TERRIBLE GALES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 460, 5 April 1890, Page 5

TERRIBLE GALES.

BRITISH SHIP LOST.

TWENTY-SEVEN LIVES LOST.

FORTY HOURS DRIFTING,

English papers just to hand give particulars of the recent terrible gales which visited the British and adjacent coasts, and caused so much damage to shipping. Serious loss of life occur! ed in connection with the wreck Oi the British ship Loch Moidarb, bound fiom Pisagua for Hamburg, off the small village of Callmtsoog, in Northern Holland. Two only of the crew were saved. They were strong swimmers and managed to make their way to the shore, where they were assisted by the inhabitants. The remainder of the crew, to the number of 27, were drowned. The Loch Moidart was a fourmasted ship, and was built in 1881. She was bonnd to Hamburg with a cargo of nitrate, and was only a few hours from port when she was caught by the winds which had chopped round from the north-west, and was driven ashore. The captain was W. B. Andrew, of London, and the crew were shipped at Melbourne. Their names are A. M’lnlay, first mate ; W. Ballantyne, second mate ; A. Malcolm, third mate ; A. McQuarrie, carpenter ; J. Wright, steward; H. Hossack, W. Sherman, J, Frost, H. Handley, E. Blarkeberg, A. Carlson, B. A. Hausen, John Johnson, Jacob Baase, C. Hansen, J. Galloway, C. Carlsen, J. Canes, and G. Mclnnes, able seamen ; Carl Anderson, cook; W. Killock, sailmaker; Carl Anderson and J. Galloway, ordinary seamen; F. Harrison, cook; W. Marshall, J. Jeffrey, J. McQueen, and C. Moxon. Four others were shipped at Pisagua.

STEAMER PARIS IN THE STORM. The “Central News” correspondent, telegraphing from Dover, says : Great anxiety prevailed on Sunday and yesterday at Newhaven owing to the non-arrival of the London and Brighton Railway Company’s steamer Paris. She left Dieppe at one o’clock on Sunday morning, and should have made the passage in about five hours. She was passed by another of the Company s steamers about 15 miles from Dieppe, but although telegrams of inquiry were despatched to every port along the English and French Channel coasts, nothing was heard of the missing vessel until yesterday afternoon, when she reached Dover in a sadly-battered condition, having been drifting about the Channel in the gale for nearly 40 hours. PASSENGER’S STATEMENT. Mr L. G. Charles, who was a passenger on board the boat, has made the' following statement: —We left Dieppe shortly after one o’clock on Sunday morning with about 40 passengers, a crew of 26, and a valuable cargo, which included £70,000 worth _ of specie. It was blowing a gale, and outside the sea was so high that some of us questioned the wisdom of attempting the passage in such weather. When well clear of Dieppe harbour we found ourselves in the midst of a storm which made it almost impossible for the half-dozen or so passengers who remained on deck to keep their legs. The sea was so heavy that it j seemed as though the steamer would not be able to make headway against it, but the

engines worked well, and were kept at 32 revolutions a • minute instead of 45, the normal speed, in order to avoid unduly straining the paddles. About half-past three o’clock we passed the Brighton, belonging to the same line, making for Dieppe. Half an hour later we would have given a good deal to have seen the friendly lights of that vessel, for at four o’clock wc were rolling broadside on, a

HELPLESS TARGET FOR THE WAVES. The captain and officials and a few passengers were on deck, when suddenly all heard a crash, followed by a noise as. of smashing woodwork and iron. Something was wrong with the paddles, and Mr Wood, chief engineer, ascertained that the main feather arm and driving arm of the starboard paddles had been smashed by a heavy sea. The accident was a most serious one, and its effect on the steamer was soon shown, for the waves immediately forced her head round, and she commenced to drift back. The engines, which were still going, now constituted an additional and serious danger, for the steel floats were whirling round like flails, tearing out strips of the paddle-box at each revolution, and threatening at every moment to break in the starboard side of the steamer. The peril was so imminent that the captain and engineer at once faced all other risks, and ordered the engineer to stop. Then the seas proved irresistible, and we drifted helplessly as a log. There had been no panic or anything in the remotest degree approaching panic on board. The officers and sailors went about their work as coolly as though they were entering harbour, and the engineers and stokers remained every man at his post. The vessel was at times forced ALMOST ON HER BEAM-ENDS. Most of the passengers were below suffering so much from sea-sickness chat they were ignorant of what had occurred. Only the few passengers who remained on deck were aware of the true state of affairs. We drifted for hour after hour without seeing a vessel until two o’clock on Sunday afternoon, when a steamer hove in sight. She saw our signals of distress and bore down upon us. Never was finer seamanship displayed than upon this occasion by the captain of the steamer, which proved to be the screw collier Emerald, of Sunderland. She was manoeuvred around us with skill and judgment, the object being to get a hawser on board from us in order to take us in tow. Once or twice she towered above us, to all appearance so dangerously near that we shuddered lest the two vessels should come into collision. The second steward was told off to throw the line, and very coolly and deliberately he went to work. Twice he got the thin line on board, only to see it snap like thread when the Emerald men began to haul upon it. But the third attempt succeeded. The hawser was drawn through the heavy sea and fastened securely on board the Emerald, which then took us in tow. The strain was tremendous, but the hawser held for nearly six hours. Then it suddenly snapped, and we found ourselves ONCE MORE A HELPLESS LOG. The Emerald stood by us gallantly, but we drifted so rapidly that in a couple of hours we were off Cape Grisnez and dangerously near shore. Then the Emerald, finding herself in danger, signalled that she could do no more for us, and steamed off into the darkness. Long hours of drifting followed, and we approached nearer and nearer the rocky shore. By three o’clock in the morning we were very near the Grisnez light. Some of the seamen fancied they could hear the ominous sound of the sea breaking on the rocks. It was evident that the crisis had arrived, and after a hurried consultation an anchor was let go, and then another, but neither would hold. We must now allow ourselves to be driven on the rocks, or set the engines going full speed, and take our chance of foundering out at sea. The latter course was chosen with little hesitation. “We shall be all ashore in ten minutes,” I heard an officer say to the steward. “ Men,” cried Mr Wood to his assistants —one of whom was his own son—“ stay at your posts until I give the word, but when I say ‘ COME UP,’ COME QUICKLY.”

During the many hours of anxiety and danger a full head of steam had been kept on. The engines were soon going at full speed. There was a terrific crash at the starboard paddlebox, but fortunately, providentially as many of us thought, at this most critical moment the larger paddle rods which had caused the most damage, and from which the only serious damage was to be apprehended, were broken oft by a heavy ssa, and to our great relief fell into the water. From that moment the danger was practically over, for the ship was staunch and the engines could be depended upon to answer any caii made upon them. We got the steamer’s head to sea, and slowly made for Dover, which was reached at a-quarter to one in the afternoon. The passengers are deeply indebted to Captain Sharp and his officers and men, to whose admirable sea manship and cool courage the saving of the vessel was due. They worked every man of them without a murmur hour after hour, hardly allowing themselves time to take food. Some of them had scarcely more than a biscuit or two, which they ate as they worked, and all were in a more or less exhausted condition when we reached harbour.