Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 7168x10240 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

A DISASTROUS CYCLONE.
Samarai, Dec. 17.
We have experienced a great cyclone
which caused wide devastation every-
where. Groves of cocoa palms and
gardens were destroyed, and the loss
to the traders is very great. It must
exert a serious influence on the pro-
gress of the possession, as the loss has
fallen on struggling men. The schooner
Wana Wana, Captain Whitten Brown,
has gone ashore at Hughes' Bay, Fer-
guson Island. The vessel is high and
dry, and the crew and passengers
stepped from the rail on to a leaning
tree and walked ashore. The vessel
is insured. The cargo is saved but is
damaged.
Dr. Fletcher was on the sch. Wana
Wana, and describes the gale as terrific.
The anchored vessels dragged their
cables, which afterwards parted. Sail
after sail was set only to be blown
into fragments. She was gunwale
under several times, and struck under
the leading spur of Mount Kilkessan,
on a mass of round granite boulders,
which the sea was hurling in all direc-
tions. The mission schooner Dove is
safe, but there is no tidings of the Rev.
Mr Fields and the lugger Victoria.
The following vessels are considered
to be lost, not having reported in the
last despatch at Trobriands:-Septi-
mus, cutter ; Boraka, cutter ; Alice,
Ada, Sinikata, and one other at Dobu.
The Waverley Wesleyan Mission boat
was smashed on the beach.
A landslip occurred and killed 12
natives. Great damage was done to
the gardens.
The cutters Guinere, Cleveland,
Daisy Bell, Ella, and Mahdi are mis-
sing.
The Government ketch Mara is sup-
posed to have foundered at sea.
Serious doubts are entertained of
the safety of the schooners Griffin and
Waiwera, which are due from Cook-
town.
The ss China has been floated off the
Perin rocks, and is now on her way to
England with a false bottom in her.
$