BURNING OF A SHIP AT SEA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2003, 4 February 1890, Page 3

BURNING OF A SHIP AT SEA.

Some details, shewing the dreadful sufferings which the crew of: the Liverpool ship Arethusa underwent through the burning of the vessel at sea, have been received at Liverpool. Lrom these it appear that five of the crew lost their lives. The Arethusa was abandoned about fifty miles from the Falkland Islands. The cargo of coal had previously taken fire. The hatches were fastened down, but-they were burst up by the flames and; gas. After the explosion the crew left in two boats—Captain Hamilton in charge of one with ten occupants, and the. mate in charge of the other. The occupants of both suffered terribly. Being in the vicinity of Cape Horn the poor fellows had to endure the terribly cold weather. The captain’s boat reached the Falkland Islands after being seven days at sea. Captain Hamilton was then unconscious, and had been so for the preceding twentyfour hours. The steward was dead, and the remainder of the men were in a terrible state. They suffered so keenly from the cold that all of their limbs were cramped terribly. Most, if not all, of them were frost-bitten, and twenty-four .hours after arrival the . unfortunate - commander succumbed to his sufferings, to the great regret of all his crew. The men had been brought into the Falkland Islands by a schooner which had picked them up at sea. Captain Hamilton, who was a native of Liverpool, was a wellknown and deservedly respected commander, Nothing was known by the men of the whereabouts of the mate’s boat and its occupants, but it arrived at Valparaiso after losing three of the men, thus making the number of deaths by the disaster as five. The Arethusa was coal laden, and was going to Valparaiso from the Tyne. The information stated that the survivors on the Falkland. Islands were being kindly treated and doing well under the circumstances, hut their condition on arrival was.;very serious, and would take some .time to improve. After the captain became unconscious the next in command was the second officer, named Chambers, and he, too, on arrival was in a bad state. Sufficient time, has not yet elapsed for mail news to be received from Valparaiso respecting the experiences of the eecupants of theJbeat in charge of the mate, but from the fact that three of ©f the poor fellows died in the boat their privations must have been most severe.