THE IRIS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1901, 29 March 1880, Page 2

THE IRIS.

Considerable apprehension was caused in shipping circles on Saturday by a rumor that the barque Iris, which left Lyttelton for Newcastle last Friday, had gone ashore on New Brighton beach. The fir=t intimation of the matter, received by the harbor master was through Captain Clarke, of the steam tug Lyttelton, who reported having been informed of the wreck by the lighthouse keeper at Godley Head. The harbor master at once telephoned to the signalman on the South Head, asking whether the vessel could be seen by him. The answer was “ No,” though the spot indicated by the lighthouse’ keeper could be distinctly seen. Had the report been verified by the “ look out ” a steamer would at once have been despatched to the stranded barque's assistance, and either the Hinemoa, or the Stella, or the Harbor Board’s steamer, would have gone out immediately. But failing verification by the officer whose position at the look-out station qualified him to know, and whose first duty it would be to report the occurrence, no farther notice of the affair was taken. How the lighthouse keeper came to make the mi-take remains to be explained.