WRECKS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 52, 27 January 1843, Page 3

WRECKS.

(From the Geelong Advertiser.) The Late Gales. —The tremendous gales of last week have made sad havoc amongst our colonial traders. The principal mischief was occasioned by the storm of Friday, on which clay the Jane and Emma, bound to Portland Bay, lost her bowsprit and all her sails, and was compelled to put back to refit. The Fox, from Launceston to Port Fairy with cattle for

Mr. Cox, lost her foremast, muin-top-gallan/;-mast, jib-boom, and sails, in a white squall • Captain Irving was struck down and remained insensible some time. The Sally Ann, from Portland, brings the news cf the arrival there of the Will Widen which was in company with the Few at the.time of her wreck. The Will Watch conveyed to Portland the news of the total wreck of the Dusty Miller, Saunders, on her passage to Adelaide, at Port Fairy ; all saved except Captain Jenkins, late of the Sir John Franklin and Paul Pry, who was swept off' the deck ; the cargo wus valued at 1,200/., not insured; vessel insured for 1,000/. in Dunn’s Company at Launceston. The Essinyton passed the Fox the night of her accident and has not since been heard of. Mr. Blair has despatched the mounted police to reconnoitre the coast in search of her. Mr. John Cox and family were on board.—From letter dated Portland, Nov. 30. We also regret to announce the total wreck of the schooner Tmganini, Captain Griffiths, hound from this port to Hobart Town, on Saturday nipht last; in Lady Bay. .The Captain it seems, was compelled through stress of weather to bout up for Lady Bay, and in the dark ran upon the rocks and the vessel immediately went to pieces. The crew and passengers reached the shore in safety. Captain Griffiths despatched some of the crew to Melbourne for assistance and provisions, having lost all on hoard ; the Seahorse fell in until the boat outside the heads, took the crew on hoard and towed the boat into Hobson’s Bay. DISASTERS TO SHIPPING IN THE CHINESE SEAS. The late arrival from Singapore brings intelligence of a succession of disasters to shipping engaged in the China'and India trade, such as O # it has seldom been our lot to notice. On the morning cf Thursday, the 6th October, the Belvidere, Capt. Stephenson, from Bombay to China, m the harbour of Singapore, took fire, and continued burning that day, and for two days after, till the whole body of the ship was consumed, the coppers only holding together ; and what of her timbers remained beiag reduced almost to charcoal. Nearly the whole of her valuable cargo of cotton, opium, and sandal wood, was consumed. The Clifford, from this port to Bombay, was totally wrecked on a coral reef inside the Barrier in Torres Straits, on the 16th August last. Fortunately no lives were lost, the Isabella being in company. The H.C. steamer Ariadne struck on a rock in the Yang-tse-Kiang, and was expected to founder; but she was towed to Chusan by the Sesostris, and hauled up on a dry bank. She there slipped her cable, and went down in eleven fathoms water. The crew with difficulty saved their lives. The Christina left Macao on the Bth June, bound for Bombay. On the Ist July at 12j midnight she struck on the west London shoal as nearly as can be estimated about lat. S’ 30” N. long. 112. E. Eighteen lives were lost, and 25 saved in a boat which landed at one of the Philippine Islands after being 8 days at sea. ' The Mavis, on her way from the West Coast of China, with about 20,000 dollars in specie, but no cargo. She was struck by lightning immediately abaft the mainmast, and instantly blew up, the electric fluid having passed through the magazine. The gunner, from whom this information is derived, was in the chains at the moment of this catrastrophe, from whence he was thrown back into the vessel, her decks having been entirely torn up. On her going down, which she did immediately, he found himself in the water with about 15 lascars who had escaped, from having been out on the jibboom at the time. One of the boats was luckily floating near them, and in her, comparatively uninjured, they reached the British Sovereign, then standing southward. The Ann, Macalpine, which left Canton, with a cargo of teas for London, on the 27th May, struck on a coral reef (not laid down in the chart) to the westward of the port of Samboangan in the Brazilian Straits, (the Island of Santa Cruz bearing E.N.E. about 5 miles) on the evening of the 15th June, and remained on it till the next morning, when she was got off, and carried into Samboangan. Several other shipwrecks in the Indian seas, are reported in the Singapore Free Press, which we have not. room to notice.