SHIPPING CASUALTIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XII, Issue 1083, 29 December 1903, Page 3

SHIPPING CASUALTIES.

BRITISH WARSHIP DRIVEN ON books.

the FATE of A BARQUE

LOSS OF LIFE AND SURVIVORS' SUFFERINGS.

(Per. R.M.S. .Ventura, at Auckland.) San Francisco, Dee. 19. A despatch from Victoria, British Columbia, dated Decombor 3rd, gives an account of an accident to the . British ship Flora, which occurred on the second anniversary of the disaster to too Condor. Tho Flora piled up on the rocks near Village Point, Denman Island, at sovon in tho morning in a denso fog. Her speed was such that her nose was shoved clean out of the water. Many feet of bor forefront was badly torn and twisted, holes being punched in it which permitted the waters of the rising tide to enter the forward compartments. It was at first ox pectod tho vessel would float on the risiDg tide, but long before the tide was at flood it became evident that tho full peri vessel had not been understood. The officers watched anxiously as the thermo, but tho storn of the Ftora did not show any sign of buoyancy. -Che bu budge an inch, and finally reached such a height on the steeply inclined decks that it commenced to flow V, • ««™r*nrnnn wav. aut*

steadily into tho companion ww, through such openings as it cou . Admiral Bickford, of tho Pacific station, hastenod to tho wrock, and on returning o Viotoria statod that tho Flora was and fast, dry from tho mainmast forward at low water, with the aftor p about submerged to the deck, ana with from her funnels aft 10 feet bolow tho water at high tide. The vessel • maining in that position since she strucK, ho hoped to bo able to save the vessel, but says that salvage will be difficult, a cruiser was well up on tho rocks, having obviously run ashore at a high spec . Somo officors bad a narrow escape, Oapt. Salisbury having a very close call. o was in bed when the crash came. A ow seconds later wator flooded into tho cabin through the open scuppers, and ho was nearly drowned beforo he could scramble out on to tho dock, clad in pyjamas. Several other officors bad to hurry * com their quarters in night olothes. In o ward quarters did not suffer. The crew is living ashore in tents. The Grafton and Egra will salvage the vessel, tho Admiral not seeking assistance of merchant vessels. After she has boon pumped dry there will bo an effort to pull the ship off the rocks, which are tho same on which tho col ier Williametto hung nine months beforo sho was salvaged. . The French barque Francois Coppeo, from Nowcastlo (September 4) for San Francisco, with a load of coal, was lost on Tomaloso Bay on Saturday, November 21. Thirteon officers and Beamon aro accounted

for out of twenty-four, aud it 13 believea gho remaining eloven will Dover be beard of uny more. The missing are :—Captain Irnoo ; Janeau, carpenter; Olivier, bontswain ; Souson, cook ; Nicoles, steward , Oarr, seaman ; Clements, seaman; Fredorickfion, seaman; Gray, seaman ; Ewarts, soamta; Hallian, cabin boy. Anderson, Taylor, Coovinils, Beys, Bcrkio, Olsen, Webb, Burbot, and Guuzien, seamen, wore saved by the Scotia, and Molines, the x mate, Augusto Victor. pho Victor, seaman, and Daniel O’Neal were saved at Tomales. The story of the disaster is a wrotched ono, nod the survivors endured terrible sufferings. / A fierce storm was raging on Friday night wbon the ship plunged iDto Bocky Island, off thu coast. Nino members of the crew, picked up by the steam schooner Scotia, escaped from the wreck in a lifeboat, and were rescued after battling with tbo sea a day and a night- Ttao other four rescued were picked up on the beach at Tomales, and the nine lost are believed to have beon drowned while attempting to swim townrd Roeky Island. The Francois Coppoo, when tbo disaster overtook her, had beon hovering two days along, the coast, endeavoring to get her bearings, but was prevented by tbo thick mantlo of fog which hung along the coast. , It was half-past cloven at night, when the watenmm gave the ahum of land ahead. Captain Irnoo endeavored to navigate the

ship out oE danger, out mo oieruuuio woio against him. The barque wa3 driven mercilessly against the rooks off Bird Island. A panic ensued. Ono bout, heavily provisioned, was lowered before the vessel struck. Into it nine seamen, ac cording to tbo story of tho four survivors who reached Tomales, climbed greedily, the captain being powerless to control them. He commanded them to stay by the ship, but they pushed away, saying they would wait astern. Later, wbon the Francdis Coppee, was pounding on the sharp rocks, a lifeboat stocked with wine, canned goods, biscuit, and extra clothing

was nowhere to ho 3eon. xne seouuu uuuu to bo launched was crushed by r, wave, and the two lashed to tbo roftf of the forecastle were out of reach. When the vessel shattered bar bow on tbß rooks the yessol pounded terribly and wont to pieces rapidly. Fifteen men oluog to tho wreck until dawn, when tho captain dcoided that their only chanco of lifo was to plunge into the breakers and swim for the rocks. Tho men realised their desperato chanco. Most of thefai strippod, and they plunged overboard ouo by one. They seized such wreckage as they could, but somo were dashed furiously against the rooks, and sank, stunned and bleeding, into tho deep. Four clung to the rooks and managed to roach a placo of safety. On this barren island, without food or clothing, they

remained from Saturday evening* Thoy constructed a rude raft, and with it managed to reach the mainland, whore they fotkid help. They were terribly prostrated by their sufferings, but were sent to San Francisco as soon as possible. Investigation showed the Francois Coppoe to bo but a mass of tangled wrockage strewn along the beacb, and mixed with torn piece's of bunting, the French tricolor of the sailots’ olothing, and of other move tragic remains, four or fivo hundred feet off the shore could bo seen protruding the white bow of the barque, a broken triangle of white-painted sheet-iron eight feet high and fifteen feet across