DISASTER IN THE RED SEA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 53, 4 March 1913, Page 6

DISASTER IN THE RED SEA.

RUSSIAN STEAMER ON FIRE. News of the disaster to the Russian steamer Estonia, which was destroyed by fire in the Red Sea, was conveyed in a private letter received in Sydney from one of the officers of H.M.S. Hampshire, outward bound for China. The Hampshire kept a sharp lookout for the vessel, but learned that she had drifted towards the reefs, being attended by a Lloyd’s tug. Subsequently information was received that the vessel had been boarded by tho crew of an outward-bound steamer, who took off tho survivors, several of tho Russian crew, including the captain, either having been burned to death or reported missing. Many of tho rescued crew were seriously injured. They were conveyed to the hospital at Aden, two of the survivors being in such a condition that their lives were despaired of. The Estonia, though flying the Russian flag at tho time of the disaster, was a British-built vessel, and was at one time a Bibby liner. She was carrying a. cargo of timber and rape seed, and this accounts for the rapidity with which tho flames took hold of the vessel once the fire broke out on) board.