WRECK OF THE CITY OF CASHMERE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2750, 16 January 1882, Page 2

WRECK OF THE CITY OF CASHMERE.

The shipping season of 1882 has opened very unfortunately, the first vessel laid on for Home, the sp’endidlybuilt iron ship City of Cashmere coming to grief yesterday. A good many wrecks have occurred in or from the Timaru roadstead since it has been used as a port, but so far as the loss of the vessel itself is concerned, not one has given rise to more numerous and genuine expressions of regret, not unmingled with other feelings, than the loss of this fine vessel. Hitherto the vessels lost have been of comparatively small size, and have only been engaged in the coasting, or at most in the intercolonial trade, but the loss of yesterday was that of an ocean-going vessel of full size, and she was loading for “ Home.” No one who saw her riding easily at anchor at noon on Saturday for a moment thought of seeing her before dark in imminent peril, and before the next noon high and dry, a total loss, upon the Ninety-Mile Beach. The exact circumstances which led to the loss of the vessel, and the right shoulders upon which the blame should be laid —for blame is certainly somewhere attributable—will probably be disclosed at the official inquiry ; in the meantime we give such facts as we have been able to ascertain. On Friday afternoon a considerable south-easterly ground swell commenced to roll into the roadstead, and this continued with varying power throughout Saturday and yesterday. It was, as stated, of considerable power, as manifested in the surf on the beach, but the rollers were long and of gentle slope, so that to a vessel at anchor in the roadstead they were not at all dangerous. In fact it seems to be admitted that the loss of the vessel is not all directly attributable to the swell. About half past four on Saturday afternoon it was noticed from the shore that the City of Cashmere (the only vessel at anchor in the roadstead by the way) was drifting, the set of the seas carrying her towards Dashing Rocks, the northern limit of the bay. Captain Mills, the harbor master, immediately went on board. By the time he reached the ship she had drifted a considerable distance shoreward, very close to “ Dashing Rocks," a second anchor had been put down, bringing the vessel up, and a third anchor Lad been got ready to let go. The fact that the ship was adrift was probably first noticed by those on shore. There was no snap, no shock, felt on board, a fact accounted for-by the manner in which the vessel is supposed to have got adrift, and the men were all busy in the waist of the ship washing the deck, and so the drifting of-the vessel escaped notice until attention was called, to it by the tautening of the surfboat line. The vessel did not “ part ” the cable she was anchored by, for on the chain being hauled in it was discovered that the pin of the shackle at the 60 fathoms length had dropped out, and in this simple way the safety of the ship was endangered. Captain Mills, having had the cable hauled in, had it fixed to the third anchor in place of the hawser that had been attached to it. Captain Ross was ashore in the afternoon, having gone to the hospital to procure medicine for one of bis men. When he learned what was happening to his vessel be made arrangements with the owners of the steam launch Lillie Denham to go and tow his ship back to the anchorage. Previous to this the master of the launch, Captain Moir, had gone on board and set the fires going, hut owing to her having been idle some time her machinery was stiff, and the flues were more or less clogged with soot, so that the fires did not draw well. It took some time to get steam up, and a good deal of trouble to keep it up afterwards. Captain Ross went aboard the launch, and went with it to his vessel. A hawser was sent from the ship to the launch, and the little steamer took a pull at the ship to see if she could take her against the seas, which were much more steep and powerful in the shoaler water near shore. The ship had probably dragged a little after the anchor was let go, getting still nearer shore, and she touched bottom several times before the steamer came to her. The launch proved powerful enough to tow the ship, and brought her over her anchor, which was then lifted. Then a number of adverse circumstances seemed to conspire to ensure the vessel’s destruction. A breeze sprang up from seaward; and the staysails and driver were set: to utilise as much of it as possible ; but the wind had more power upon the large broadside of the ship and her top-hamper, and she made as much dangerous lee-way as forward motion from the wind. Then the tide was falling, and as the water shoaled, the driving power of the waves in creased. Lastly, l the difficulty of keeping up a full head of steam on the little tug prevented her from doing what under more favorable circumstances she might have succeeded in. The result was that at about half past ten all hope of getting out that night was abandoned, the vessel drifting inshore in spite of all efforts to prevent it, and two anchors were let go, in the hope that they would hold her till the sea went down, or until more powerful help should arrive. The ship had now been towed about a mile to the northward of Dashing Point, clear of rocks to leeward, at anyrate. Had this not been done, it is "Very probable that a serious loss of life would have occurred. When the anchors were let go, a signallight was burned on the ship, and the Rocket Brigade, who had been previously called together by signal gun, hastened round to the Wasbdyke Spit with their life-saving apparatus, and after couple of misses sent a rocket line into the rigging. The ship lay head to sea, held by the two anchors, and though she was bumping on the bottom a little was not suffering much, and those on board waited some time before commencing to leave. She was gradually forced shoreward, however, and about half past one the first of the crew was sent ashore, and the rest followed, the captain being the last to leave, the harbormaster immediately preceding him. When they left the ship, her stern must have been within 100 yards of the beach. At seven next morning she still lay head to sea, and rose and fell with the waves, though her stern must have been often aground, and a good tug could have saved her. When the ship was seen to ho in difficulties the previous evening, Mr McClutchie, Messrs Cunningham and Go’s manager here, telegraphed to Lyttelton for the Grafton to bo sent down. She was coming down to day (Monday) for a cargo, and ho wisely though she might as well come a little sooner, and bo at hand to render assistance if necessary. At seven o’clock, the City of Cashmere lying as before stated, the Grafton was within a mile of the port on her way down. She brought up at the anchorage, the captain came ashore, and negotiations wore at once entered into for her to proceed to the rescue of the

