SENSATIONAL COLLISION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3079, 28 December 1908, Page 5

SENSATIONAL COLLISION.

A TUG-BOAT SINKS,

ALL OVER IN A FLASH

Received December 26, 9.45 a.m. SYDNEY, December 26. • ■ A sensational collision occurred off .- Newcastle late last night. The tug Advance went out to take the ship Iverua, from Melbourne, in tow, when she was struck by the vessel. The captain of the Inverna st&tes: —"We were seven miles to the southeast of Nobby's when the tug came pon our lee bow, and crossed over on to our weather bow. The tug then returned and cam 3 towards us. "It was all over in a flash. The Advance crossed the bows of the Inverna, which struck the vessel' on the quarters. We only felt a slight ' impact. The next thing the cug was over on her side. Eight persons perished—Captain —M'Kenzie; the mate, Mr Willi; chief engineer, Mr Herbert; se"-nd ;.J engineer, Mr Wilson, and the ere./ r} O'Brien, Scott and two others, whose names are unknown. The Inverna reached Newcastle at two o'clock this morning, with her fore part full of water. WASHED UP ALIVE. A NARROW ESCAPE. Later. ■ Wills, the mate of the Advance-, was washed up alive near Newcastle this morning. He clung to a piece of wreckage, and spates that he only saw McKenzie and Scott in the water after the disaster, which occurred about sundown yesterday. He thinks the rest went down with the tug.