SEVERE GALE AND SHIPWRECKS ON THE BRITISH COAST.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 208, 8 February 1875, Page 3

SEVERE GALE AND SHIPWRECKS ON THE BRITISH COAST.

We take the following account of a very severe gale which visited the English coast in the beginning of December from the Pull Mall Gazette, of December 4th : The cold and foggy weather of last week was succeeded in London on Saturday night by heavy rain, and this was followed on Sunday by a violent gale, which caus’d con siderable destruction of property, and several accidents on the Thames. The gale was also very severe on the north-eastern and Cornish coasts, and appears to have extended as far as the Bay of Biscay, where the steamer La Plata, of 1600 tons burden., with 600 miles of telegraphic wire on board, intended to complete the Brazilian and La Plata cable, foundered on Sunday morning,. There were upwards of seventy persons ini the ship, and only fifteen are known to have .been saved. These persons were at sea in. an open boat for twenty-three hours, provisioned only with a small piece of cheeses and a bottle of gin. At daylight on Mondaymorning they were picked up by the Garcloch, a Scotch emigrant ship, and about am hour afterwards were transhipped tothe steamer Antenor, bound for London,, and landed at Gravesend on Wednesday.. The owner of the La Plata, Mr Henley, and Mr Siemens, who had chartered it, state thaU the vessel was provided, far in excess of theordinary scale, with all the best apparatus for saving life, and on this account they cling; to the hope that many of those who are now missing, among whom is the captain, may nevertheless be saved. Immediately on receipt of the telegram announcing the loss of the ship, Mr Siemens telegraphed to her Majesty’s Consul at Brest to send out a steamer to cruise about the spot where the disaster happened, in the hope of picking up any boat’s crew thatmight still be afloat; at the same time Mr Siemens despatched one of his own engineers to Brest to take whatever other measures may be deemed desirable On the Northumberland coast the gale is said to have been the most violent that has been experienced for ten years. Many small j coasters were driven on shore and wrecked. A j schooner is reported to have foundered at sea a short distance from South Shields, with all hands. The schooner St Albans, of Lon- j dou, went ashore on the rocks near Tynemouth, and the captain’s wife and master’s mate were drowned. On the eastern coast of Scotland and on the Frith of Forth there wore numerous shipping disasters, and upwards of twenty lives are said to have been lost. At Fraserbugh the barque Veteran, of South Shields, a vessel of over 1000 tons register, coal laden, was wrecked, and eleven were drowned in sight of a large crowd that lined the shore. A few were saved by the rocket apparatus. The ship Erie was lost j off the Orkney coast, and the captain and cook were drowned. On the Cornish coast the schooner Huldah, from Southampton to Cardiff, went ashore, and her crew were rescued with great difficulty. Off Lostwithiel a boat containing a tradesman named , llitchins and two boys sank, and all its occupants were drowned. This gale has in its turn been succeeded by fogs, (loods, and snowstorms. On Monday there were dense fogs in Loudon and in Nottingham. The heavy rains caused the rivers in the north of England to overflow. The Derwent Valley, east and west of the Pickering railway, is described as one vast bike, and an immense area of aftergrass is destroyed. Ryedale is also extensively flooded. The Trent has risen, and flooded the south side of Nottingham and the country for miles round. Whole streets of respectable houses were on Tuesday filled in the lower rooms with water, and the occupants had to live in the bedrooms. In the night several persons, unaware of the flood walked into the water, and were rescued by the police. Navigation on the canals was stopped owing to the towing-paths being submerged to a considerable extent. In the north of Scotland this week there has been a snowstorm of unusual severity. At Braemar, Wick, Thurso, Inverness. Aberdeen, and and Dundee snow has fallen heavily, and the frost is intense. In Orkney and Shetland also the snow lies to a considerable depth. A miner named Bannerman, forty-one years of age, has been found dead in a snow wreath between Dalmellington and New Cumnock. In Loudon a hard frost has set in, and there have been indications of snow.

The same journal of December llth says: A Gibraltar telegram in the Daily Dews gives a summary of the statements of Mr Lament, the boatswain, and Mr Hooper, the quartermaster of the steamer La Plata, who were brought to Gibraltar by the Dutch steamer William Renklezoou, Von Dorp, master. They state that they were carried down with the ship, but rose to the surface, and fortunately caught hold of the life raft, which was somewhat damaged. It, however, kept them partly out of the water. They drifted about on it until Wednesday, when they were picked up by the schooner in a thoroughly exhausted state, having eaten nothing since the previous Saturday evening. They were much benumbed with the cold and exposure. They sighted many vessels, and hailed some; one on Monday, and on Tuesday without effect. Some came so near them that they could see the hands at work on the deck. As these vessels sailed away, they gave up all hope of escape. They were well treated by Captain Von Dorp, the officers, and the crew. The latter gave up their berths to them. The frost of last week was succeeded by more wet and boisterous

weather, which has again given place to frost and fog. On Tuesday night a gale of great severity passed over Loudon, and over the north-eastern and southern coasts. In the Channel the weather was very rough, and both the French and Belgian mails were delayed. On Wednesday morning the weather was so bad that both the Ostcud and Calais boats had to put Jback to Dover. At South Shields ,during the height of the gale, the Henry Cook, a timber-laden vessel from Quebec, struck against the pier while endeavoring to enter the harbor, and the whole crow of sixteen hands perished. Another vessel went ashore at the same place, but the crew were saved. The Aberdeen steamer Queen ran on to the western breakwater at Grauton, in the Frith of Forth, and was wrecked, the crew and passengers being saved with some difficulty. Shipping casualties are also reported from Hartlepool, Seahara harbor, Whitby, and Filey. At Whitby nine vessels were stranded or wrecked. On the Irish coast the gale was very violent, and at Jersey great damage was done to the new harbor works. About 200 yards of the pier were washed away. Immense blocks of concrete, weighing several tons, were displaced, and the sea undermined the tramway and twisted the rails in all manner of shapes. The damage is estimated at many thousand pounds, and it is stated that months will elapse before the works can be restored.