DISASTER AT SEA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2223, 12 April 1881, Page 3

DISASTER AT SEA.

Intelligence of a fearful disaster that occurred in Decemberin Japanese waters was received at Plymouth on February 3rd. Tho steamship Toyokuni Maru has been burnt on a voyage from Osaka to Shimonoseki, and 64 persons have perished. The “Hiogo News ” has the following respecting the affair:—The owner and a large number of passengers were on board, and everything presaged a pleasant run. While the steamer was crossing the Idzuminada, an alarm of fire was raised. Terrible confusion at once ensued, and as the conflagration was in the coal bankers, nothing could be done to extinguish it. The vessel was without pumps or any other appliance useful for such a purpose. It is hardly credible, but we are assured that the steamer was so ill-provided that only three of the ordinary buckets used for washing the decks could be found. The solitary boat was made fast over the position of tho fire, and could not be cleared away, so that the wretched passengers were without any means of escape, lifebuoys not even being part of the vessel’s equipment. Owing to the heat below, it was impossible to get at the engines to stop them, and the flames soon reaching the boilers, caused the steamer to be propelled through the water at terrific speed. Some of the crew managed to get forward and let go an anchor, in the ho: e that it would impede her progress through the water, but the effect was almost imperceptible. By this time the burning ship was only some twenty miles from land, and the Tokio Maru could bo seen coming up to the assistance of those on board. It is certain that if at this time the Toyokuni Maru could have been stopped, all or nearly ail the people on board would have been saved. But the vessel sped on, the flames drove the unfortunate passengers aft, and they in tho Tokio Maru could see them, men, women, and children, throwing themselves overboard to escape the more painful death inevitable by remaining in the burning ship. The excitement on the Tokio Maru was intense, and it must have been a fearful sight to witness these poor creatures perishing. At length, owing, it is supposed, to the intense heat injuring some portion of the machinery, the Toyokuni Maru suddenly stopped, and the pursuing steamer was enabled to close up. A boat was immediately lowered and rowed as near the burning ship as the flames would allow. Eighteen men were found to be hanging over the vessel’s side, clinging to ropes, and were taken on board the Tokio Maru, with the exception of one, the purser, who insisted upon going to his native place in a small fishing boat which came up at that time. The eighteen were the sole survivors of eighty-two persons, who a few hours previously were anticipating a speedy return to friends, relatives, parents, or children. The owner and captain of the Toyokuni Maru have both perished, and, therefore, we refrain from commenting upon their conduct, but we assert that this frightful calamity demands from tho Government rigid inquiry.”