STORMBIRD WRECKED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 31, 4 September 1916, Page 3

STORMBIRD WRECKED.

,'9ON£S LEFT ON WANCANU' BEACH. THREE LIVES LOST Per Press Association Wangahui, Septeiuljor 3. The steamer Stormbird, 151 tons, was wrecked on the south mole at the entrance of the river last night. Tln;eo of the crew were drowned, namely, G. W. Hinckey, lamp trimmer; 15. Kyle, fireman; and J. Hunter, fireman. Captain A. Gibson and the remainder of the crew of nine men were saved. No passengers were on board. The steamer left the town wharf 'it 11 p.m. for Wellington, and shortly before midnight distress signals were seen near the end of the south mob? by the men at the pilot station. The harbormaster, Captain Mclntyre, with several volunteers, immediately proceeded to the. scene with life-saving apparatus. They discovered six survivors on the mole, and four others clinging to the capsized hull of the steamer, which was showing in the breakers about two hundred feet off the structure. With a second rocket that was fired a line was thrown across the hull and the four men were brought ashore in a basket.

According to the members of the crew the Stormbird was in light trim, and on reaching the harbor entrance she failed to answer her helm. '1 he vessel was driven against the mole and heavy seas swept over her, extinguishing the fires. The steamer eventually cut her way through the mole,until she was held insecapably by the rocks at a point under the engineroom. It was at this stage that six of their number scrambled ashore. The vessel suddenly snapped into two pieces, the forward part drifting four hundred feet before capsizing. At the time of the disaster the night was dark, and a heavy ground swell made a bumpy sea at the river entrance. It is believed that Hunter was drowned in trying to clamber on to the mole, but that the other two were washed oil' the wreck. The bodies of Hinckey and Kyle were recovered this morning, several miles south of the wreck. The beach for miles is strewn with debris. The vessel was returning to Wellington practically empty, having but ;<• few tons of cargo on board. THE STORMBIRD'S HSSTORY. In brief, the history of the Stormbird, the oldest iron steamer in the world, is as follows: — The Stormbird was built on the Clyde in 1854, and after trading for some years in Australian waters, was purchased by a Dunedin firm. She was subsequently bought by the Wellington Steam Navigation Company. At the outbreak of the .Maori war in Taranaki she was engaged by the Government to carry troops. From thence on the Stormbird was continually in the coastal trade. In 1883 she was cut in halves and lengthened, and her tonnage increased. In 1888-89 the vessel wa. s engaged in the AucklandWhangarei trade, in opposition to another old tinier, the Wellington. The Stormbird eventually made Wellington her headquarters, and for many years past was engaged in the Wellington- Wanganui trade, Hying the house Hag of the Weliington-Wan-giuiui Steam Packet Company. For some ten years she was commanded by Captain Mclntyre, the harbourmaster for Wanganui. i