COOGEE COLLISION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XII, Issue 1083, 29 December 1903, Page 2

COOGEE COLLISION.

THRILLING EXPERIENCES

By Electric Telegraph—Per Press Association—Copyright. MELBOURNE, Dec. 28. The Fortunatus Figari has been towed into the hay. She has a big lio.'e in her port bow..' Considerable damage was done to the deck gear. But £or the watertight compartments, probably the vessel would have gone down. The Coogee left Launceston with thirty passengers at- 7 o'clock on Tuesday night. The collision occurred when nine hours out. The Coogee’s starboard hotv struck the stem

of the Figari and split open from below the waterline to ten feet above “the opening, being in places four feet wide. So great was the impact that after remaining locked together for a few minutes the vessels gradually swung round till the sides touched. A number of the steamers passengers, believing she was sinking, scrambled aboard the Figari. Blinding volumes of smoke from the Coogee’s fractured pipes added to the terror of the situation after the first

excitement;. .The passengers, especially the ladies, behaved splendidly, there being no disorder. The vessels soon drifted apart. The Figari, which was under short sail, hove to, and three boals were lowered, the balance of the Coosec’s

passengers being transferred aboard, ali tbe steamer’s boats having been stove in. The Figari took the steamer in tow. The first line parted and the Second field good.- She was towed ninety miles. Captain Carrington’s body was terribly mangled. His last order, just as the vessels came together,was to slew the Coogee’s head outward. He probably saved both vessels from destruction. In the Coogce collision, a seaman named Jolly was pinned beneath a mass of wreckage and bled to dealb before the difficult work of rescuing him was accomplished. Besides a broken thigh, the second officer, Durant, had several ribs broken and his head was badly bruised. There were several narrow escapes. An officer was swept away and thrown to the deck in an uncon-

scious state; A fireman was lying in his bunk when a heavy iron nipc foil across it, close to his head. ' The Coogee’s bridge, deck cabins, a.ad all the lifeboats and rafts were .swept away, as well as the masts. She was completely raked as far as the funnel; One of the masts penetrated tije deck in falling. Captain Ohiafline, of the Figari, states* that the ship was tinder short .sail" and not making more than a knot and a-half an hour? white .the Ccogee was going at full speed o*nearly so.

Miss Muir, the forecabin stewardess of the Coogee, displayed great heroism. She roused the passengers and accompanied the ladies to the ■ship, refusing to stay, and returned to the disabled steamer to nurse the injured officer. Captain Carrington was one of the best known masters in the coastal trade.