STEAMERS WRECKED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 837, 4 December 1929, Page 9

STEAMERS WRECKED

STORM SWEEPS EASTERN CANADA

DEATH ROLL OF TWENTY L nited P.A. —By Telegraph—Copyright OTTAWA, Tuesday. Another 20 lives have been lost in the severe storms which have swept across Eastern Canada. This tragic death roll follows closely upon the recent tidal wave disaster in Newfoundland when the number of deaths was variously estimated at from 26 to 36. A message from St. John's, Newfoundland, says that seven deaths occurred in the gales and snow storms which raged off the coast. Five of this number were men who set out in a pilot boat to place a pilot aboard a steamer in the roadstead. They were drowned as a result of their craft overturning. The steamer Hofelstein went to the assistance of two schooners that were sinking and rescued 15 fishermen from them. Severe storms have occurred also on Lake Superior. The grain steamer Kiowa was wrecked, with a loss of 13 lives. Six sailors perished before help arrived. By superhuman efforts the coastguards and lifeboatmen were able to get a line aboard the wreck. After heroic work they transferred most of the sailors to safety by means of a breeches buoy. A total of IS were rescued. Seven lives were lost when the last lifeboat to leave the ship capsized. It contained the captain of the Kiowa, the young son of the owner of the vessel and five others. The steamer Kiowa is a vessel of 2,310 tons. She is fitted with oil fuel, and was built in 1920 by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company. Her owner is O. W. Blodgett, and her port of regis try is Wyandotte, Michigan.