A Terribel Woyage.

Manawatu Herald, 15 September 1898, Page 2

A Terribel Woyage.

The steamer Alagonia, which was trading on the Australian coast for same time, turned up at Durban (South Africa) on August 4, after a terrible passage. She brought cattle from the Argentine. The captain writes that during the passage the ship was. overtaken by a terrific cyclone, acconv panied by an extremely confused sea. She bj^fan to ship large quantities of water, juad the violence of the waves breaking on the deck made havoc of the cattle fittings particularly, wrecking them completely, and carrying away portions of the deck fittings. Most pitiable scenes ensued, and as the wooden bars composing the framework of the stock fittings on the deck gave way, the terror-stricken animals were dashed hither and thither as the huge waves broke over the ship. In other cases, the terrified animals, as they were being helplessly knocked about the deck, crashed through the wooden spars, and some of them were washed overboard, seemingly uninjured, but others were ripped up and stabbed by the 'splintered fittings in a most horrible fashion. The r attendants, who stood in jeopardy of their lives, were helpless, and could only watch the animals as they struggled, wounded and bleeding, amid the wreckage on^e deck. An eye-witness says tba,t jU was a most heartrending and

sickening spectacle. Everything went well with the rest of the stock until reaching the . meredian of the Cape, when the ship again encountered terrific weather, accompanied by mountainous cross seas, which totally swept away the remainder of the, cattle fittings on d«ck, washing away and killing Large numbers of stock.