SHIPPING DISASTERS AT TIMARU

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1419, 2 September 1878, Page 3

SHIPPING DISASTERS AT TIMARU

[Br Telegbaph.] [FBOM THE COBBESPONDENT OP THE PBEBS.] Timabtj, September lßt. About 11 o'clock this morning, the barque Melrose signalled to the Pilot Station that she had parted her anchors. A fearful sea was running at the time. She rapidly drifted towards Woolcombe's Q-ully, and on the way came foul of the ketch Palmerston, smashing the latter's topmast, and her captain (Evans) and two men, the crew of the ketch, jumped overboard. One was picked up by the Melrose and the other drowned. The Melrose struck the ground about thirty yards from the shore, and immediately commenced to break up like a match box. The Rocket Brigade, aided by onlookers, made extraordinary exertions, and it is believed saved all on board, although several of the crew are very much injured. Hardly had the Melrose got ashore when the ketch Fanny parted, and was steered for the shore. On the way she fouled the ketch Glimpse, whose crew jumped on board. The Fanny was beached high and dry, and suffered no injury. Next the brigantine Lapwing parted ono cable, and Captain Anderson immediately hoisted sails, and ran her ashore in front of Perry's house, Caroline Bay, beaching her high and dry, and all the crow getting off safe. The ketches Glimpse and Palmerston (abandoned), are still riding outside. Captain Kenny of the Melrose, an old man of 60, was very seriously crushed, and is not expected to live. The Melrose had on board 250 tons coal for E. Smith, insured in Union Company. The insurances on the hulls of any of the vessels is not known. The Lapwing has on board £I2OO worth of produce, which is insured, but the office is not known. The ketch Fanny was in ballast. The ketch Glimpse has a full cargo of preserved meat, and the Palmerston a general cargo from Dunedin. It is belied both the Lapwing and Fanny will be got off. Nothing of the Melrose but her keel is to be seen. The Melrose is partly owned by the captain, partly by a Sydney firm, and was a barque of 287 tons, built at Sunderland in 1858. The Lapwing is owned in Auckland, and is a new vessel. The sea is worse than ever before seen in Timaru. It came in unexpectedly about 10 a.m., and was like a boiling cauldron.