A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION. LETTER TO MR HENDERSON.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 310, 24 October 1888, Page 3

A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION. LETTER TO MR HENDERSON.

A private letter received by Mr Jno. Henderson, of this city, contains full particulars of the sad occunence, and we have been permitted to make the following extracts : — It appears that from the time the steamer left Auckland, almost up to the lime of the accident, Mrs Henderson had been confined to her cabin, terribly ill through weakness and sea-sickness. She several times expressed her belief that she would not survive the passage, as she felt so weak and ill. Up to Monday the voyage had been somewhat boisterous, but not more so than is frequently experienced. The bad weather partly abated on Monday morning, and Mrs Henderson was induced to come on deck. The change appeared to revive her, and after a time she seemed in better spirits, although still weak and ill. Early in the afternoon the sky became overcast, and the wind increased in -violence. At about 3.30 p.m. a tremendous sea struck the ship so suddenly that, as one of the passengers expressed it to me, " the vessel appeared to be all of a heao." Mrs Henderson, with her infant in her arms, was sitting on a coil of rope, with her second little boy at her side, while another fellow passenger had charge of David. The gale was so sudden and the volume of water which fell on the deck so large that Mrs Henderson, clasping her infant in her arms, must have been bodily lilted over the side of the vessel, while her second little boy was caught by some hiendly hand just as he was being washed over the rail. The occurrence was so sudden that it was a few moments before it was found that Mrs Henderson was missing, the first indication of the fatality being the appearance of a woman's shawl floating away some little distance behind the steamer. Mis Hedley was near Mrs Hendeison, and saw the unfortunate mishap. Mit> Hedley s child also had

A NARROW ESCAPE of either being drowned or trampled to death in the confusion which ensued. The torco of the water was so gi eat that her child became detached from her arms and floated for some little time from rail to rail till rescued. Mrs Hedley has stood the 01 deal bravely so far, bub ib is feared thab I the le-actioo will cell against her, her nerves ] being" terribly shaken. She at present can scarcely realise the scene and the loss she has sustained. Mrs Hedley speaks of Capt. | Edie in teim.* of the highest praise for his kindness towards her, and also of the oih^era and passengers. There appears to have been no hope, even if any attempt had been made to sa%e Mrs Henderson, owing to the lime which elapsed between the tiiueof thcaccidentandthediscovery thatshe was. missing, and also on account of the tremendous sea running. Two hours after this pad occurrence Sydney Heads were sighted. The sad affair cast a gloom over the vessel, and much sympathy was shown for the motheiless little one and for Mrs ]ledley. Mrs Hedley and her children are now staying with Mrs Gibson, her cousin, In a postsciipt to this letter the writerstatebthatMibllcdley was taken very ill the iirst night she was ashore and that tho advice ol two medical men had to be piocured. Dining Wednesday she rallied somewhat, and now she isontirely recovered, although the tension on her system had been very severe. It appears that Mr Henry llcndcr.-on saw an account of the melancholy cccmrence in the Ballarat pa pei s Ho was so overcome with griel that ho was unable to come to Sydney and sent Mr Hedley to bring his motherless children to Melbourne. David and John (Mrs Hendersons children) have been kept in ignorance of the loss of their mother.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT. The following account of Iho occurrence is t'Lom the Sydney "Daily Tele giaph " of Oth October: — The Union Steamship Company's s.s. Mararoa, which arrived in Port Jackson last evening from New Zealand, fell in with tho full foice of the recent heavy south-east gale off tho coast, nud whilst running* was struck by a sea, which washed a woman and her child overboard, and injured several of the passengers and crew. The occurrence took place at half - past three o'clock yesterday afternoon. It appears that on Sunday night, on ' approaching the coast, the vessel fell in with a southerly galeThe wind was not very heavy at fir3t, but towards afternoon it increased and by 3 o'clock in Hie afternoon was blowing with terrific fOlf 01 cc, accompanied by a high, confused sea. The vessel was kept on her usual track for the pore, and made excellent weather of the galo until about half-pa?t 8 o'clock in. the afternoon. At that time the steamer gave a sudden lurch, and almost at the same monent was struck by a wavo of un usual magnitude. The sea came np so suddenly that the passengers had no time to escape it>, and the hurricane deck, which

