PECULIAR MISHAP. DISMASTED IN FINE WEATHER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 410, 12 October 1889, Page 4

PECULIAR MISHAP. DISMASTED IN FINE WEATHER.

Sydney files to hand give details of the peculiar disaster which befell the Sydneyowned brioantine Isabelle, of 129 tons net, which was totally dismasted off Sydney Heads a tew days ago. If one can imagine the hull of a vessel deeply laden, witn nothing visible aboveboard in the shape of a mast or spar but a jagged stump just showing over the battered bulwarks, an idea will be obtained of the appearance the brigantine isabelle presented when picked up oii Sydney Heads by the tug Leveret, and towed into poit. The Isabelle is by no means a stranger in Sydney, having sailed chiefly on that coast since the day she was built at George's River, in Is'ew South Wales, just twenty years ago. Recently she has been iden tided with the " sixty mile fleet" of colliers trading between Newcastle and Sydney. She was engaged as a collier between Newcastle and Sydney, and was on one of these trips from Newcabtle at the time. Everything went well down the coast until a few mornings alter, at about eight o'clock, when she was on a wind to the northward of Sydney Heads, and distant about eight mile- 3 . She was in the act ot going about or just on the point of doing so, the men forward in readiness to hand the head sails, when the foretopmast and foretopgallant-mast backstays suddenly carxied away. Had the wildest hurricane that ever blew struck the Isabelle it is scarcely possible to have left her in a more pitiable plight than the apparently trifling incident of the parting of the backstay*- just mentioned. After these important stays gave way, however, down came the upper masts and yards with the canvas set upon them at the time, the vessel being under all sail when the accident happened,- and as she is a full-rigged brigantine, carrying set foresail, foretop-sail, and topgallantsail, it will be leadily understood the wrecked condition she speedily assumed on deck. The maintopmasb fell amongst the general havoc, and the mainmast went over the stern, leaving the stump about 4ft orsffc above the level of the deck. The formast broke short oti flush with the deck, and a well-built and comfortable galley crumbled beneath the pressure ot the falling mast. Quoting the cook, who, on boarding the vessel yesterday, was sitting apparently contemplating the wreck of his house and thankful for his own safety, " They came quite gently down on top of us," he said, "and nobody was hurt." A ship chandler's store after an earthquake would not be an inapt description. How the whole of the crew escaped with their lives almost surpasses comprehension. A large part of the wreckage fell over the sides and was held either by the sheets still made fast, after the backstays parted, and hanging to the partiallysevered yards from whicn the sails and gear still dragged in the tide. Great bulky spars literally broke iuto fragments. There can be scarcely any two opinions that had the accident oecurced at night and heavy weather overtaken the vessel in the predicament slie was in off Sydney Heads, before help reached her she would speedily have foundered in the seaway. As it was, the accident happened in daylight, and within sight of the lookout station at the heads. The pilot steamer Captain Cook ran out to the Isab9lle's assistance. The tug Leveret being on the spot looking for employment, plucked the brigantine into port, and towed her to an anchoragein Pyrmontßi^ht. She is the property of M r B. Byrnes, coal merchant, and Mr J. Smith, of Messrs John Bros, and Smith, of Sydney.

Protestant monks might do much, Archdeacon Farrar thinks, to solve the problem of how to reach the lower classes and bi ing religion to bear upon their lives. A clergyman at Liverpool has elaborated the idea, and proposed what is really the revival of the mendicant friars of the middle ages. The London " Daily Telegraph " says that England is to have an "Order ot Sfc. James." The members are to take vows of celibacy, obedience, and poverty. They are to live together in certain houses, but are to travel about and conduct mission services wherever they are most likely to be useful. The ' poverty 'isto be absolute. All property is to belong to the order, and each monk will be entirely destitute. He is never under any circumstances to receive money 01 carry it with him. When about to start on a railway journey, a lay brother —as we understand, not a regular monk — is to take the tickets. On arriving at their destination the brothers are to be lodged and fed by any Christian who likes to invite them, or if they find themselves houseless and starving they may beg from anybody a night's lodging and some food ; but they are never to receive any coin or gifts of any kind beyond the hospitality absolutely required. It will be seen that the promoters of this new reaction, this latest revival of medievalism, are pretty thorough in their conceptions. There can be no doubt that the idea is logical. The more absolutely detached from the world a man is the more he can devote himself to any cause. A married Father Damien would have been almost an impossibility. The charitable, too, are more likely to give if it is obvious that the persons asking receive no benefit from the donations, but remain as poor as before.