ship. (A rumor was current yesterday that £2OOO was asked for this service, | and refused. We are authorised to contradict this. A sura, reasonable under the circumstances—for a considerable risk must have been run by the steamer —was asked and at once agreed to by Captain Ross). Some little time was consumed in the negotiations, as one of the principal persons interested was ill at home, some distance from town, and by the time they were completed it was too late to do anything. In any case the Grafton arrived too late. The ship parted her cables and turning broadside to the sea was thrown up bodily on the beach at eight o’clock, less than an hour after the Grafton arrived.' There was no one on 'board' thd ship to give out a tow line, and even if there had been it would have been a work of time and difficulty to have got a line to the steamer, while the task of getting the crew on board again would have been almost a matter of impossibility at this time, as the ship was quite among the breakers. The result of it all is that the hull of a fine vessel now disfigures the Washdyke "Spit, and promises to do so for many's-lo'Jg day. Great credit is due to the owners and officers of the Lillie Denham, for the energy with which they worked at adifficult task; and to the Rocket Brigade for the promptness with which they turned f out at the summons, and the efficient manner in which they played their part in landing the crew. The Harbor Master and officers of the ship did their best under trying circumstances, but as their conduct will be made the subject of judicial inquiry we do not feel free either to praise or to blame in their case. On Saturday evening large numbers of people stayed about the Breakwater and other places whence a view of the ship could be had till a late hour, and yesterday many hundreds of. people visited the wreck. In the morning its hull was lifted and rolled about in its gravelly bed by every breaker, the spray, heavy volumes of water indeed, being dashed as high as the topsail yards. The beach was strewn with wreckage, fragments of boats and of the port bulwarks. The boats were smashed into the smallest fragments. Between twelve and one o’clock the masts went overboard, and thereafter the vessel lay quieter iu her bed. In the afternoon, the tide having fallen, the captain got on board and secured his papers and other effects, and the other officers and crew did the same, two or three express loads being brought away. Among the articles got off yesterday was a fine pig, the animal seeming little the worse for its knocking about. Towards evening it was noticed that a large hole had been knocked in the ship’s bottom on the starboard (landward) side, through her rolling on a boulder of rook that happened to be among the shingle at the spot. The hull is a very strong one, the planks being about | inch thick She was built in 1863—they don’t nse such plates now-a-days. From her size and weight there is no chance we should judge of her ever being got off again. The City of Cashmere was of 980 tons register, and was owned by Messrs Smith and Sons, of Glasgow, and was under charter to the New Zealand Shipping Company. She bad taken on board 2749 sacks of wheat, 276 sacks of flour, and 486 bales of wool, on account of Messrs Miles, Archer and Co., and 1600 sacks of wheat on account of Mr J. L. Morris. The former were insured in the Union Company, an the latter in the South British. The vessel herself was uninsured, the owners being their own underwriters. The stevedore, F. Scoringe, had an engine on board, covered by a policy for £l6O, Captain Dunsford (Marine Surveyor), Mr J. D. McPherson (Lloyd’s agent), and the Manager of the Union Insurance Company at Christchurch, came by the express to-day to arrange about the salvage of the cargo. The offiaial inquiry will probably be held on Wednesday.