The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1890. The Wreck of the Quetta

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 108, 6 March 1890, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1890. The Wreck of the Quetta

The dreadful marine disaster which occurred last Friday night when the .teamikip Qnt-tta was lust ou th* Qiittenaluud coast, has excited universal avnipatuy with the survivors, and sorrow f«»r the unfortunates who w»re *v suddenly rushed iuto eternity. Siuee -the .vreck of the Tararua ou our own coast there bus not been a vessel lost under such peculiarly dis tressiug circumstances. The Quetta was a uplendid vessel, well uiaunod. and commanded by able and experienced officers. Sh» was in the hands of a competent pilot, who wan guiding her on a course wliich was marked on the Admiralty charts an heiiijj perfec*iy safe, with twflvn fathom* of water uudwr her keel. The *.>asneu j-ers were for the most part on deck enjoying the cool of the evening aftwr the trophical heat of the da\, ainl probably in all that. vt~»el, with its crowd of nearly three hundred souis, not one couceived for n moment that there < xiated the smallest peril of thfir lives, Yot, almost in th« twinkling of an eye, tin* stout ship was reut iv twain, and all thoie people — mm, women, aud little chil.li-cn- -were struggling for th-ir lives in tho angry waters. One liundied aud forty-live pnrsoiis were lust, and oue huudred aud thirty eeveu were saved. Three minutes was the time which elapsed from the contact of the ship's sid« with tne rock uutil her final disap pearauce into the depths below. iSuch a terrible example of the uncertainty of human life has seldom, happily, be~n tfiveu, but its in frequency iimke-> it none the less appalling when such a visitatijn comes. The wreck of the Q-ietti appeares to be one of those tew in-tancis where no biamw can be at inched to anyone connected with the ship It may he said that had the Admiralty chart been correct the position of the sunken rock would have been marked upon it, but it is not impossible that submarine volcanic action may have placed it there since the last Admiralty survey.