VESSELS IN COLLISION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 70, 18 March 1912, Page 5

VESSELS IN COLLISION.

SERIOUS MISHAP IN ENGLISH CHANNEL. P. AND 0. LINER SINKS. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Press Association A London, March 16. • The German barque Pisagua collided off Bcachey Head in the darkness with the P. and O. liner Oceana, which was carrying two hundred passengers. One boat was swamped, but it is believed the occupants were saved. A channel steamer secured the passengers off the Oceana, and was towing the latter to Dover, when the Oceana foundered off Dungeness, with a million pounds worth of specie aboard. The Pisagua sustained slight damage. EXEMPLARY DISCIPLINE. (Received 18, 8.5 a.m.) London, March 17. The Oceana carried two hundred and eighty of a crew and forty passengers. The remainder intended to join her at Marseilles. • It is estimated that four passengers were drowned. The bodies of a stewardess, a Lascar, and a lady were found. Possibly half a dozen of the crew perished. There was a terrific crash when the vessels collided. A hole twenty feet wide was made, and there was a great inrush of water. The discipline of the officers and the European section of the crew was exemplary, but the Lascars huddled together alternately wailing and screaming, terrifying otherwise courageous women folk awaiting their turn at the boats as patiently as the males. Lifebelts were distributed. There was ample boat accommodation. The swamping of the first boat is attributed to an accident with a block rope. Miss Macfarhme, a clergyman’s daughter, was the only occupant rescued. She stated that her father and mother and some ladies were drowned. Thirty-two passengers have arrived in London in night clothes, blankets and towels. Some were bareheaded. The ship’s carpenter was lying in his bunk at tlie moment cf the collis on, and had his leg smashed. A passenger had an arm fractured. The captain and the remainder of the crew quitted the Oceana only when she was settling. Within twenty minutes she heeled over, the stern rising. A dense cloud of smoke announced an explosion. She lies on an even keel. The Pisagua’s damages are worse. It is thought she has arrived at Dover in a sinking condition. THE CAPTAIN COMPLIMENTED. (Received 18, 8.45 a.m.) ; (4 1 i 1 ;ii /, London, March 17. The Oceana sank six miles off Ashbourne. '-.hi .. r, . It is now believed that seventeen were drowned. . VWI ( .The officers of the German barque Pisagua, with which she collided, paid a tribute to the coolness of the Oceana’s officers, addip-g-.that the - captain behaved with the greatest presence of mind—like hair’British captains.