The Centennial Disaster.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 349, 10 September 1889, Page 3

The Centennial Disaster.

[iBOH OUR OWN CORRESFONDESTTS.] Sydney, August 28 Two great calamities have happened within the last few days to the shipping interests of the port. The first was a collision between the New Zealand steamer Centennial and the steam collier Kanahooka, and the second the sinking of the steam tug Inflexible, owing to collision, it is said, with some floating wreckage. The first disaster occurred in the harbor. It appears that the Centennial had been forced out of the usual track by the necessity of avoiding other steamers. The Kanahooka, which was coming in an opposite direction, ran right into her, cutting her down to the water’s edge, so that she sank within a few minutes. Two of her crew and one passenger are believed to have either bsen crushed to death or drowned, Only one body has, however, bean recovered. The captain and several other witnesses from the Centennial declare that if the Kanahooka had put her helm to starboard instead of to port, there could have been no collision. The captain of the Kanahooka, on the other hand, avers that be would have infringed the harbor regulations if he had starboarded his helm as suggested. To this it will no doubt be rejoined that the harbor regulations are framed in order to prevent collisions, not to bring them about, and that cases often occur in which the spirit of a law is more honored by a breach of the letter than by its observance, However, as the Captain urges other weighty reasons of a technical character in justification of the manner in which the Kanahooka was handled, it would be premature to arrive at a conclusion, One thing is certain, our beautiful harbor either is, or is not, spacious enough to admit of a sleamer leaving for New Zealand, without colliding with one that is arriving from Wollongong. If not wo may reasonably expect that a movement will be set on foot to have it enlarged.