FOUR HUNDRED LIVES LOST.

Shannon News, 25 January 1929, Page 1

FOUR HUNDRED LIVES LOST.

CHINA STEAMER FOUNDERS SUDDENLY AFTER GROUNDING. SOLITARY LIFEBOAT CAPSIZES. lIONGKO.YG, Jan. 16. A terrible shipping disaster occur- r . red this morning when the China mcr- i chant steamer Hsinwah from Shang’•hai for Hongkong grounded on Waelan Island in the early hours. ■ r , Captain Jensen, a Dane, managed to * get off the rocks by going astern, but an hour after the vessel sank in deep water, carrying down three hundred passengers and a hundred of the crew. There was only one lifeboat which it managed to launch, but this immediately capsized iu the heavy, .seas. Twenty survivors only were picked up ( .l>y. Chinese fishermen.:.. ,1 1 , It is believed therevwere three other foreign officers, but'only oM was saved, a Russian, named Jacobsen. ’ Many women and children were lost. It is also believed many of the pass?, engers were disbanded Chinese sold-*' iers. Heavy seas are believed to be the reason why the vessel was driven on the rocks. The Hsinwah was of two thousand tons and was seven years old. She 1 sank with, the utmost suddenness, giving no chance for those aboard. ,■ - ■ * m ~ y.;