SHIPPING DISASTER

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1510, 19 July 1905, Page 1

SHIPPING DISASTER

NINETEEN MEN PERISH. (Per R.M.S. (Ventura, at Auckland.) Son Franoisoo, June 27. Nineteen men. of tho crew of the German sbip Agnes wont to their graves in the sea off Gape Horn whon the vessel was burned, and went to the bottom.

Captain Henry Behrens and ten seamen were found • drifting in a ’small boat by the American ship Aryan, whioh arrived at this port last night with the rescued men.

Tho Agnes was from Shields to Valparaiso with coal. On March 10 she was working against heavy head storms and seas to get round Capo Horn into the Pacific, when a fire was discovered in the cargo forward. Many tons of burning coal were jettisoned. Water was poured through the hatches in an effort to quench the flames, all to no effect. The fire gradually gained. Gases formed in the hold and exploded, blowing off tho batches. On March 20 tbo ship was no longer tenable. Captain Behrens gave orders to udandon the craft. One boat in command of the first mate held 12 men, and the second mate’s boat held five. Ten seamen accompanied tbo captain. For three days the boats remained by the burning ship, and then when 55 miles off Cape Horn the little boats hoisted their sails and headed for the land, The • boats soon separated. The high bluffs of the Cape had just loomed in sight when the Aryan appeared. A boat load of the shipwrecked men were soon aboard the American vessel. Not many minutes afterwards a severs gale swept tho ocean. The Aryan had all she could do to care for herself in the storm, and though a sharp watch was kept for the other two boato thsy were not seen. There is no hope of their having escaped death,