PARISIANA'S FATE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 330, 21 January 1911, Page 5

PARISIANA'S FATE.

j BURNED AT SEA, i ' CP.EW LAND ON LONELY j ISLAND. ' SAVED BY "BRITISH TKANB- - PORT.'' ; [>.\- Teie.priir»--i'i - e?- A?soc;a!i-n.-CopyrigM j Albany, Yesterday. i The steamer British Transport, : which is now arriving, signalled that I she has the crew of the overdue Parii siana aboard. The Parisiana was ' abandoned on lire at sea. No details ! are available. Received January 21, 8.55 a.m. Albany, This Day. A lire started on the Parisiana on December 11th and continued till the 14th, when the vessel, which was in the vicinity of St. Paul's Island, was abandoned. The crew landed on the island and were taken off by the British Transport on January 11th. The fire borke out between decks, where a quantity of resin was stored. The bulkheads were cut away and the fire attacked from different parts, but unsuccessfully. The vessel was soon an inferno with the. beams and stanchions aglow, while the heat bent and twisted them to ail shapes. Next day the coal was alight, and. soon the steamer was a seething mass of flame. Violent explosions occurred at intervals during the night and the captain decided to abandon the vessel and made for St. Paul's Island, which he calculated was 41 miles to the eastward. Two boats were used, the captain taking charge of one and the chief officer of the other. The crew took any possessions they had, but owing to the rough weather all surplus bagagge was thrown away. The explosion made great rents in the ship's side. The boat-3 lost sight of each other at daylight, the chief officers boat first making the island on December loth, the captain's arrived on the following Saturday afternoon. Fireman Lake was smothered in the ounkers prior to the ship being abandoned, and two other deaths occurred aefore reaching the islands, due to exposure. The unfortunate victims were Ban-

non, fourth engineer, who was consumptive, and another man named Hine. They were buried on the island. The Parisiana's crew climbed to the top of the crater of the island and erected a Hag upside down. The British Transport sighted the castaways, whose food was almost exhausted. They came cfi in their own boats. The British Transport was bound ►for Melbourne, but the captain decided to cull at Aibany to relieve anxiety regarding the Parisiana. The shipwrecked men owe their rescue to the British Transport being of light trim and being driven further South owing to bad weather. Otherwise it would not have been in the vicinity of the island. The captain and officers of the Parisiana are reticent. The Parisiana had ten thouasnd tons of cargo for Australia and New Zealand to the value of cf £175,000 to £200,000.

The estimated value of the vessel is £56,000.