SHIPPING FATALITIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3768, 27 June 1907, Page 3

SHIPPING FATALITIES.

A Cruiser runs on a Reef.

Sydney, June 25

The cruiser Pyramus, with the Governor and a general party aboard, when returning from a visit to the Northern Territory, grounded at sea bn a reef 14 miles from Flinders Island, near Cooktown, on Sunday morning. The steamer Tsinan came to her assistance and made two ineffectual efforts to tow her off. A further attempt will be made at spring

tide to-morrow, fiord Northcote and party were transferred to the Tsinan. It is reported that so far the cruiser is undamaged. NAVAL NAVIGATION AT FAULT.

Brisbane, June 26

Lient. Hurst was on the bridge all night, and left at eight in the morning to have a bath. The sea was smooth, and there was a bright sun. As the Pyramus approached the reef beacon, the officer of the watch, of his own volition, ordered the helmsman to go to port, and the beacon was brought on the starboard how. The vessel was doing 15 knots, and leapt on to the coral reef. There was a terrific grinding and grating below, and as her waist took the weight she came to a gradual and helpless standstill.

She has, as far as can be gathered, sustained no damage. She just ploughed a trough in the coral, and lay there with her bows in the air. Had the Pyramus run on to a rock reef instead of a great mass of rotten coral and sand, she would have crumbled up like an egg shell, but examination of the cruiser showed she was making no water. There was no big shivering shock, and no dislocation of anything aboard. She just slid up on to the coral and stayed there. The crew took the matter with true naval coolness, and within a couple ot minutes of the vessel striking every man was at his post, the watertight compartments were closed down, and the boats manned with all the precision of clockwork.

The people on the Pyramus are not disposed to talk much about

the disaster, but there are three out-standing facts, that the cruiser was two miles off the beaten track of merchantmen, she had the sea reef beacon half a mile to starboard when a similar distance on the other bow would have given her deep water, and she actually climbed up in day-light on to a reef that was only two or three feet under the surface of a very calm sea.

A TERRIBLE WRECK

Valparaiso, June 25

The Steam Navigation Co.’s steamer Santiago quitted Corrall with her engines partly disabled in a recent storm. She was wrecked in a heavy squall 50 miles north of Corrall. One passenger and one officer were saved. It is feared three passengers and 87 of the crew perished. One of the Santiago’s boats drifted about for several days before it was dashed to pieces on the rocks.