TERRIBLE DISASTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9578, 26 August 1909, Page 5

TERRIBLE DISASTER.

STEAMERS IN COLLISION.

ONE VESSEL CUT IN TWO,

EIGHTY PERSONS DROWNED. A TERRIBLE PANIC. United Press Association—Dy Telegraph Copyright. Received August 25, 10 p.m. MONTE VIDEO, August JJS. A terrible disaster occured here yesterday.

Colombia with excursionists from Buenos Ayres, who were intending to attend national fetes at Uruguay, was entering the outer harbour at Monte Video, when it collided at six o'clock in the morning with the North German Lloyd steamer Schleisen. i ,The Colombia sank, and ["eighty persons,' chiefly excursionists and mostly women and children, were drowned. Seventy, including the captain and bulk of the crew, who numbered forty-eight, were saved. Th e Schleisen was slightly damaged. The Colombia was cut in two. The forepart sank almost immediately, and the after portion was only a few minutes above water. The majority of the passengers were asleep at the time of the collision. The panic was terrible. A small steamer hastended to the scene, but the heavy sea and torrents of rain impeded the rescue work. Many of those rescued, the majority of whom were clinging to the masts, were more or less seriously injured. The fetes were postponed in consequence of the disaster.