Further Particulars—Five Men Drowned.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1087, 22 January 1872, Page 3

Further Particulars— Five Men Drowned.

[AOB, JANUARY 3.] Prom the annexed, sent hurriedly by our Oeelong correspondent, it will be seen that the hapless boat's crew of the Sussex have, with one exception,: met their death in the surf. Our correspondent, assuming that we were already in possession of the facts, writes thus :— James Labton, the surviv'ng sailor of the boat's crew, states that at eight o'clock on Saturday evening the captain said they would have a pilot on board shortly. The ship struck soon after. Labton and four other seamen, with the third mate in charge, then got into a. boat in order to give an alarm, thinking there was a lighthouse at tho Barwon Heads. When about five or six hundred yards from the shore the boat was struck by a roller and turned into the trough of the sea. Before they could get her head round she was struck again, and the crew thrown into the water. He recollects nothing more except finding himself, two hours after, high and dry on the beach. He swam the Barwon about twelve midday, and was brought into Geelong by Mr Superintendent Bookey. The police are making a requisition on some kindly-disposed people for some clothes, which he stands in need of. He adds that the vessel was so rapidly breaking tip that there was no chance of recovering anything from the wreck." The following are the names of those that went in .the, boat:— Mr O'Flaherty, third officer ; Lapion,Fiest, Coke, Churchand Sadler. The inquiry by the Steam Navigation Board of Victoria into the circumstances mending the loss of the Sussex was concluded on the 1 8th instant, the fourth day of the sittings. The principal evidence taken was that of Captain Collard himself, who gave a lengthy and circumstantial account of the events which preceded, accompanied,' and followed the wreck. He explained that before the breakers were reported he had become aware of a "fearful" error in the steering of the ship, and that his assumed position on the chart was a wrong one. He was subjected to a close cross-examination by the board, and made to plot down his courses on the chart, but the only explanation he could offer of his being out of his position was, that he had been misled by the lights, and that there had been wrong steering. The board, after sitting an hour with closed doors, decided that tiie ohip was lost by Captain Collard's default, he not having taken the necessary precautions to verify his position before attempting to make Port Phillip Heads ; first, by net making sure that the flash light he saw was the Cape Schanck light ; and, secondly, by steering for other lights on his port bow, after discovering that there had been wrong steering. Taking into consideration Captain Collard's long service and "well-known excellent character as a careful officer," the board decided to suspend his cortifiicate for six months only. This closed the proceedings. It. will be remembered that this was the precise amount of punish* ment awarded by the board to the master of the Victoria Tower.