WRECK OF A PACIFIC MAIL STEAMER. Splendid Discipline.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 381, 3 July 1889, Page 5

WRECK OF A PACIFIC MAIL STEAMER. Splendid Discipline.

The Pacific Steam Navigation Company's steamer Cotopaxi has foundered near the Straits of Magellan. The passengers and crew were saved. The Cotopaxi' left . the Mersey on the 6th March. She had a valuable cargo and.a large number of passengers. She had arrived at and left many of her ports of call, where some of her passengeis debarked, and many others joined the vessel for ports further up the coast. She had left Monte Video, and when * in the Straits of Magellan she and the steamer Olympia were in collision, the result of which was that the Olympia sank, and the Cotopaxi, to prevent her sinking also, was beached. The injury appearsto have been temporarily repaired in a day, - and the steamer refloated and went, on .■her way. About six days afterwards • the Cotopaxi struck a rock, and went down in eight minutes. This was on the 15th ult., at half-past two in the afternoon. The discipline on board the steamer must have been of the highest order, and the means of saving life most adequate, as notwithstanding, the fact that only eight minutes elapsed from the time the steamer, struck to the time she went down everyone on board was saved. This is all the more surprising when it is known that the steamer's crew, apart from the passengers, numbered over a hundred hands. The disaster happened in what is known as Smythes Channel. This was out of the ordinary track adopted by the Pacific Company's vessels, but it is assumed ihat the captain by going through there was avoiding the heavy weather which he, would encounter by going outsido and rounding Cape, Pillar. The first telegram received by the company mentioned that the, com- , pany's steamer John Elder had arrived at Monte Video with particulars of the disaster, and in the cablegram it was stated that the passengers were going forward by the ,same company's vessel , Aconcagua, fche captain and crew, going, by the John Elder. The passengers will., therefore be proceeding, to , their destination and* the crew on their way> to Liverpool. . , It.vwas said that nothing further, could' be saved, so that the cargo which the vessel had on board, and which was of a valuable general nature,, will be a total loss. . A subsequent telegram, said all .of the ■ passedgers - were quite*' well. dThey arrived ion Monday imorning=at Gorouil. Much sympathy was expressed for^Captain Hayes, of ;the Cotopaxi',* aB he was nob only a great favourite -with- the. passengers, but a, skilful commander. > .Theicompany are^ their own insurers. ,<,The Cotopaxi was built at Uovanin>lB73,>of"iron, 1 being, of- 4,068 tons- gross register.'; -,Sne .'belonged ! to -the Pacific Steam Navigation lCompany; Liverpool.

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