Wreck of the Steamer Secundra.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7715, 18 January 1905, Page 3

Wreck of the Steamer Secundra.

SEVEN LIVES LOST. SYDNEY, Jan. 5. Particulars of the loss ol the llri-tish-India S.N. Company's steamer Secundra at Galle were received by the underwriters yesterday. The disaster was attended with the loss of seven lives, among tile drowned being the chief officer (Mr J. Henderson) and the third engineer (Mr Maclean). According to the account the vessel was leaving the harbour in charge of a pilot when she suddenly crashed on the Kahadc Hock, at the mouth of the port, and sank in eight minutes. The European officers kept their posts till the last, but the Lascars and the Maldivian members of the crew were panicstricken. The captain and the pilot were swept over the port side into the water. They siezed some floating wreckage, and then got, hold of a wire s-lay attached to (lie derrick yawl that was above the water. Other members of the crew were around them, clinging to floating wreckage. Every man was bruised or wounded, some severely, others less so. The current was sharp and often I lie captain was w ashed away by the violence of the seas, but as often regained his hold. The oflicers, engineers, and Lascars remained in the water from twelve minutes past seven o'clock in the evening til! ten o'clock the same night, when they were rescued. One amazing! feature of the wreck was the callousness of the native fishermen, several of whose boats passed the shipwrecked men without any attempt to render assistance. M r Cast ell, a palsenger, says ho offered a thousand rupees to be picked up, yet passed on ingThe Secundra is considered a total wreck. The particular rock c.n which she came to grief has* bee u responsible for many a wreck since the beginning of liritish rule, aud even in the Portuguese and Dutch times .none but the wariest sailors felt safe in the harbour. The pilot's explanation is that the current was very dangerous, and stronger than he had anticipated.* 1