THE FOUNDERING OF THE OHAU.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 21 September 1901, Page 4

THE FOUNDERING OF THE OHAU.

(Eiß-PBESS association),

Wellington, September 20. The disappearance of the Union Steam Ship Company’s steam collier Ohau about three years ago, while on' a voyage from the West Coast to,Lyttelton, has remained to the present day one of the mysteries of X: the* sea. She was sighted somewhere ■ near Cape Campbell when on that ill- / -fated voyage, . but that was the last seen or heard of her. It was surmised that through some unforeseen calamity she had foundeeed with all hands, but no trace of.-iher hull, spars, crew, or her cargo came to mortal ken to indicate the fate which befel the vessel and its occupants. After a period of speculations the mystery was relegated to a hundred \r and one similar sad happenings which form pages of the sea’s sad records. Lately, however, interest in the subject ■ has been aroused by the casting up on the sea shore around the point of Terawhiti of quantities of water-worn coal and light timber. For a month or two past every heavy south-westerly wind has resulted in great quantities of the jetsam above mentioned being cast up in a radius of some miles along the Terawhiti Beach - .' 'By the usual law of coincidence there happens to be a man rabbiting on a run in the vicinity who was employed in stowing the last cargo of the Ohau. As part of her cargo she was laden with a largo number of light of a thickness colloquially Sd as “ whitebait poles.” Strange number.of similar poles have wn up at Terawhiti, recently, s probable that after many days is given up traces of the unfortunate steamer. If the poles referred to are identical with those shipped on the Oban, it is passing strange that after a

lapse of only three years, apparently by a submarine disturbance, the vessel should be disintegrated, and traces of her cast up.