SHIPS IN DISTRESS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 518, 21 October 1857, Page 4

SHIPS IN DISTRESS.

We are requested to give publicity to the following Notice to Masters and Seamen.

In the event of 3 rour vessel stranding within a short distance of the United Kingdom, and the lives of the crew being placed in danger, assistance will, if possible, be rendered from the shore in the following manner, namely:—

1. A rocket or shot with aline attached will be fired across your vessel. Get hold of this line as soon as you can; and when you have secured it, let one of the crew be separated from the rest, and if in the day time, wave his hat or hand, or a flag or a handkerchief; or, if at night, let a rocket, a blue light, or a gun be fired, or let a light be displayed over the side of the ship and be again concealed, as a signal to those on shore.

2. When you see one of the men on shore separated from the rest, -wave a red flag, or, (if at night) show a bed light and then conceal it; you are to haul upon the rocket line until you get a tailed block with an endless fall rove through it. 3. Make the tail of the block fast to the mast about 15 feet above the deck, or if your masts are gone, to the highest secure part of the vessel. When the tail block is made fast, let one of the crew, separated from the rest, make the signal required by article 1 above.

4. As soon as the signal is seen on shore a hawser will be bent to the whipline, and will be hauled off to the ship by those on shore.

5. When the hawser is got on board, the crew should at once make it fast to the same part of the ship as the tailed block is made fast to, only about 18 inches higher, taking care that there are no turns of the whip line round the hawser. 6. When the hawser has been made fast on board, the signal directed to be made in Article 1 above is to be repeated.

7. The men on shore will then pull the hawser taut, and by means of the whip line will haul off to the ship a sling, cot, or life buoy, into which the person to be hauled, on shore is to get and be made fast. "When he is in and secure, one of the crew must be separated from the rest and again signal to the shore as directed in Article 1 above. The people on shore will then haul the person in the sling to the shore, and when he has landed will haul back the empty sling for others. This operation will be repeated until all persons are hauled ashore from the shipwrecked vessel. 8. It may sometimes happen that the state of the weather and the condition of the ship will not admit of a hawser being set up, in such cases a sling or life buoy will be hauled off instead, and the shipwrecked persons will be hauled through the serf, instead of along a hawser.

Masters and crews of shipwrecked vessels should bear in mind that the success in landing them may in a great measure depend upon their coolness and attention to the rules here laid down-, and that by attending to them many lives are annually saved by the mortar and rocket apparatus on the coasts-of the United Kingdom. The system of signalling must be strictly adhered to; and all women, children, passengers, and helpless persons should be landed before the crew of the ship.

By order of the BOARD OF TRADE 28th February, 1857.

THE KETKIEVBK. A whaler, the Sapphire, put in a few days ago at Spring Bay, and the Balmoral, schooner, was there at the same time. Sanderson, the captain of the whaler, told the captain and mate of the schooner that ere he left the coast of New Zealand, the southwest, about a place called Cresswell, a native crew came along the coast and told him a brig was wrecked on the coast, and the creAV were on shore with the natives. He did not know of the Retriever brig being missing, . and made no particular enquiry; he knew the brig, both vessels belonging to this; and the people on board the Balmoral never said anything of the Retriever, or made any particular enquiry. It came on to blow hard, and the whaler lost an anchor and cable, and stood off the coast. It was about 80 miles from where the whaler was the brig was wrecked. A mast, corresponding to the Retriever's, was found offMilford Haven, broken above the deck; and this mast was seen by some of the men in a whaler, which came in a few days ago, and were wondering what vessel had lost her mast; and coupled with the natives' report of a brig not far from there ashore, induces the hope that the Retriever had got dismasted and gone ashore, or the captain had beached her. The natives got the report from other natives; it had travelled along the coast, and one man thinks the captain of the whaler said the crew were, on an island, and all safe with some

natives,

It is earnestly requested that any vessels trading on the southern coasts of New Zealand will, for the sake of humanity, endeavour to ascertain the truth of the above report, and, if there are any people among the natives, to bring them away. Any further information will be gratefully received by the friends of the people who were on board.— S. M. Herald, Sept. 11.

Loss op Her Majesty's Steamer Transit.— His Netherland Majesty's steamer Montrado, from Minto, arrived yesterday afternoon, 13th July, having on board Lieut. Downes, R.N., of Her Majesty's steamer Transit, and reports the total loss of the latter vessel. The Transit was lost in the Straits of Banca on Friday last, at nine a.m., by striking on a rock four miles from shore, and the vessel almost immediately afterwards went down in seventeen fathoms of water. The troops and crew were saved and landed on the island of Bahea; Lieutenant Downes was despatched to Minto for assistance; the Dutch resident there at once most courteously sent on the steamer Montrado to Singapore for the purpose of chartering vessels to bring the troops to this port. We have no other details at present. It will be remembered that the Transit was one of the most unfortunate transport vessels in the service. On her last voyage she sat upon her anchor, and all but foundered on starting from England, then put into Corunna, and at length has found a final bed for herself in the Straits of Banca.— Straits Times.