DIVERS FIND SHIP

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1929, Page 3

DIVERS FIND SHIP

LOST 33 YEARS AGO

In their search off the French seacoast for the lost steamer Egypt, which went down with a fabulously large cargo of gold, Italian divers from the tug Artiglio have located the hulk of another vessel, and have announced that they will make an attempt to salvage her cargo, writes the Paris correspondent of the “ New York Times ”. The wreck, which was at first mistaken for the Egypt, has been identified as that of the British steamer Drummond Castle, which sank after striking a reef a short distance southwest of the island of Molene, off the dangerous and rocky French coast near Brest. The lost vessel lies nearly 200 feet below the surface, but the Italian expedition is equipped to work successfully on this wreck, it is believed.

The Drummond Castle foundered on the night of June 17, 1896, and of the 205 persons, crew and passengers, aboard, only three men were saved, being picked up by fishermen after clinging to wreckage for forty-eight hours. Documents show that the ship, which was returning from Cape Town and bound for Plymouth, ' carried a rich cargo of coral, with a considerable quantity of gold ingots and diamonds from South African mines. If it can be recovered after thirty-three years on the ocean bottom, salvagers will be riclily paid for their work. There are many in the little fishing town of Molene who vividly remember the Drummond Castle disaster, and how all the boats available searched the sea and the floating wreckage for days in the hope of rescuing some survivor. It was said that the British captain had made an error of twelve miles in his reckoning of the ship’s position and believed he was well clear of the island of Ouessant when his ship-struck the hidden rocks. The steamer, literally ripped open, sank within three minutes, and many of the passengers who were below decks drowned in their bunks.

Many others were carried down with the suction of the sinking vessel, but the three survivors recounted that many of their companions had clung with them to wreckage for hours, but they had dropped away one by one, overcome by exhaustion. 1