H.M.S- SAPPHO.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2537, 25 June 1909, Page 5

H.M.S- SAPPHO.

CABLE NEWS.

REFLOATED AT DOVER. PROCEEDS TO SHEERNEStS. . . . : . • • • - . United Press Association— Copyright LONDON, June 23. H.M.S. Sappho, which was towed to Dover in a sinking condition and beached after being in collision with a merchantman of the. Wilson line, having a eimilo.r name to the warship, has been refloated, and has started for Sheerness. (Received June 24, 9.45 p.m.) LONDON, June 24. H.M.S. Sappho reached Sheerness under her own steam. [The Sappho, the merchant steamer which collided with the cruiser, belongs to T. Wilson, Sons, and 00., and was built in 1903. She is of 1694 tons gyoss, 282 ft long, 40ft beam, and 18ft Sin depth.] NAVY PEACE LOSSES IN SEVEN YEARS. The Admiralty’s last big salvago work was the raising the cruiser Gladiator, sunk by the American liner St. Paul. The Gladiator cost £288,000 to build, salvage was estimated to cost £50,000, and it was then announced that the cruiser, after being brought to dock at Portsmouth, would be broken up, probably at the Admiralty’3 expense. A return issued by the Admiralty shows that between January Ist, 1901, and May 27th, x 1908, 442 of His Majesty’s ships and other craft of war met with accidents. Sixteen of the vessels were totally lost, the number including loss by fire of the Forte coal depot, but excluding the loss of the picket boat of the Edgar, the steamboat and pulling cutter of the Vernon, the gig of the Defiance, a submarine mining vessel, and the steam cutter No. 219. Between 1901 and 1906 218 vevsels which had been damaged in'‘accidents were repaired in Government dockyards and sixty in private yards. No figures are available for the years 1907 and 1908. The following table shows the, cost of the vessels lost, and gives others particulars concerning naval accidents during the period named:— : Ships in accidents, 442. * Ships totally lost, 16. Cost of ships totally lost (including guns and naval ordnance stores), £1,951,974. Lives lost, 408. Pensions paid to dependents of those killed, £2592. Gratuities paid to dependents of those killed, £3290.