WRECKS, FIRES, AND LOSSES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2018, 1 March 1907, Page 1

WRECKS, FIRES, AND LOSSES.

THE GLUM RECORD OF 1906,

“Ay, ’tis tlio way o’ tho son,” said tho koopor of tlio light. “Sho struck on the fangs, zur—thorn rooks t’ the nor’-oast, where tho waves is breakin’ That’s whore tlio sea notched slio—fair under the Fangs; an’ sho were lost with all hands —all hands. Sure, we could seo nothin’ ; but wo heard mi scream-—lioored them poor men cry for help. But what could us do in that blackness an’ ragin’? What could us do? Ay, ’tis tho way o the son. Tlio wind drovo the schooner in, the fog covered up the light; an’ tho breakers—suro when the breakers notched tho ship in that trap, ’tworo an end on every mother’s sou, every child’s fawtlier aboard. That, zur. is the way o’ the sea!” A writer who has boon studying Lloyd’s “Loss Book” contributes to the Shipping Gazette a long and interesting article dealing with the appalling list of shipping casualties recorded during 1906. Within that short period of twelve months tho number of casualties was 1117, as against 1293 lor tlio your 1900. Ot this total 686 ivoro sailing vessels and 731 steamers, the proportion of British vessels being 277 sailers and 330 steamers. Casualties posted on the “Loss Book” at Lloyd’s include vessels which have boon abandoned, ashore, in collision, condemned, dismasted, on fire, foundered, lost (wrecked) or missing. Such a roll of disaster lias, of course, resulted in a rogrettablo loss of life. It could hardly bo otherwise. But although,os the writer in tho Shipping Gazette remarks, thoro has boon no single loss accompanied by a death-roll equal to some of the more notable wrecks of tho past, t'lioro have yet been certain casualties which were tragedies in every sense of the word. Olio of the most notable features of tho year has been the numerous losses of sailing ships of largo tonnage. The mast and canvas fleet has undoubtedly suffered severely, ship after ship going to swift, destruction. There are those who say that tho romance of the sea is passing with the advent of “steam” and the gradual disappearance of the windjammer. But one may be pardoned for doubting this. The list of casualties of the past year records nearly 1600 cases of wrecks, fires, abandonments, strainings, collisions, dismasted and dismantled vessels, and these latter wore many. “Missing” ships totalled 34—vessels which have sailed from ports either “homeward hound or “outward bound,” and which to use tho dry official term—“have not since been heard of.” In tho face of this, who will say that the “romance and mystery of he sea” are things of the past, and only to bo found in story books? What tales of the sea might not still be written concerning the doings and experiences of those who spend their days and nights oil the sea? It has been truly said ot the sea that — “Only they who brave its dangers, Comprehend its mysteries.” At intervals brief, badly worded cable messages appear in the daily papers announcing that the ship lias been wrecked or has been lost at sea “with all hands” ; or that the ship “lias been posted as missing.” She “sailed from for——, and has not since been heart, of.. What grim tragedies of the sea these brief messages tell us! But they tell ns nothing of the deeds ot bravely performed, of tlio sufferings undergone by tho men, wlio, doing their duty, “go down to the sea in ships, matching their strength against the miofit of tempestuous waters ami howling gales,against the “bitter brine and unappeasable savagery ot .snailinn sea” down off the Horn, m the winter of the Atlantic, m the hurricanes of the Pacific, or the typhoons of Eastern seas. , Wo can come nearer home, ior. not a year goes past but wo hear of tragedies of the sea on our own dangerous, rockbound, storm-girt coast of New