Severe Storms.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 433, 25 March 1890, Page 3

Severe Storms.

London, Jas. 31.

The series of devastating siormi which terminated with the furious South-wes gale ■it Saturday and Sunday last, have been exceptionally destructive to shipping. From all quarters Come reports of wrecks, partial and total, and as yet, of course, we only know a small portion of the damage done. Even the Atlantic liners seem to have had a bitter bad time. Io this connection it is distinctly worth noting that, whereas those compai anvely old-fashioned tubs, the Cunard steamers Gallia and Catalonia, were terribly smashed up, and (in the case of the latter) narrowly escaped foundering, the new liners, City of Chicago and Teutonic, passed through the same awful weather well nigh unscathed. The Catalonia was in dice straits for two days. Not only did mountainous seas carry away her boats and bulwarks, but the saloon skylights were smashed completely in, and the passengers suddenly found themselves up to their necks in water. This catastrophe was followed by the engine room fires being put out, and then, indeed, things did seem at their worst. The engineers and stokers, worked like Trojans, and eventually managed to get the vessel under steam again. In the 'saloon the scene would have defied even Clark Bussell’s descriptive powers. The sea had carried everything away and, as the vessel rolled heavily, the immense body of water in the saloon washed an olla podrida of fittings, glass, crockery, and passengers’ luggage from side to aide. The slate rooms were likewise flooded, and several of the passengers were without a dry stitch for a week.

Another narrow escape was that of the Channel steamer Paris, which broke down midway between Dieppe and Newhaven, in the height of the gale, sod narrowly escaped drifting ashore at Cape Grisnez. There were 50 passengers on board, so that the catastrophe would have been serious. The other Channel steamers crossed and reorosaad during the worst weather without disaster.