TWENTY YEARS AGO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 43, 16 March 1909, Page 4

TWENTY YEARS AGO.

THE CHEAT SAMOAX HURRICANE. "March 111: Sanioan hurricane, 10 ships wrecked, 18811." Tims runs the entry in the office diary. What a tra-jri-ily, what a .series of tragedies, is bound u]i in those few words. Tt is just twenty years ago to-day since that 'fateful hurricane struck the coral island of Samoa, and dashing to death over a hundred brave men, hurling to destruction seventeen vessels, sonic of them warships. And of all that great assemblage of vessels only one was .found to stem the. gale. That vessel was the British cruiser, H:M.S. Calliope, winch, steamed to sea in the teeth (.f the gale. New Zealand has a claim upon this great, performance, for at the time the Calliope's bunkers were filled with the famous and one of the best known steam-producing coals—Westport. It was not until a fortnight later that the news of the disaster filtered to New Zealand, and on April Ist, 1880, this journal published an account of it, per Mariposa, from Apia, which, stated that mi Hie day of writing. March Kith, in I lie midst' of a terrible hurricane, six out of the. seven warships in port were lost—tlie Nipsic. Vandalia and Trenton (American), and the Olga, Elba, and Adler (German). Tin- losses of life from the warships totalled 150 men. All the merchant vessels went ashore, but. only one life was lost, that of Oniisbv. who was a visitor on the schoner Lilv. Tlie merchant ships wM-e the barque Pefer Goddefroy, the harquenline Agar, the schooners Lucv ami Upola, the cutlers Titinan and Vitcllc. and the ketch Vnkunums, and another small vessel, the Utuinapu. The onlv merchant vessel in the harbor which escaped was a small five-ton schooner. The cause of the wrecks was t'lie bad holding ground for the anchors. The German Eber was the first vessel to In- driven ashore, her anchors and full steam power being insufficient to hold her against the wind. Only one officer and four seamen got ashore. The Adler then underwent a. similar course of ' dragging, drifting, and destruction on the sank' reef as her consort, losing 21 seamen and two officers. The hull of the Artier is still to be seen on the beach. The Vandalin, i" manoeuvring to avoid collision with the Calliope, narrowly escaped a collision that would have cut her to the waterline. The Calliope, rising and falling with the sea, struck the Vanckilia's quarter galley, and carried it awav. Two feet more. | 'and the. Vandalin's death-roll would have been enormous, The Calliope then commenced to steam out to sea. and so 'tremendous was the force of the gale and the waves (hat she could only make three-quarters of a knot at limes. She passed the CK. ship Trenton with but a fool to spare, and the American saillors, manning the rigging, pave her a ringing cheer. The. natives and white residents lined the beach by hundreds, and effected many brave rescues. Caplain Kchoonmaker. of the Vandalin, who •had 'been cut on the head earlier in the dar, was struck by a heavy sea after the vessel had taken the beach, lie knocked against a Catling gnu which had broken, adrift, and the same sea 'wa*hed him and several others overboard. The Calliope's only casually was a slight injury to a carpenter. Il.v a curious coincidence the Calliope was one. of the vessels which a violent critic had just condemned as unscawortliy and unfit for service.