BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Southland Times, Issue 1171, 26 November 1869, Page 2

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

PORT CHALMERS. ARRIVED. November 25 — Phoebe, s s , from Bluff. PORT OP LYTTELTON. ARRIVED. November 24— -Ben Nevis, brig, from Newcastle. Novemb t 25 — Tararua, s.s., from Dunedin. PORT OF GREYMOUTH. SAILED. November 2 1 - Jo, for Melbourne. November 25 — Magenta, for Melbourne. ■ « 1.0*3 OF THR P, AND O. COMPANY'S STEAMER CARNATIC, AND TWENTYNINE LIVES. Oar late telegram of English news in anticipation of the arrival of the mail, stated that the fine steamer Carnatic, belonging to the P. and O. Company, had been lost in the Red Sea, but no particulars were given. The Carnatic, with the Indian mails, specie nmounting to £80,000, a valuable careo, and numerous passengers, left Suez on the 12th of September, and at one a.m. on the 13th, she Btruck'on a reef about five n iies off Shaduan, a small island, seven miles long i and four broad, just clear of the Gulf of Suez, at the entrance of the Red Sea. Captain Jones and the second officer were on the bridge when the Carnatic struck, and she was suffered to be on the reef for twenty hours be r ore efforts were made to save the mails, specie, or baggage ; but ire presume attempts were made in the meantime to get the vessel off. At length, while in the act of getting the passengers into the boats, in order to land them on the island of Shaduan, the ship suddenly heeled over from the starboard to port side, and slid off the reef into twenty fathoms of water, carrying with her twenty-nine of the passengers and crew, who happened at the moment not to be on deck. The doctor and chief engineer were in their cabin, having supper. The parser's clerk left one ol the stewards in charge of the despatch box, on deck, while he went down below, for his sun-hat with the third engineer. Five passengers wiire in the act of saving some of their baggage, with the help of the three stewards ; and fifteen natives were plundering the luggage in the hold. The quarter.master was on watch at the time, and •weht down with the rest. The following are the names of the persons whose lives were lost, as far as they could be ascertained :— Messes Pope, Pidding, Thompson, Warner, and Cuppnge, passengers ; Dr Ransford ; Gardner, purser ; Mackintosh, purser's clerk ; Bogue, chief engineer ; M'Call, engineer ; Woods, Sproth, and Fergusson, stewards ; Harper, quarter-master. The remainder of the crew and passengers were landed on Shaduan, and were taken off by the Sumatra and conveyed back to Suez, where they arrived on the 16th. The Carnatic was a ship of 1776 tons, 400 horse power, and was built in 1862, on the Thames, and cost between eighty and ninety

thousand pounds. She was thirty hours on the reef from the time she struck till she went down. Never betoie, as far as is known, have the P. and O. Company lost life, except when the Corea went down with all hands in a typhoon in the China seas.