WRECK OF THE SUSSEX AT BARWON HEADS.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 83, 15 January 1872, Page 3

WRECK OF THE SUSSEX AT BARWON HEADS.

SIX L I V E S LOST

(Abridged from the Arr/us, January 2.) The first news of the wreck of the Sussex came to Melbourne in a telegram from Geelong, which reached Captain Payne, R.N., chief harbour-master, shortly after 5 a.in. yesterday. A mounted trooper at Barwon Heads had, so soon as he became aware of the catastrophe, started across country to Geelong, and there stated that a ship or large barque was ashore and firing rockets. Captain Payne lost no time in communicating with Alessrs Reid, Poole, and Co., tug-steamboat proprietors, and urged them to dispatch a steamer and lighter to Barwon Heads. lie also gave instructions that the lifeboat of Queenscliff should be dispatched thither in case there were lives to be saved. The p.s. Challenge, with a lighter, were sent off without delay, and Captain Payne himself followed in the Alystery, which started for Quecnscliff at 0 a.m. At the latter place, however, the Challenge was met by the p.s. Titan, laden with the passengers and crew the Sussex, whom she had just taken off. The Titan had at daybreak to tow a cutter, which had been becalmed near Barwon Heads, and was consequently in a position to see the wreck, towards which she immediately steamed. It was the opinion of Captain Collard that his best plan was to seize this opportunity of getting off the passengers and crew, and thus quit the vessel. The latter was in a highly dangerous position ; she was continually threatened by a tremendous southern swell, and if it came on to blow, she must go to pieces. Accordingly, the passengers, the crew, and lastly himself, were taken off in two of the ship’s boats. One of the boats of the Titan was at first put into requisition, hut she was found too small. The lifeboat came from Quecnscliff too late to lie of service. The sea was too high, and the rollers too dangerous, to attempt to get ashore, and so ever) one was pul on hoard the steamer. They took very little with them. The captain saved liis papers, the crew their kits, and the passengers such luggage as they could lay their hands upon. As for the boxes in the hold, the water was, shortly after Hie ship struck, within two feet of the main deck, so that almost all lost their most valuable effects, which they left on hoard the ship, together with a general cargo worth £30,000. Captain Collard’s account is simply this : —“ Wc made Cape Otway yesterday (Sunday, December 31,) at 2 p.m., a strong southerly breeze blowing. Wc came up along the coast, steering straight for the Heads. About 10 o’clock at night I saw a flash light, which I considered was the Schanlc light. I then thought I had, after running my distance, got too far to tho eastward. Shortly after two other lights were reported, but I did not see them. I sent an officer to the masthead to look for them, and he reported them on the port how. Taking the other for tho Schanlc light, I assumed these other lights to be the Quecnscliff lights. I was about halfway between them. I put the helm starhoard to let tier go off, when I found the ship in amongst breakers. Jat once tried to stay her, there being no room to wear her. I did not like the idea of letting go the anchors where there was so little water. While attempting to stay her she struck, apparently on a shelf of rock, over which, however, she seemed to heat and get into deep water again. She went a little way after this, but as she was making water fast, and evidently gradually settling down, and making a bed for herself as it were, I had the yards squared so as to harden her up on the beach. There was a heavy ground swell, and the ship was unmanageable. The ship bumped innumerable times, but after her first touch, which was certainly upon rocks, she seemed to strike softer as upon sand. The breakers were not more than half a mile from the shore, and in daylight next day I could see the men and women on the beach. I did not attempt to send tho passengers ashore, believing that theirlives would be needless!}' endangered Bierchy. I thought it preferable to hold on till morning. On the other hand, J thought a boat might live outside the breakers and get help from the pilot cutter or from Quecnscliff. Accordingly, 1 sent away Air O’Flaherty, third officer, and a crew of six volunteers, with strict instructions to keep well outside the line of surf. I saw them for half an hour after, but then lost sight of them. AYe waited all night, and at daybreak the Titan steamer saw ns and took us off in our own boats. A lifeboat came from Quecnscliff hut we had got off the women and children then. It is my opinion that if the weather is moderate a great deal may be saved from the wreck. She lies with the shore east and west, and the southern swell grinds her. With a north wind she would be much better. I could ‘not see the Quecnscliff lights when we struck.

Mounted Constable Scullin, who, upon hearing of the missing boat from the wreck of the ship Sussex, rode along the beach to the scene of the disaster, has just returned, and reports that after rounding the Banvon Heads, the boat containing the third officer and six seamen, got into the breakers, and capsized. One man, who managed to swim ashore, was conveyed to Geelong by police superintendent Bookey, but was unable to account for the remainder of the crew. The man saved is James Labton. The men lost, besides Mr OT’lahertv. are named Graham, Clarateo, Samuel, Milliner, and Peust.

THE COLLINS STREET MYSTERY,

VERDICT OF WILFUL MURDER. A verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown was the result on December 28, of the inquiry into the death of Mrs Gallogly, the wife of the proprietor of the Civil Service Hotel. The mystery which surrounds this case seems to be deepened, however, rather than rendered clearer by the additional evidence furnished at the adjourned inquest. Instead of the police having succeeded in narrowing the circle of suspicion, they have widened it to an indefinite extent. The hypotheses of the police seemed to be two in number —first, that the deceased had fallen down stairs in a fit of epilepsy, sustained the wound which caused death, and then walked back again to bed ; second, that she fell accidentally while going down stairs after locking her door with the key, and the candle in her hand, and every question they put at the inquest was calculated for supporting either of these. The first was summarily set aside by the first proposition of Professor Halford. Had she fallen in epilcpsythero she wouldhavelain until found. The second is disposed of in an equally effectual manner by the evidence of the housemaid, who found the candle on the table on the landing, and the key on the stairs near the bottom. Nor do any of the medical men attempt in any way to account for the innumerable bruises on the body in accordance with a supposition that she had fallen down stairs. Professor Halford says that they could have been inflicted by dragging her up stairs befoie death. But there is no evidence that she was dragged up stairs, and if she was she could only have been so dragged by some one interested in hiding tiie fact. There is a new element imparted also into the case by the declaration of Mr Gallogly, that the deceased must have had a much larger sum in her possession than that which her son admittedly removed. This would indicate to robbery and murder, and the silence of the dog would almost point to the crime not having been perpetrated by a stranger. The statement also of Mrs llucklc that she was informed by Mrs Clancy that she found deceased on the iloor in a blanket and a sheet still further complicates matters, and the statement of Mr Graham that the young man who felt there was something happening to his mother, told him he had looked out, and the young man denying the statement, is another contradiction.