The LOSS OF THE GOTHEN BURG.

Evening Star, Issue 3776, 1 April 1875, Page 3

The LOSS OF THE GOTHEN BURG.

Mr P. Hogan, one of the survivors, ami formerly a resident in New Zealand, has supplied a very circumstantial account of the wreck, from which we extract a few facts not ye ! ; published here. While at Somerset, on March 19 the vessel all but went ashore durim a gale. The Hon. J. Reynolds and Mr Shoe bridge, on shore at the time, were near being left behind, and it would have been a mercy if they had. Between six and seven on the evening the disaster occurred it was blowing hard, and the vessel rolling a great deal, when it got steady all at once, and she left off rolling. It was remarked by some how smooth it was getting. In less than ten minutes after getting into smooth water She ran on to a reef. . . * Mr Justice Wearing was the first who was wasted over; Mr Durand, French Consul, and agent for the boat, had got his money under J 3 ™- He said he would go on the mainM be got on the rigging the sea earned him over with the others. At the time Mia 00X1116 tHere were about fifty people in boats were washed into tho S" J ll8 ®- Five men and one _ i j * - on keel, but the woman was WM b® d °ff and drowned. ... It was tn &** to see men women, ud children drowning close to you, and be power“en and womfcn MfttA ftftrlfWiy* Tfl6ti wm not ft murmur from

■oy person aboard. When they were struggling m j u WB ** r » they were wishing each other good-bye as if they were leaving each other for a short time.

It wdl be remembered that amongst those who perished in the foundering of the ill-fated Gothenburg was Mr Wells, the editor of the ‘ Northern Territory Times.’ Strange to say, in one of the latest issues of that journal, published just before the sailing of the Gothenburg, appears an original poem entitled “ God guard the ship upon her way,” one of the varies ©f which reads as follows : Guard her from pestilence and pain, Let dangers threaten her in vain, Prom raging fire and hidden reef, From sudden fear, from death and grief, Till o er the boundless ocean’s breast She safe may sail unto her rest. Read in connection with the sad details that have just come to hand ef the loss of the Gothenburg on the Great Barrier Reef, these lines, appearing in a paper which has been brought to the surface from “full five fathoms deep,” while he who inserted them will never again wield that weapon which is brighter than the sword, possess a peculiarly melancholy interest.— * Bendigo Advertiser.