AUCKLAND

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 93, 27 February 1863, Page 3

AUCKLAND

The Drowned or the Orpheus. —Until yesterday afternoon, notwithstanding the unremitting endeavours to recover the bodies of the victims of this appalling shipwreck, no intelligence had reached Auckland of a single corpse having been discovered. About four o’clock, however, we received a communication from Dr. Needle, dated Onehunga, Friday afternoon. It states that the natives had picked up and buried fifteen bodies—two officers, eleven seaman, and two marines. We have been told that those bodies were found some seven miles to the northward of the place of shipwreck, towards Waitakcrio, the spot, it may be remembered, where the seamen wrecked in the brigantine Union, bound from Newcastle to Manukau many months since, were discovered. More (bodies will, in all likelihood, be east ashore in this direction, the set of the current being towards that quarter. We shall await with anxiety the result of the inquest which will undoubtedly be held ; and through which the first authentic light will be shed upon a nautical tragedy unsurpassed, perhaps, in horror, since the sinking at Spithead of the Toy at George. Instead of abating in melancholy interest, the wreck of the Orpheus, with all its concomitant circumstances, excites a continuous and deeper feeling of sympathy in the hearts of the Auckland public. Nothing but a minute and searching investigation can allay this feverish excitement. The means of pursuing such an inquiry have now been furnished ; and it is possibly not too much to say that such an inquiry may assist in a considerable degree the deliberations of the Court Martial which will hereafter be held in England.— New Zealander, Feb. 14.