LOSS OF THE STEAMER BONNIE DUNDEE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1588, 22 March 1879, Page 3

LOSS OF THE STEAMER BONNIE DUNDEE.

[Bt Telegraph. | [Via Auckland.] Sydney, March 15. A searching inquiry is being made at Sydney into the steamboat collision.

Henry Dose, the man who was at the wheel of the Bonnie Dundee, give thes following account of the sad disaster :—He went to the wheel at six o'clock, the steamer then being about opposite Bird Island. The mate was in command, and the steamer's head was N.N.E. About halt-past seven or a quarter to eight they sighted a steamer's masthead light, and soon after they saw another (red) light, and Dose steered about two points clear of her red light. The mate then gave orders to keep off a little more. Dose kept her off another point, and the steamer's course was then about NE. by N. They kept this course until tho Barrabool came right about,

off them, and thon they could plainly see the two lights, green and red. The mate gave orders to put the helm hard a starboard. Dose did so, but immediately after the Barrabool struck the Bonnie Dundee amirfship?, just opposite where Dose was standing. The shock was very severe. Dose was thrown off hi 3 feet on his back. The captain sang out to them to save themselves. The Bonnie Dundee began to sink with alarming rapidity. Dose made a rush for the bows of the Barrabool, but had scarcely done so when he looked round and saw the Bonnie Dundee going down by her nose. This was about eight o'clock or a httle after. Three others got aboard the Barrabool before Dose. The Bonnie Dundee's boat had been got out and came alongside the Barrabool full of men and water. The men were baling the boat out with their boots. Afterwards a boat was lowered from the Barrabool to assist the people from the Bonnie Dundee. The boat returned with the body of a female passenger (Miss Brown). They also searched about in the boat for about an h ur but found nothing further. The Bonnie Dundee sank in about three or four minutes after being struck. The first thing done on board was to assist the passengers. This was done by the captain and mate while the boat was being lowered. The stewardess caught hold of a little girl that was on board and threw it to the men in the boat, who caught it, and the child was thus saved. The stewardess appeared more composed than anyone else, being evidently unconscious of any danger. The men called to her to jump to the boat. Sho would not do so, and went down with the vessel. Had she got into the boat she would have been Baved, or if she had jumped overboard while the steamer was sinking she could easily have been picked up. If any of the women had jumped overooard they muat have been saved, but they never left the ship. Thore was one passenger, an elderly lady, below at the time of the collision, but sho Boon came on deck. The captain gave the women life buoys, and told them to save themselves. The captain stopped on board the Bonnie Dundee until she went down. He was the last to leave the sinking vessel, but rose gain and wa3 saved, notwithstanding a broken leg.

Miss Brown was about to be married to a wealthy squatter, but was drowned like her mother. The body of Mrs Dugdale was recovered and identified by the ring on her fiuger. She apparently died from exhaustion, having been found on a floating hen-coop. Tho Bonnie Dundee was pirridly in-mred, this amount being for =£G9OO. The captaius blame each other. It is considered a scandalous affair.