ABANDONED ON AN ICEBERG.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 170, 5 November 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

ABANDONED ON AN ICEBERG.

The Titania, sailing ship (Captain Lloyd, master), OAvncd by John Rees, of Swansea, left St. John’s for Miramiehi, in ballast, on Tuesdav morning last. Shortly before midnight under cover of a dense obscuring fog, the Titania struck Avitli a terrific, crash on a huge ice island, and in a few hours sunk deep doAvn in its Avake. As soon as the vessel Avas known to be irretrievably Avreckcd Captain Lloyd ordered the boats to bo loAvored .way. The crew avci-o all got safely out of the ship, and all aA-ailablo provisions and stores secured to meet possible contingencies. Mr. Rees, the oAvnor, Avho Avas on hoard and had a considerable sum of money in his possession, got into the smaller boat, and it is said, placed, aAvay aft in her this money and all his personal property that time availed him to save. Having'forgotten something of importance, n< t named, ho again boarded the sinking ship, and strangely enough, Avas deserted in his hour of peril "by the crews of the tAvo boats, and left to sink Avith the sinking ship. The deep damnation of his taking off is today the subject of judical investigation. No coheicnt story of the coAvardly and highly criminal desertion of the oAvner of the Titania has heeir offered as yet by the captain or creAA-. ’The ship, after the collision, remained above Avater for nearly three hours. The sea -ftas almost tranquil. A brisk breze had hut recently sprung up and the distance of the ship from the harbour of St. John’s Avas barely forty miles in a southeasterly direction. Next morning at six o’clock, Avhcn about fifteen miles from the scene of the disaster, the fishing schooner P.L. Whitton, returning from St. John’s to Giand Banks, fell in Avith the two boats’ crews, all Avell, took them on hoard, and brought them in safely to St. John’s last night. No trace, however, of the money or the unfortunate Rees has been found. When Captain Lloyd Avas interrogated as to the reason of his not waiting for or attempting to rescue Rees, lie replied that he AA-as a A’or\ poAverful man, and he feared to board the ship lest he should iling him overboard. No two individuals from the ill-fated Litania reproduce the same or even a consistent account of the unhappy occurrence. It is not surprising, therefore, that a dark cloud of suspicion has settled on the Avhole affair, and thata challenge not to be ignored has been addressed to tlie judicial authorities of Newfoundland to probe the matter to the bottom, —‘ New York Herald.’