Supposed Loss of the Warship Wasp.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 233, 17 December 1887, Page 4

Supposed Loss of the Warship Wasp.

The China mail ot October slh has Lho following legaiding the cnerdue British gunboat XW.p : Eveiy day that pa^c- i-> adding to the an\iety ielfc for the safety of lI. M. Wasp, uhich left .lahoro on the 10th of September for Hong Kong, and has tlieiefoie been out moie than twenty-iivc days. The Cockchafer and the Fnebrnnd have been sent out norn Hong Kong to search foi her, and a tteamer belonging to the Singapore Government has alfco left on the fame errand. The native authoiities here have likewise requested the captains of steamers trading between here ami Manila to keep a lookout for the gunboat, and have wired to Saigon and other ports between here and Singapore regarding her. There was a rumour that the Russian transport which passed through the harbour recently had sighted the Wasp labouring in one of the typhoons that were raging in the China Sea about two weeks ago, but the Russian vessel made no report on the matter. The Wasp, which is a new vessel, on her first trip, is a composite gunboat of 670 tons, 73 men, and 1,000 horse-power, and is armed with six five-inch breech-load-ing guns. She arrived at Singapore from England on the 18th August last, and is a consort of the Rattler, now on the Singapore station. Her officers are : Lieut. Commander, Bryan J. H. Adamson ; sub-lieu-tenants, A. W. Atkinson, and G. I. Fortescue ; surgeon, J. Nunan, M.D., ; assistant paymaster in charge, F. H. Greenwood ; engineers, K. Atwood and G. F. Hodges. Her Majesty's spip Leander returned to port at Hong Kong on the 17th October from her cruise in search of the missing gunboat. She reports that cruising among the islands and reefs of the Paracel Group, she found one old wreck of a wooden ship on one of the islands or the Amphitrite Group, and the wreck of an iron steamer on North Reef. Boats could not board them on account of the surf.