TRAGEDY OF THE SEA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8122, 18 April 1906, Page 5

TRAGEDY OF THE SEA.

(Per Mail Steamer). BOSTON, March 11. Suffering, mental and physical, and numerous acts of heroism in saving life rarely equalled in tho records of tragedies of the sea ati tended the loss of the Phoenix line (steamer British King, which, on Sunday last, iu a raging Atlantic storm, foundered about 150 miles south of the Sable Island, and carried to death 27 members of the crow. Thirteen wero rescued, from the unking vessel by the Leyland liner Bostonia, bound from Manchester to Boston, and eleven by tho tank steamer Mannheim. Five othors, who hud been drawi into the vortex where the British King Bank, were picked up from a frail bit of wreckage they had grasped after a dosnerate struggle in the whirlpool. Captain James O'Hagou, of the British King, died aboard the Bostonian, from injuries received in trying to save the ship. Tho rescued brought here include— James Flanuagan, second officer; J. ' L). Crawford, chief engineer; AdolnhuH JBrew, fourth engineer; aud William J. Curry, steward. The others wero coal passers and sailors, mostly Belgians, and one stowaway from Nov/ York. Two lifeboats of tho Bostoniau wero crushed and volunteer crows wero thrown into the hiuh running seas while engaged in tho _ work of rescue, but all safely reached the steamer agaiu. They wero rescued by lines thrown from their own steamer. A second boat-load of rescuers was thrown into the sea, and only rescued after an hour's work by comrades. The British King sailed from New York, for Antwerp, on March 7th, with a miscellaneous cargo, and 150 cattle. Previous to the appearance of the rescuing steamers every Small boat of the British King bad been demolished, and there was no way of escape.