BALLA BALLA STORM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1401, 29 March 1912, Page 5

BALLA BALLA STORM.

» KOOMBANA STILL MISSINO. 'UlecraDh-Press Association—OopjrlsM Perth, Marcli 28. A report from Cossack shows that tho town suffered littlo damage from tho cyclono on the north-west coast. Fences were blown down, and iron tolegrnph poles snapped off. Tho lugger Mary H. Shaw was ■wrecked at Lewis Island. Tho crew swam ashore, and lived on shell fish and a bag of flour for four days before being rescued. A large licet of luggers and steamers is proceeding to patrol tho coast and the neighbouring islands in tho hopo of getting signs of tho Adelaide Steam Ship Company's steamer, ICoombana. Ono of the most experienced navigators on the coast opines that wind and tido combined to carry tho Ivoombana oil to tho Rowley Shoals, a treacherous coral reef ono hundred and twenty miles west of Port Hedland. In that case sho would probably not last long. If tho ICoombana ran before tho wind sho should liavo been reported before this. The following Fremantle passengers are supposed to bo aboard the ICoombana :— Captain Parson, Messrs. Davis, Simpson, Forrest, C. Piper, G. Piper, Slade, Jenkins, Dalton, Hayes, Spark, Purcell, Poor, Harper, Austle, Milne, Taylor, FVeney, Evans, W. Davis, Baker, Martin, Hereford, Green, Smith, Vasey, M'Swain, MlCibbon, Viles, Goodhart, Doyle, Baker, M'ltouble. Captain Allen commands tho vessel. The ICoombana is a comparatively now steamer, having been built as recently as 190S by Messrs. A. Stephen and Sons, Glasgow, to tho order of tho Adelaide Steamship Company. She is a threc-deck vessel, 340 ft. .long, with a breadth of 48ft. and a depth of 20ft., and her gross tonnage is 36G8 tons. It will bo remembered .that another vessel belonging to tho same company, the Tongala, was reported as missing after a severe galo on tho Queensland coast in March of last year. Sho left Mackay for Townsvillo on March 23, and was never afterwards heard of. There wero on board tho Yongala 73 passengers and a crow of 68—111 souls in all. Tho Yongala was built for the Adelaide Company by Armotrong, Whihrorth and Company, of Newcastle, England, in 1903. Sho was a vessel of 36G-1- tons gross, almost exactly tho same tonnage as the ICoombana, and of about tho samo size, for instance, as tho Warrimoo or Mokoic. of the Union Company's fleet. Tho Adelaide Company has a fleet of thirty-two vessels, tweuty-threo of which aro of over 1000 tons gross register. The Echunga (458'J tons) is the largest vossel of tho fleet.