DISASTER TO THE STEAMSHIP QUEENSLAND.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1313, 14 October 1872, Page 4

DISASTER TO THE STEAMSHIP QUEENSLAND.

By telegram news of the disaster of the steamship Queensland in the recent storms on the Queensland coast hns already reached us. A passenger communicates to the Sydney Herald the following particulars :— The steamship Queensland left the wharf at Brisbano, for her return passage to Sydney, on the evening of Monday, 23rd alt., about 10 o'clock. At midnight on Tuesday, tlio wind was so strong and the sea beating so fiercely that the second officer left his cabin for fear it should be torn away. The gale rose higher and higher, till at 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning a furious sea burst in part of the port bulwark, tearing away the second officer's" cabin, with part of the aponson on the port side, and sweeping away the cook's house and fearfully maiming the cock, who was cutting meat for breakfast. The poor fellow was carried j groaning, to a sofa, and still lies ill. The gale still deepened, and all felt that a crisis was near. About 9 o'clock as the first officer stood on the grating over the engine-room, giving orders for bailing out the water -that hod-rushed in, a sea of terrific force struck the ship on the starboard bow, smashing away the bulwark and staunchions, and lashing rightover the funnel, carried the first officer out to sett through the gap on the opposite side. The same sea Btruck the captain standing on the bridge, and bore him right in under the lifeboat, which just saved him from sharing the inevitable fate' of the first officer. That fine energetic young fellow rose to the surface, and a life buoy was thrown, which he caught. A gleam of hope lit his countenance as he saw the men rush to lower the boat, but next moment a lowering sea bore down land sunk him to rise no more. It was well it did, for no boat could have lived or succoured him in Biich a sea, and other livea would have been uselessly sacrificed. This threw a gloom over all hearts, foe every man saw tbe same doom might next be his own. Now the water came pouring through chink and gap, and bolt holes, .into tho middle compartments, Coal-' bunkers, and engine-room, as well as into* the steerage passengers' cabins. The coal was rolling in water from side to side, and all hands that could bo spared from working the ship as she lay to in' the furious seas were summoned to bail' out the water. The only availablo little pump broke at the first stroke of the piston, and for eighteen hours the water ( was little diminished. There were as passengers to Sydney six men of the Yarra Yarra's crew, with their boatswain. They entered heartily into the work to save their own lives and ours; and, ifitiout their aid; humanly speaking, we cauld not possibly have been saved. Their boatswain was made second officer liter poor Bryant's death. Ultimately, when there, was Bft water in the stokehole, Captain Johnson ' discovered) the* principal inlets of water to be! by the holes out of which had been wrenched the bolts of tho sponson beams. These by great and perilous exertion vere plugged from without and within. Had the. sponson stays given way the rater would have rushed into the middle of the ship, whore it could not possibly have been stopped, and we must have gone down in the wild deep some thirty miles from land. By Thursday, about 3 o'clock, the wind had moderated, though the head seas were still violent. Shortly before that hour a fire was lighted, and some food dressed ■for the passengers, who' hail had nothing except a biscuit or sandwich for nearly two days. About half-past three tho furnace fires were lighted, and we received the glad news that we were soon to move under steam and canvas. I should not omit to mention that several men among the steerage passengers lent effective aid in bailing out the water that flooded their own cabins. The state of the women and children there was something frightful both as to body and mind. Among them-,, however, were some who read their Bibles ; and some of them both J! '.pumped and prayed " with hearty goodwill. ; On Friday we reached Moreton Bay. '