TERRIBLE DISASTER. COLLISION OFF THE ENGLISH COAST. SHIP KILLOCHAN AND A STEAMER SUNK. TWENTY-FOUR PERSONS DROWNED. London, February 4.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 341, 9 February 1889, Page 4

TERRIBLE DISASTER. COLLISION OFF THE ENGLISH COAST. SHIP KILLOCHAN AND A STEAMER SUNK. TWENTY-FOUR PERSONS DROWNED. London, February 4.

News has just been received of a terrible shipping catastrophe which has happened off the English Coast. The steamer Naiied, which was outward bound, collided off Dungeness with the ship Killochan, homeward bound from Lyttelton. The collision occurred at night, and very great damage was done to the vessels, both of which sank. Scenes of a most distressing character happened, and the loss of life was very great. So far as can be ascertained at present, twenty-four persons have been drowned, and of these seventeen belonged to the Killochan.

[The Killoehan, which was well known in colonial porbs, is an iron ship of 1,294 tons burden, and was built in 1874 by A. McMillan and Sons, of Dumbarton. She is owned by J. Kerr and Co., of Greenoch, and is under the command of Captain W. Manson, She was last surveyed in March, 1886, and is registered as Al at Lloyds. She will be remembei'ed as having last July, when on a voyage from London to Auckland, encountered a series of severe gales, which crippled her to such an extent that she was compelled to put into Melbourne, dismasteJ, on July 9th last for repahs. After completing repairs, which took some weeks and cost some £4,000, she came on here wibh her cargo and after discharging she proceeded on September 24th to Lyttelton, where she loaded up for London with grain, wool, etc. She sailed from Lyttelton on October 20th for Queenstown for orders, and her arrival was roported from London on the 19th ult., showing her to have accomplished the voyage in the good time of 91 days. After leaving Queenstown she would in all probability proceed to London with her cargo, and it was evidently while bound up the English Channel that she met wibh the unfortunate disaster recorded above. She left the colony in charge of Captain Manson, who has evidently been blessed wibh anything bub luck for the past year. Captain Manson has been in the employ of the owners of the Killoehan for the past 21 years.]

AN AUCKLAND APPRENTICE ON BOARD. When the Killochan left here last she took away as apprentice, a 3'oung Auckland boy named Harold Bell, of Ponsonby, wellconnected in the city. He shipped on board her here, and went on to Lyttelton in the ship and thence Home. Further particulars regarding the vessel will be awaited anxiously by all connected with local shipping, and especially by the friends of Captain Manson and Mr Bell.