DREADFUL COLLISION AT SEA.
Details have been received afc Plymouth on the disastrous collision off the Tunga Lightship between the Peninsular and Oriental Company's .steamer Nepaul and the Chinese troopship War Nien Ching, which resulted in. the founder ing of the latter and the loss of over lOC lives. The two vessels came together during a dense fog and whilst a high sea was running. The Nepaul's engines, were immediately reversed, but betore she could gather stern way .she crashed into the Chinaman amidships, cutting through to her engine-room. Whilst the two vessels were locked the Europeans scrambled over the bows of the Nepaul, but the Chinese, in their wild panic, clusteied. by hundreds on the deck of their doomed, ship. The sceneswereofthomost appalling description. The Nepaul's boats were lowoaedwith all despatch, but had gicat difficulty in getting alongside the Wan Nicu Clung, by reason oi the mountainous waves. The Chinaman's boats were lowered with numbers of the men, but capsizbd through overcrowding, and after this neither their own offioers nor the Nepaul's could persuade the remainder without the greatest difficulty to rescue themselves by jumping. There were more than three hundred of them huddled together on the saloon-deck of their fast-sinking vessel, and the Englishmen boarding it were obliged to push or throw them into the bcv.b,. This work lasted for half-an-hour, by svhich time some two hundred of them had been saved. Then it became necessary to sheer off, and rescue those who Aveie being bwept to and fro by the waves. In forty minutes from the collision, the Wan Nion Ching was being washed from stem to stern, and her riggings were swarming with Chinamen, shouting wild appeals for help. The Nepaul's boats meanwhile kep* at their work, but the experience was terrible, the poor wretches who wero being tossed by the waves uttering most affecting cries as they were borne away in the darkness. Numbers were saved who wero found floating about on pieces of wreckage so benumbed with cold as to bo perfectly helpless, and many of them dying as they reached the deck of the Ncpaul. There being but four fathoms of water, the (ops of the Chinaman's masts were still showing as she sank, several men being carried with her as she went down. Moie than one hundred lives were lost. Tho survivors were treated with great kindness on board the Nopaul. The rescuing parties behaved with greafc heroism, ono of the boats being commanded by the foui bh officer of the Nepaul, who left a sick bed to do so. The Nepaul sustained very little damage, and stood by the Wan Nien Ching for several hours after the disaster.
The statistics of arrivals in and departures from the colony for last month show that the moving population has been doploted by the return of Australian visitors on account of the approach of winter. The immigration and emigration returns for April are as follows -.—Arrivals : At Auckland, 289 ; Wellington, 260 ; Lyttelfcon, 07 ; lnvercargill, 327 ; other places, 3 : total, 946. Departures : Auckland, 40S ; Wellington, 250 ; Lyttelton, 201 ; Invercargill, 435 ; other places, 33 ; total, 1,333. In the arrivals 267 were from the United Kingdom, and the romaindor from the Australasian colonies. Of the departures, 359 were to the United Kingdom,S96 to the Australasian colonies, and 88 to other places*
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Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 205, 28 May 1887, Page 8 (Supplement)
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554DREADFUL COLLISION AT SEA. Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 205, 28 May 1887, Page 8 (Supplement)
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