LOSS OF THE TASMANIAN MAID.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 152, 25 January 1868, Page 2

LOSS OF THE TASMANIAN MAID.

We regret to state that the p.s. Tasmanian Maid was a wreck at Taranaki on Thursday last. We are indebted to her master and proprietor, Captain Soutcr, who arrived this morning by the Phoebe, for the following particulars. She left the Manukau on Wednesday, the 15th, with a cargo of produce for the West Coast, and encountered a strong head wind as far down as Taranaki, where she put in on Thursday afternoon. Having brought up in the anchorage, she got some coals from the Stonnbird, and the weather moderating, started again the same night at 9 o'clock. In steaming out of the harbor, however, she struck upon a sunken rock on the paint of Long Reef, the fore-hold and fore-cabin instantly tilled, and shortly afterwards the vessel sank, the boats having been previously' lowered with the crew and passengers, who all readied the shore in ssfety. Three guns had been fired from the steamer as a signal of distress, and the whistle blown, and the Stonnbird immediately despatched a boat to the steamer, whilst another was sent from the shore, and both came up just as the steamer sank. The course the vessel was steering was shown by the chart as being 'all clear,' but wc understand that a buoy had previously been moored at the point of the reef on which the steemer struck, which had been washed off, and had never been replaced. The vessel now lies in 15 feet of water at low tide, and very slight hopes arc entertained of her being raised. We regret to add that both vessel and cargo were uninsured, and Captain Souter estimates his loss at JiiOOO. As the Tasmanian Maid materially assisted in the development of some of our principal outlying districts, we shall make no apology for giving the following outline of her history. She was built in 1856, and in the June of the following year was bought in Melbourne by Mr. Maxwell Berry, for the Nelson Coast Steam Association, who obtained a loan, without interest, from the Nelson Trust Funds to assist them in the purchase, and at that time was, with the exception of the Wonga Wonga, the only steamer connected with New Zealand. She was employed in running to Motueka, Collingwood (immediately after the outbreak of the diggings in that district), and the Wairau, having been the first steamer to enter the Wairau Eiver. In this trade she continued to run until the breaking out of the Native War of the VVaitara, when she was despatched to Taranaki, in compliance with a resolution passed at a public meeting at Nelson, to aid in the removal to a place of safety, if necessary, of the women and children at Taranaki. As this step did not at the time appear to be immediately necessary, she was employed by the Commissariat at Taranaki to run between that place and the Waitara River, in which capacity she proved of eminent service in transporting supplies to the camn at that, place. Whilst employed in this manner she received gread damage in crossing the bar of the Waitara, which would have resulted in her condemnation and sale, but for the importance of the services she had rendered during the war, and the assistance conse-

quently rendered in her repairs, &c., by the military and crew of the man-of-war then on that station. After returning to Nelson she was wrecked on the Wairau bar, when, being condemned and sold, she was purchased by Mr Symons, of Nelson, and others, who afterwards sold her to an Auckland firm. By them she was rc-sold to the General Government, to bo used as a war steamer, under the name of the Sandfly, for the conveyance of stores and ammunition during the war in the Waikato. She was eventually disposed of by the Government; and fell into private hands, and having resumed her former name, was placed on the Coromandel and Whangarei trade. In December 180(5, she was bought by Captain Souter, and since then, until the date of the catastrophe to which we have referred above, was a favorite boat on the West Coast.— Nelson Evening Mail, 25th January. [We learn from Captain Souter, who arrived here yesterday in the Wallaby, that a diver has since been down to the wreck and succeeded in bringing up the Captain's watch and sextant, but the small sextant which she carried has not been recovered.]