FOUNDERING OF THE FLOATING LIGHT.

Evening Post, Issue 18, 28 February 1865, Page 3

FOUNDERING OF THE FLOATING LIGHT.

A fearful loss, there is every reason to believe, has occurred in the St. George's Channel by the foundering of the ship Floating Light, bound from Bombay tor Liverpool, with a cargo valued at upwards of £200,000. The Floating Light was a large Quebec-built ship, of 1400 tons, and belonged to Messrs. Kennedy of Liverpool. She sailed

from Bombay on the 26th of August, with n crew amounting to 'between 30 and 40. Her cargo comprised S3OO bales of cotton, 'iverajrins in value about £30 a bale,*673 bales oi jute. 28 lons of coconjmt fibre (rope), am? 90 tuns of liu-eed She was chip, hut no appre lienMO' s for licr safety were e.iiirtaiued until Thursday last, when a seaman's chest was washed ashore on the Pembroke coasf, tosethnr with several bales of cotton and other wreckage. The box was found to confc»jn papeis evidently shewing that it belonged lo a seaman named Davis, as a seaman's discharge ticket bearing that name, and other papers were discovered among the contents. The fact of cotton being east up led to the conclusion that a cotton laden ship had been lost. On searching the list of homewardbound vessels from Bombay to Liverpool, and referring lo the nature of their cargoes, and the time of sailing, the owners of the Floating Light were communicated with, and it was ascertained that there was a sailor named Davis on board that ship, and that the miivks or brands on the bales of cotton washed ashore correspond with those mentioned in the ship's manifest which bad been sent to Englaml as having been shipped in the Floating Light at Bombay. The result of this wa9 that the premium immediately went up on the ship, but afterwards she was n fused altogether, from the fact that a circular carved piece of wood, which had been bolted to a ship's quarter or under her stern, about eight feet long and seven inches broad, with sunken gilded letters on il " Floating Ligh," the "t" only missing, had been picked up off the Sfttno district of coast. This at once led to the belief that the ill-fnted ship had either foundered or been wrecked in the Channel during the recent heavy weatlur, the supposition being further confirmed by the Ending of more cotton, Toothing has bren heard of the crew, and the worst fears are entertained as to their fate. As may Vie imagined, the loss has created considerable excitement among the various mercantile establishments interested. Cnptnin Tmscott has left Liverpool in a steamer, to search along the whole coist, in the hope of finding something more of the ship and cargo. She was insured in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. — Times.