The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-01-24 00:00:00

THE LOSS OF THE "COMMONWEALTH"

STEAMER.

The following farther particulars of the wreck of the
Commonwealth, steamer, on the island of Andros, on the
20th of December last, are furnished front Lloyd's Agency
at Syra :

The ship has gone totally to pieces, and nothing of
the hull is visible above water except a piece of her
iron deck, about 30ft. square, which had been hurled
on the rocks 25 ft. i.b)ve the level of the sea. The
rest of the hull could easily be discerned at the
bottom of the sea, close to the shore, and con-
sisted of eight or ten pieces scattered here and
there and interspere d with aLchors, chains, ropes,
chivies, &c , together with an iron tower mast.
At ten yards from the rocks, in two or three fathoms
of water, are the engines, lying on their aide, and,
with the exception cf some bent rods, apparently
intact. At a short distance from the engines the screw
shalt, with propeller, could be seen the latter with
one blade broken and '
another bent. The boilers could
not be made out distinctly, but to all appearances
must have burst when the ship struck, The depth of
water nowhere exceeded six or eight fathoms. The
beach, which is situated just behind the rccks where
the ship struck, and distant from them about half a
mile, was strewn with an incredible quantity of wood,
covering an area of nearly half a square mile, and
consisting of planks, spars, cabin fittings of teak,
mahogany, and birdseye maple, boats, timbers,
furniture, dunnage, mats, battening boards, &c., all
of which, with the exception of a foreyard, were com-
pletely smashed, not a single article being in a sound
state. All the timber and wreckage has been stacked
in a place out of the reach of the sea, and a minute
search was made among the debris for any article of
value or papers, but only a few torn charts of the
Indian Seas were found, and, in the top of a smashed
chronometer box, two papers. There were picked also
up a lady's glove and a part of what appeared to be a
muslin dress, together with some torn articles of men's
clothing without any name or mark. Very little of
the cargo has been cast ashore. There was brought
up with a dredge some decomposed grain, consisting of
wheat, linseed, rapeseed, and a little rye. All efforts
to discover any bodies either in the sea or on the land
proved fruitleis.

On Friday, January 2, Her Majesty's ship Coquette
arrived on the spot, and the commander expressed
himself perfectly astounded at the terrible havoc com-
mitted by the sea, and declared that, although he had
seen a great many wrecks, nothing could compare with
the complete manner this vessel had been broken up.
Some men from the Coquette assisted the native
labourers, and they found that a foreyard 651 t. in
length had been cast 40 paces inland on a sandbank
about 20ft. high. The heel of a topmast, lift, long,
was found washed up a gully way at 350 paces from
the sea, and smaller pieces of timber were cast
still further inland. It is difficult to tell whether
the crew on seeing the danger took to the boats; if so,
there can be no doubt that they were immediately
swamped. There must have been people on board, as
some country people saw rockets thrown up from the
spot about midnight on the night of the 19 20th
December, but were unable to render any assistance
or even approach the Bea coast, owing to the fury of
the gale and the vast quantity of snow on the ground.
The latter cause also explains the reason of the delay
in the news of the wreck reaching the town of Andros,
all the mountain passes being blocked up with snow.
The Salvage Committee—consisting of the Eparch,
harbour-masV r, and a magistrate—was only able to
proceed to the spot by land on December 24.
The oldest inhabitants of Andros declare they
had not experienced buch a fe.:riul gale since
the year 1833. There is not a single harbour
on the north-east coast of the island of Andros
where a vessel could take refuge in the most probable
event of a sudden northerly wind springing up; so that
any craft employed there on salvage operations would
run a great risk of being caught on a lee shore. The
salvage operations, which can only be carried on during
nt ervals of fine weather, would be comparatively easy
if it were not for the dangerous nature of the coast, as
all the articles previously mentioned are lying about
on smooth rocks and within easy reach. Every pre-
caution for the safe custody of the articles cast on
shore has been taken.

The Commonwealth was an iron steamer, of 1,862
gross tonnage, was built in the Wear in 1877, ani was
the property of Messrs. Day and Farlamb, of North
Shields.