only a minute before was so 1 ' t 4ujtefe|| was all confusion, passengers T^bj&inlr* hurried in" all directions . along^tfiei deck. One woman, Mrs Hehaers^^ and her child were washed overboard^ and never seen again, and two ;ot"lhj&j|| fellow-passengers, Messrs Leonard^JVjiit&| and Stanley Herbert, narrowly escapedj^ag similar fate. They were hurled witbi r gf^e^|^ violence along the after-deck, and wlien® picked up, each was found to have a--le?g|| broken. Several other passengers receiv9§|| nasty cuts and bruises, and one "of > v thej| sailors named Jones sustained a fractur&jbfjl one of his legs.* i - 1 ' " As soon as he water had cleared off jbh^Qig deck assistance was procured/ and the ivl~M jnred were catried to their berths. 'Ckp^ tain Edie was in attendance, and did'hisS utmost to relieve their sufferings. As;musjp| be expected, there was considerable excite'^ ment on board, and it was not until somejp; time after the sea struck the vessel tnab^t Mi-s Henderson and her child were missed'^J Search was at once instituted, but nbs| trace of them could be found, an'd l^ fears for the worst were entertained.-jfej Inquiries were made amongst the pas-_'Vj sengevs, and the captain ascertained froni"^ Mr White, who had had one of his limbVfj iractured, that he remembered having sebn^v; the woman fitting by him just before ttie 'j wave broke on board ; and he was of opinion**! that she must have gone overboard. It was^J then too late to chink of doing anything ih^ the direction ot further search, the vessel^-' having steamed sonic distance from the^ c locality ; but even supposing the steamer^! was there it would have been impos-l 1 ! bible to make any attempt to rescue '; the woman and her child from the ' wateiy grave, owing to the extremely'^ heavy weather which prevailed. Sad to re- 1 s late, the sister of the unfortunate passeri-- <.' ger, who was travelling by the same boat,' and had charge of two other children belonging to Mrs Henderson, saw the, whole' of the occurrence without tliepower of afford- ° ing any help. She received a terrible shock-, and was pi ostrated for some time. One of -; the children, who was standing by her side - at the time of the accident, narrowly escaped the fate its mother met, being washed by the same sea on to the rail, where it hung suspended until the vessel righted. The sad event cast quite a gloom over the ship, and expressions of sympathy were conveyed by all on board. Mrs Henderson, who came from New Zealand, was preceeding to Ballarat to her husband, who , had just gob work there. The child . she had in her arms at the time -of the occurrence was only eight weeks old, and the two children lett behind are ' aged two and five years respectively. Captain Edie, master of the steamer, was on the bridge when the sea struck the Mararoa. He says that the weather was bohterious and the aea. running high- The wave which struck the shio was of unusual height and caught her abeam, the water coming over both hides and completely flooding tne decks. Only a few of the passengers were above at the time, otherwise further loss of life no doubt would have resulted. A passenger who was on the hurricane decJ: states that the sea struck the steamer with great violence, burying her for a time and, washing tho passengers all over the' deck. One gentleman sustained a nasty scalp wound, and several others were badly biuised. The full force of the sea was felt att and made the ship vibrate from stem to stern. It was fiom this part of the Mararoa that Mrs Henderson and her child disappeared and that the two passengers were so roughly maltreated. Lawrence White, who was among those injured, states that he was standing by Mrs Henderson when the sea came on board. He was on the lee side, near the engine-house. The sea caught the woman, who had a child in her arms, and threw her against him. Hia foot caught in a rope and prevented his being washed overboard, and he lay there helpless until succoured by a fellow-passenger. Nothing more was seen of Mrs Henderson. White remembers seeing what appeared to him to be a blanket going over the side. He mentioned that the captain and officers showed every kindness and attention to those injured. On the arrival of the ship at 11 o'clock last night the sufferers were at once landed and taken to the hospital for medical treat ment.