WRECK OF THE ALSAGER.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1066, 25 April 1873, Page 2

WRECK OF THE ALSAGER.

A recent telegram stated that soma 1 of the creW of the ship Alsager had 1 been brought into Auckland by the 9 KenihVortb; under charge of scuttling 1 the former vessel. It appears the 1 ship Alsager, 1200 ton*; Captain E.G. 1 Rae, belonging to Messrs Summer and I Co > of Melbourne; left that port on 1 28th October last, for the Maiden I Islands-, to load with a cargo of guano 1 for Hamburgh. After filling up.sheleft I Maiden Islands, with 1200 tons guano 1 on the sth February. On the 18th of I the same month she Commence leaking; I at the rate of eight inches of water per 1 hour; and on the 26th the leak wag 1 increasing fast, the ship making be- 1 tween three and four feet per hour; I She was then steered, for Tongatabu; 1 and On the 3rd March; while oh her 1 course, the leak was further increasing, I and after a careful examination-, the I captain gave up all hopes of saving the 1 vessel. The result of the examination I was the finding of three auger holes I under the fore-rigging, considerably I below water-mark; two on the port-side, j and two oh the starboard. The ship 1 at this time was 60 miles to the west- I ward of Eoa Island. Finding it impos- } sible to keep the leak down, Captain 1 Rae determined to abandon the vessel, as she Was sinking fast. AH three boats Were got out; provisions; com- j passes, &c, put into them; together with all hands, consisting of twentynine men, all told, and left the vessel; being then 40 miles from land. They arrived at Tongatabtt on the sth March, when three of the men named George Green, Richard Moore, and Alfred Hetherington were at once given into custody on a charge of scuttling the Ship. Oh the 19th March; the Kenilworth arrived, when the captain and crew took passage in that vessel for Auckland, where they arrived oh the evening of the 9th April; when the three men (who had been kept in irons for 26 days) were given in charge of the police. They wer? i brought up at the Auckland Police/ Court on April llthj when they pleaded hot guilty 5 and said the ship had been on a coral reef at Maiden Island before she left for her destination.