COLLIER OVERWHELMED

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 128, 3 June 1919, Page 2

COLLIER OVERWHELMED

LOST IN WILD SEA NEAR SYDNEY.

(FROM OtIR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, 21st May. A collier of 749 tons, tho Tuggerah, was overwhelmed by a wild sea. off tho coast on Saturday afternoon, .and sank immediately Six men were drowned. It is a curious thing that this is tho third accident of the kind in a few months. The Undola, a collier coming from Bulli to Sydney one afternoon, disappeared, with all hands. Tho Myola, coming from Nowcastle to Sydney with coal, sank one night in a. heavy sea, and four men wero lost. The Tugger.ah was almost in tho track' of the Undola, and, liko her, met a gale coming out of tho south-east. On this route tho ships com© suddenly out of tho shelter of a line of reofs and islands, and get the full force of a gale. The Tug-g-orah was heavily loaded, and' the deck hands were getting the covers onito the hatches when, she was struck by -a particuiaTly heavy sea. She heeled over nnd over, great masses of water fell aboard, tho coal cargo shifted, and she did not Tight herself. Every man aboard knew that tho end had come, and thoro was a rush for the lifeboats. Ono was got clear just as tho boat sank—only three or four minutes after 6he was overwhelmed. Six men got clear away in the boat: eleven went down with the steamer. Tho men in. the boa.t picked up a fireman, and the seven set off towards the shore. It w.as too rough, however, and they turned back and mado for Cronulla., a. well-known watering-place south oi Botany Bay. As they went they were able to pick up four more men, clinging to wreckage. They saw the chief engineer, and tried to get him, but as they approached he disappeared in the turmoil of water. The men had a terribly heavy pull to Cronulla. The boat was overloaded, and kept filling with water, and the gale threatened constantly to throw them on to the rock coast that lay abeam. They landed at Cronulla after dark, completely exhausted. Tlio 6J>; men lost included the captain, chief officer, and chief engineer. Tho latter was below when, tho' steamer sank, but ho evidently fought clear, only to be lost when his rescuers wero almo3t Teaching far him. Tho captain was last seen on the bridge, ordering the launching of i the lifeboat.