A TERRIBLE SEA.

Kumara Times, Issue 1101, 10 April 1880, Page 4

A TERRIBLE SEA.

The following further particulars of the wreck of the Commonwealth (steamer), on the Island of Andros, on Dec. 20th last, are furnished from Lloyd's Agency at Syra :—" The ship has gone totally to pieces, and nothing of the hull is visible abore water except a piece of her iron neck, about thirty feet square, which had been hurled on the rocks twenty-five feet above the level of the sea. The rest of the hull could be easily discerned at the bottom of the sea, close to the shore, and consisted of eight or ten pieces scattered here and there and interspersed with anchors, chains, ropes, davits, etc., together with an iron lower mast.

The beach which is situated just behind the rocks where the ship struck, and distant from them about half a mile, was strewn with an Incredible quantity of wood, covering an area of nearly half a mile square. A minute search was made among the debris for any articles of value or papers, but only a few charts of the Indian Seas were found in the top of a smashed chronometer box, and two papers. They were picked up also a lady's glove and a part of what appeared to be a muslin dress, together with some torn articles of men'B clothing without any name or mark. Very little of the cargo'has been cast ashore. All efforts to discover any bodies either in the sea or on the land proved fruitless. On Jan. 2, H.M.S. Coquette arrived on the spot, and the commander expressed himself perfectly astounded at the terrible havoc committed by the sea, and declared that, although he had seen a great many wrecks, nothing could compare with the complete manner in which this vessel had broken up. Some men from the Coquette assisted the native labourers, and they found that a fore-yard 65ft. in (length had been cast 40 paces inland on a sandbank 20ft high. The heel of a topmast, eleven feet long, was fonnd washed up a gully way 350 paces from the sea, and smaller pieces of timber were cast still further inland. It is difficult to tell whether the crew on seeing the danger took to the boats ;if so, there can be no doubt that they were immediately swamped. There must have been people on board, as some country people saw rockets thrown up from the spot about midnight on the night of Dec. 19-20, but were unable to render any assistance or even approach the sea coast, owing to th« fury of the gale and the vast quantity of snow on the ground, The latter cause also explains the reason of the delay in the news of the wreck not reaching the town of Andros, all the mountain passes being blocked up with snow. The Commonwealth was an iron steamer of 1862 gross tonnage, was built in the Wear in 1877, and was the property of Messrs Day and Farlamb, of North Shields.