THE LARGEST SCHOONER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 454, 15 March 1890, Page 6

THE LARGEST SCHOONER.

Shirring intelligence by the ’Frisco mai includes the news that on January 2nd, at Norfolk, Virginia (U.S.), it became known that the Millie G. Bowne, of Boston, the largest four-masted schooner ever launched in the States, foundered at sea in a terrible gale. She was only launched six months ago, at Boston, and her appearance on the sea was accepted by all New Englauders as betokening the dawn of a new era in American shipbuilding. Sho was 1,600 tons net register, and a few feet shorter than the wrecked five - masted Governor Ames. Her length over all was 250 ft. ; beam, 47ft. ; and her lofty spars measured : lower masts, 190 ft. ; topmasts, 56ft. ; jibboom, 75ft. She left Boston for Monte Video cn December 7, and the first week out a very heavy gale was encountered, in which those on board lost control of the steering gear. The ship was flooded with the great seas breaking over her, and the cabins were gutted. Several sails were torn away. It was found impossible to bring her head to the sea, but being unmanageable she lay helpless. Then a 120-fathom 8-inch hawser was thrust out over tho bow, dragging booms and gaffs, but this was in vain also. Finally oil in bags and cans were hove over the side, but the wind blew it from the surface of the water almost before it touched. Every expedient that experience could suggest or human ingenuity devise was tried, but all to no purpose, and New England’s largest four-master afloat would lie in the trough of the sea. The seas gained access to the hold, and the vessel soon began to settle down. The deck load of timber was jettisoned. The sea broke over the schooner in floods, and the wind began to blow with redoubled fury, the seaand wind tossing thecraftabout atitsown caprice as if she was a peanut shell rather than a 250-foot vessel of 1,600 tons. Then the crew saw carried away in a heavy sea their twenty-four foot yawl. For four days the gale raged, with the crew bard at work at the pumps. Then one evening in a regular hurricane the spanker mast carried away and went by the board, carrying with it the mizzen and main mast?. Then the foremast gave way, and the schooner was left with not a stick landing, and the decks covered with wreckage. Thus it was that one of the pretties schooners that were ever built became a total wreck, and it only remained to clear the decks and do what might be possible to keep her afloat until some kind of craft hove in sight to rescue officers, crew, and passengers. Almost all the stores had been washed away, and those on board had a hard time ot it. At last, at dark on Dec. 22, a fortnight out, the waterlogged and dismasted craft was sighted by the iron steamer West Cumberland, bound from Maryport, England, to Norfolk, Virginia. The wreck was fired, to prevent her becoming a derelict in the way of shipping.