SHIPPING DISASTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9672, 10 December 1909, Page 5

SHIPPING DISASTER.

ONDA--LA SEYNE COLLISION.

.FRENCH VESSEL SINKS QUICKLY.

PASSENGERS DROWNED LIKE RATS IN A TRAP. rinitea Preaa ,xssooiation-By Electric Telegraph Copyright. Received December 9, 11 a.m. FORT DARWIN, Dec. 9. Details of the Onda-La Seyne

collision in the Rhio Straits, near v Singapore, last moiith, show that the j disaster occurred in the early morning *' , Both vessels were well lighted. The French steamer went to the bottom in less than five minutes. The ■commander (Captain Conailhoe) lost his life. So sudden was the catastrophe that there was no time to give orders on the French ship, or to have the boats lowered. She went down like a stone. The majority of those on board were drowned'like rata in a trap. All J "the rescued were picked up by boats promptly put out by the Onda, but if any were not picked up at the moment they must have met death from - sharks or by drowning. Glendinning, one of the sailors saved, confirms the report that a good many were pulled down by sharks. There were many of them ' about. Just as a Malay seaman was Hbeiog dragged into a boat a shark . seized his foot. An engineer beat the brute off with a boat-hook. A Malay saved twenty-eight members of the native crew. Fourteen native passengers were rescued. Two . hundred bags of mails were lost.