Zealand. Last winter five small sailers met with swltt destruction in the gales which raged along oui coastsfinvolving tlio loss of more than a score of lives. One schooner capsized in Cook Strait, drowning sixmen ; two went missing with anothei dozon men, and two were diiven ashore with the loss of more lives. One of the ocean tragedies of the year 1906 was the fire on the iron barque, Pitcairn Island, which resulted i n that vessel being abandoned far down in the South Pacific The crew left in two of the ship s boats. One boat was never again heard of, and those who ultimately came to land suffered terrible hardships during their long open boat voyage. This was one ol the earlier foe cases which happened to homeward bound uool ship’s from Njew Zealand, and raised the question as to whether the hie mmlit not have arisen irom wool oi flax being loaded whilst ill a damp StS “On fire,” says the writer already quoted, laconically denoted the disaster which happened in June to the well-known New Zealand passenger liner Gothic. She had to be beached at Plymouth, but was aftterwaids iefloated and came on to London. Ihe fire and water caused heavy damage to the vessel and her cargo, as was only to bo expeotod. It is interesting, and also instructive to mote that another homeward bound New Zealand steamer, the Waimate, on winch fire also broke out, had much bettei fortune than the Gothic. We rend that the Waimate “put into 1 lyniouth for sulphur,” but required no other assistance, although the file had been burning for tun days ofl and on This indicates .the presence on board of a Clayton firc-extlriguislnng machine, the advantage of which was doubtless-greatly appreciated by all concerned in the safety ol the ship and her cargo. It is interesting to note that all the steamers trading between New Zealand and London are now being fitted with this mafirp, abandoned,” tells Us own tale in regard to the big liup Mayersiiam Grange, which met her doom some 800 miles from Capetown. Her passengers and crew were all rescued by the New Zealand-bound steamer Matatua, and landed at the Cape. Fire lias, of course, played a prominent part 1 in the year’s returns, there being fifty-one entries relating to total losses or damage arising from conflagrations on shipboard. ino series of fires on homeward-bound vessels from New Zealand was a notable feature of tins section of disaster. If not indeed the largest, the four-masted barque Daylight, ot 3099 tons, which was on fire m a Japanese port, is certainly one of the biggest wind-jammers registered in Great Britain. The fire on the Daylight did not entail her total loss, but there were several big sailing ships which were not. so fortunate. The large British ship St.’ Mungo was a tptal loss by fire in the South Atlantic, and on tho last day of November v r o have tlic abandonment, through fire, of the big four-masted Ancona, in the Bay of Biscay. Floating high out of the water, this vessel’s drifting hull was sighted by a number of passing steamers, but it is generally supposed that- she foundered within a week of her abandonment. Tho wreck returns for the year contain references to practically every variety of seam vessel, from the modern mail and passenger liner of vast tonnage to tlic ugly little steam trawler. And there is the same contrast among the sailing ship casualties, the big four-master and the bedraggled coasting ketch or schooner being companions in misfortune in the wreck tables. Tlio largest steamers to he involved ill serious trouble were the two Pacific liners, Manchuria and Mongolia, both of which came to grief on the coral reefs of the North Pacific. The two huge sister steamers —they were each of 18,000 tons gross—represented an enormous value, and, naturally enough, there was immense satisfaction when it was reported that both had been refloated .

