The Quetta Disaster

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 112, 15 March 1890, Page 4

The Quetta Disaster

INTERESTING DETAILS j

[iVr s^. l{nigd<.t»uuiu at the Bluff.] BuifßA.N K» March 4 Tho inAumnces on ,ttie cargo of the a.a Quetta as« diatriSute'J over about 20 lUffm-Hiit .ffirea. It- is impossible t<« into 'letuilH as to tbe insurance, t»ut it ' is' estimated. . that the total amount VeaobW £50*000. The Quetta lett Brisbane on he 1 8th February. The present wieck makes the third vessel foundering in aoout a year, of this company's trading steamers. The Duke of Buccteuch in February of last year, after collision with the ship Vandalia, went down in the English Channel witß all hands; and the Cloncfurry was run into b^rthe steamer Maple Branch on tbe #rd' of ' January last, and sank in Sae^Bay,, off Point Tewfik, in 30ft, all hands l^eing saved. The Rev. M'Laren . -states,; ;C.— A? .; I was on board the Albatross, rescuing; Btoamer, together with Captain JE£eating, I can give a. derailed, account of the four days' movements .since the wreck occurred. G»ptaiu Reid steamed at once ; foe Adolph'us Island, vkud when he came:: withiu sight of the,; island four; men- were seen, on : the rucks, waving some white articles and walking up and ..down, and they, were brought on hoard and taken care of. We then steamed aluug the! island sent a ;S6at off at the .other end?, to search for men. The Albatross <called for the buat later in the day,; •and touk on board the one man found. We theu steamed towards the Three Brothers Islands, when Captain Reid suddenly saw something .not much larger, than; a cocoa anat floating out ■to sea. As he drew nearer./ he . ca w that it was a person swimming The .^)oor- lady, fts-«ne proved to be, waa 'lifted in: One of the sailors. took off. bis flannel shirt and wrapped her in it, biit she had in the . meantime : f aiuled, and we recognised < ier to tbe TSliasMay Laeeyj 16 years of age, the ■eldest daughter of Mr-'Dyston Lacey, •of St. Helen's Statibn, MackiyJ ; She *w as "much exhausted, but is fast recoy eri rig, though very .w eak and • burnt r f rom exposure. ■ . ; • Miss Lacey's story is that she was writing a>letter 'to her mother when A - the :tSrVifcle j happened:^ She Tusbied'tb gefeheV younger sister, who had gone to bed, and brought her on -deck, and thejr w^ujt o.ver together. She afterwards .was dragged into a boat or ; raft',- where she was kindly 'treated by the, ,'puVser," and; remained "on tHe raft till the afternoon of Sat--urday, when she determined to swim <to shore. Her rescue is almost mira"Culous/as she was- drifting out to sea, -away 'from Adolphus Island, and she could uot possibly have held out much longer. Perhaps her rescue and her -marvellous self possession are among •the most wouderf ul : of the melancholy -incidents connected with terribly ' *sad calamity. • .'!...; Pilot; Keating, who had charge of 'the Quett^, is oue of the three pilots -employed by the company to take -their boats from Brisbane to Thursday Island, and .hitherto they have been so successful that disaster oil "either of the passages was the last thiug thought of. v Keating is a sober and ; care,f u| ; pilot, And better acquainted with the coast, perhaps,, than ~-aiiy -other -man in the trade. The last pout' of call for the Quetta >»efoie-reaching thev point where she came f to so cailamitoUs an end was Cot»ktowu. Passing through these «eas in daylight, most of- the Quetta's pas engers would have been on deck, fur they are amongst the most pictur- > esque of these; tropical waters.