The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Nov. 10. LOSS OF THE WAIRARAPA.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 33, 10 November 1894, Page 8

The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Nov. 10. LOSS OF THE WAIRARAPA.

££ The wreck was manifestly one of those accidents, impossible to foresee or provide against, to which those who £ go do>vn to the sea in ships’ are always sabject.” So wrote a Dunedin paper on the afternoon of the day on which news was received of the terrible disaster at the Great Barrier. This hastily pronounced verdict must, in the face of what has since been elicited, be reversed. Dr. Coughtrey, of Dunedin, has stated that a few weeks ago he was consulted by the late Capt. Mclntosh, who had undergone three attacks of influenza, and who then complained of great nervous prostration. He was prescribed for, laid up for a time, and took a run to the Lakes to recuperate. On his return it was remarked that he looked worse than before, but nevertheless he resumed duty, and brought his vessel safely to within a few miles of her destination. From the evidence of his officers there is too much reason to fear that his judgment was seriously impaired. Only on this supposition can his strange disregard of the most obvious precautions be accounted for. He declined to reduce the speed of the vessel, althoug'h in the midst of a dense fog and near the coast ; he refused to use the fog horn lest it should alarm the passengers, while they, poor wretches, were dreading disaster be-

cause of the high speed and the failure to use the fog horn; and he rejected with scorn the idea that they were travelling’ as fast as the log indicated. These things, coupled with the fact that Captain Mclntosh had earned a high reputation for shil 1 and prudence, go to show that he was scarcely responsible for his actions on the fatal night. It has been suggested that the rivalry between the Union Company and Huddart, Parker and Co. may have had something to do with the catastrophe, but on this point one of the officers is clear and emphatic. He was asked :—•“ Was the steamer timed to reach Auckland ? —No. We had two days to spare, and were not tied down to any particular hour. We were timed to reach Auckland on the Tuesday.—Was the one of those boats that waited upon the Huddart-Parker’s steamers ? She was not attendant upon them at all. We were, in fact, not on that job. It was the Rotomahana. We were a day ahead of the Rotomahana going over and a day behind her coming back.” —On the scene which followed the striking of the steamer upon the rocks we have no desire to dwell. It has seldom been equalled in the annals of marine disaster. In one respect it closely resembled'the Tararua wreck On that awful night in April, thirteen years ago, some of those lost endured hours of suspense before the end came. At Great Barrier we read that people were floating about in the water, alive, from dawn till the middle of the day, and that in some cases they were carried seaward Nearly all the bodies cast ashore had life-belts on —testimony to the fact that when the crisis came there were cool heads and ready hands among the crew and passengers. In the majority of cases the belts would have proved effectual in saving life, but on that Avild, rocky shore, they only served to mock the hopes of their wearers, who were either battered to death at the foot of the cliffs, or dragged out to a slower doom by the relentless backwash. There is reason to fear that in the first rush to the boats the women and children were overlooked —the language of one witness is significant: “ Too many men were helping to get the boats out to permit women and children to come along ” —but at the same time many proofs were given of dauntless courage and supreme selfdevotion. It will dull the edge of our grief to remember that on that fateful Sabbath evening men and women not a few proved themselves worthy of the best traditions of our race.