LOSS OF THE CLAN MACDUFF.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6497, 23 December 1881, Page 5

LOSS OF THE CLAN MACDUFF.

ADDITION AI. PASTICrtAaS. Some particular* of the loss of the Cian Macduff were published on the arrival of the San Francisco mail. Since then we have received files of one day later, from which we find that another of the boats—that in charge of tho second officer—turned up at Ballycotton, nesr Liverpool. Two of the crew died from exposure shortly after landing. Of No, 4 boat no information has been received, but it is supposed she was not launched. No. S boat, containing eseve* persons, was picked up by the steamer I’aiea* tine, and the inmates were landed at Lives* pool. No. 6 boat is musing, and it i* about her the greatest anxiety prevails: she is supposed to be in charge of the tbi d ctficex. The passengers of the Clan Micd'..:i numbered 19, and the crew 42, mating a total, with one stowaway, of 63 person#. Of these SI have been saved, 20 are drowned, and two have died, leaving the fate of nice in uncertainty. These larded at Liverpool, with the fourth officer and three of the crew, were . picked up by the IMee* tine and brought on to Liverpool. The inquiry into the loss of the vessel i- likely to open up some curious disclosure *. Tiro chief engineer is alleged to have report; d lo the captain the unsatisfactory e utc of the vessel in time for her to have made for an anchorage before she arrived off Queenstown. It is believed that bad she thus got into an anchorage it would have been found that her principal requirement was to clear the bilges. Whatever leak she had is believed to Lave arisen subsequently from the drifting coal washing to and fro in the engine-room.

Mr Ridgeway, tho chid officer, on reaching Liverpool, made a statement, in which he-aid that the captain, chief engineer, and chief cook were in his boat, with a number cf seamen and passengers, numbering twenty five in all. They left the Clan Macduff at * four o’clock, and at half.j **?. six the bos* was capsized. Five clung oa the chief ergicecr, a fireman, and the three survivor#. The others wore drowned. The five who got into the boat baled her out with a great deal of difficulty, and drifted before the wind, using a ceiling board to at ear her. The chief engineer died from exhaustion, and the unman became insane and j imped overboard. Tho Tim ft of Nor. 4 say#: —“Use body of Miss Ada Lester (Miss Akhurst) a number of the comedy company who took passu-pa in tbo Ciaa Macduff, has been identified in Cork by friends from Dublin. Her sister, Min Alien Akhurit, was found three days later, about 2PO yds distant. It row appears that when the former was picked up Lrr body was quite warm, and it ie i ipji.si-d that tho boat must hare been aip.i.u.l in thesmf when approaching tbo show. Tiro finding of both bodies about tho fame pkoa gives consistency to this theory. Tiro holies wero sent to London and bnritd at Kensal Green/* Miss Lester's father, who was accompanying her to Bombay, was also among the drowned.