So far as casualties to long voyage sailers are concerned, it is certainly to be deplored that, apart from missing vessels, no fewer than 43 sailers of 500 tons and over were involved in disaster sufficiently serious for their names to be entered in the “Loss Book.” Of these 21 were British, seven French, four German, three American, two Italian, one Belgian, and one Russian. Early in July one of the saddest catastropliies of the "year occurred, namely, the disaster _ to the Italian emigrant steamer Sirio. This steamer which had upwards of a thousand souls on board, was wrecked near Capo Palos,in the Mediterranean, almost at the. beginning of her voyage to Buenos Ayres. It was officially stated that the death roll numbered 175. ’Tis a far cry from the Alediter-

ranoan to the south coast of New Zealand, tho scone of the next serious casualty—the loss of tlio Port Stephens. This vessel, hound from Oainaru to Newcastle, was abandoned about 200 miles south of New Zealand after breaking her shaft. The fear was that, the Port Stephens would drift down into tho iey regions of the south, far away from all possibility of rescue, and one can therefore understand how difficult was tho position of her master and crew. Nothing further has been heard of the. vessel since those on hoard wore takon off by tho passing barque Ravonscourt and landed at Port Chalmers. ’ “If anyone.,” says he Shipping Gazette, “still believes that romance cannot he associated with the travels and adventures of an old tramp steamer, complete disillusionment on this point may bo jllinl by tracing tho wanderings and vicissitudes of the famous floating magazine—tlio Girlish,. She yvas 'a blockade-runner, and after tun forgoing a series of hairraising escapes in Eastern waters, she came to anchor in the Saigon river. Freighted with ammunition, the vessel was practically a floating box of fireworks. One or two explosions happened oil hoard, and filially on January 3rd, 1906, there came a terrific report, and the old tramp was rent asunder. Quickly she was enveloped in smoko, and then sho sank. In the last week in January wo find that tho notorious Dumnorc was reported as “lost.” As events turned out, wo know that this old dorelict was an unconscionably long time in dying, and for weeks and ■weeks she - worried the captains of Atlantic liners by capering about' right in the truck of passenger steamers. Curiously enough, another notable loss happening about the same time was that, of a vessel whoso name had the prefix “Dun,” namely the barque Dunbritton. This vessel had all the had luck imaginable right at the outset of her long voyage from Hamburg to Honolulu. Twice she was dismasted in the North Sea, her crew being finally taken off by a passing trawler and lauded at Aberdeen. Ft is interesting to note that this vessel was commanded by a New Zealander, Captain Cleary, who is a native of Lyttelton. Other notable disasters of tlio year were the wreck on the stormy coast of Vancouver island of the British ship King David, with the loss of many lives; the wreck of the ship Speke on tho coast of Australia; the loss ot the new cargo steamer Agincourt in the Pacific; the wreck during a hurricane of the four-masted ship County of Roxburgh; and the foundering in the Bay of Biscay, with the loss of many lives, of the Belgian training ship Comte de Smet, do Nacyor. The Pacific Coast of America lias been the scene of numerous sailing ship casualties. The well-known ship Lismoro, hound from Melbourne to Coronol, was totally lost on tile West Coast, twenty men being drowned; and two months later the fine 2000-ton British ship Nivolle went ashore and was completely broken tip on the same coagt. In September the Gulf of Mexico was visited by a hurricane which wrought .an immense amount of damage to shipping at Pensacola and other ports. One of the vessels which then grounded was the Portuguese ship Ferreira. This vessel was originally the China tea clipper Cutty Sark, and was specially built in order to race with that ‘witch of the seas,’ the ever-famous Thermopylae. In October and November several windjammers in swift succession met with disaster, notably tho British ships Cromartyshire, Peter Iredale, Galena, and the big four-master Morven, which was totally wrecked oil the Irish coast at Tacoma. These bald references are quite sufficient' to show that the closing months of tlic year 1906 yielded a. big hunch of regrettable maritime disasters. But, leaving the troubles of tho past twelve months, it is found that the first few weeks of the new year have been marred by many serious shipping casualties and losses. Prominent among these are the wreck ~f the barque Elvorland on the Three Kings to the north of New Zealaiid, the capsizing of the barque Wai-iti in Kaipara harbor, and the dismasting and subsequent abandonment m the Pacific of tho barques Maelgwyn and Annasona. Happily, none of these mishaps wore attended with loss of life, hut unfortunately the same oanilot he said of the terrible disaster reported last week from America, when the steamer Larclunonf collided with a collier, nearly fifty people being drowned or frozen to death. This week come reports of the grounding of several small steamers and a scow and more momentous news — namely,the wreck of tho large barque Marguerite Mirafiaud P|i Akatore beach, on the coast of the South Island of New Zealand. This vessel, one of the big bounty-fed French sailers, was on the passage from France to Tahiti when she wont ashore during foggy weather on the coast of New Zealand. Hero, again, it is satisfactory to state, there was lie loss of life, but tlm, vf.ssgl ig badly damaged and will probably become a total wreck. ~ Thus does the dreary tale of snipping casualties unfold itself, snip after ship throughout the years being added to he appalling roll of disasters, while at too frequent intervals conies the neiys of terrible loss of lifo, to remind us of the risks and dangers of the sailor’s calling. “ ’Tis the way of the soa ! and the sea shall endure in the might' of youth to the wreck of the world.”