were extinguished, leaviujj tha vessel, butted and burnt out, a mere shell adrift on the ocean. ~' As the danger of destruction by fire passed, the gaia rose, and the Sarah Sands pitched and rolled violently, and heavy; seas were shipped on the port qnurti-r, whera the explosion had occurred. U was feared that the stern would fall away altogether and the ship fonnder. Hawsers were passed under the hull, and spare sails and blankets so placed as to impede the inrush of water. After a- twelve hours battle with the elements th<» obiect was attained, at last the storm subsided, aud after the women aud children had been ~xakea on board asrain, sail was set. and Iα eight days the vessel reached Mauritius without a single life having been lost iv the series of lnisfortnues. " w * 'For their heroic conduct and energetic exerttons the captain and Lieutenant Coloeal Mjlffft, «f the 54th Regiment, were a 7*?d«l b$ the Rojai Society. tleirt at the time, a special resolution oC