106
some hundred feet below, or into a gorge, espy- ing, perhaps, now and then a wild deer or other smaller animal, the first ride np and down is an ́experience not soon to be forgotten. This aërial flight was constructed evidently at very con- siderable cost by Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery, to convey their European employés to the dormitories on the top of the mount in the height of the summer, when the nights are so oppressively hot that sleep is almost out of question in the houses below. Before the aerial flight was constructed the employés referred to were taken up the mountain in chairs by a small regiment of coolies, the expense being borne by the firm. Then it took them an hour to reach the cool atmosphere of the top; now they can go up in five minutes. As the car is ascending a man in the engine house watches it as far as he can through a telescope, and at the point where his view is obscured by the top of a peak, another man, half way up, continues the watch. Should anything wrong be observed, the car can be instantly stopped."-Kobe Chronicle.
THE TYPHOON IN JAPAN.
FIVE FOREIGN VESSELS ASHORE AT KUCHINOTZ.
Nagasaki, 31st July. During Wednesday's typhoon no less than five foreign vessels, four steamers and one sailing vessel, were driven ashore at Kuchinotz. Owing to the breaks in the telegraph wires it was not until some time afterwards that the news reached Nagasaki, where, luckily, no accidents worthy of mention were r ported amongst the shipping. The five vessels ashore are the Norwegian steamers Lyderhorn and Wedel Jails. berg, the British steamer Bentala, the British ship Marechal Suchet, and the German steamer Helene Rickmers. The latter two vessels are the only two which have apparently sustained any serious damage, the three first mentioned, the Lyderhorn, Jarlsberg, and Bentala, having grounded on a muddy bottom with a gradual incline. The first two of these vessels had each a half cargo of coal on board, while the latter was in ballast. Neither of the three is re..
ported to be making any water.
The sailing ship Marechal Suchel, however, fared less fortunately. She touched on the rocks under the lighthouse, and then dragged on to the mud, sustaining some damage and making three inches of water in four hours in her hold. As she has 3,000 tons of coal on board, the captain could not ascertain the nature of the leak. She is under charter for Sau Francisco, but will have to be, docked before she can fulfil it, and a survey is an absolute uecessity.
|
number of houses in
а work of
|August 7, 1895.
a.m.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
before, continued till about 5 p.m. The amount been washed away so completely that it appeared of rainfall during the storm was registered at to rest simply on the sleepers, giving the im 63.6 millimetres, or about eight gallons to the pression that the carriages or vans remaining
Several of the humbler dwellings were standing on a bridge. | square foot.
on the hill side were totally wrecked and a The P. & O. steamship Verona arrived this very large
town morning about half-past four. She experienced were damaged to a greater or loss degree. the typhoon on Wednesday just ontside the wires, and other Straits of Shimonoseki. She had been anchored Flying tiles, telegraph objects made it
some danger about four hours, awaiting the arrival of tho and difficulty to go about outdoors, although Ancona with the pilot, before the typhoon began She anchored from 7.30 a.m. on no sorions casualties have been as yet reported. to blow. Telegraphic communication during the after- Wednesday until about 4
yesterday. noon was stopped on account of the falling of Captain J. J. Mahlmann, Harbour Master, has posts, wires, etc. With the exception of the courteously supplied ns with the following memorable blow of September 14th, 1891, no remarks on the storm of Wednesday :- barometric chauge te equal that of Wednesday Wednesday night's blow was possibly only a last has been recorded in Nagasaki-Nagasaki common southerly gale, although, judging from Express.
the hauling of the wind, it appears to have been Tokyo, 29th July. the margin of the south-east quadrant of a According to a report m de to the Govern: typhoon that passed over Kobe. If the latter, ment by Mr. Qori, Governor of Nagasaki then the storm's centre passed a long distance prefecture, there were 13 persons killed in that westward of ns, and it will be found that at prefecture during the recent storm and 14 in- Biroshima, Shimonoseki, and perhaps at Naga- jured, while 1,602 houses were thrown down,saki, the storm was of much greater violencs 1.418 houses partly destroyed, and 98 vessels of thau here.: large or small size wrecked.
The barometer readings and wind at Kobe were as follows:-
Kobe, 27th July, As a result of the typhoou experienced on Wednesday night a terrible accident occurred July 24- on the Sanyo line, resulting in the death of more than forty soldiers and injuries to many others. It appears that about 9.50 p.m. Wednesday
cn
a train was dispatched from Hiroshima, consisting of a locomotive, three brake vans, and nineteen carriages, and convey. ing a number of disabled soldiers who were being sent back to the headquarters of their respective divisions. There were 280 men of the 1st division, 50 of the 2nd. and 49 of the 3rd, the train, which was an extra one, having thus some 336 passengers in the cars, beside railway servants, &c.
Judging from the report of Captain Mahl- mann, which appears below, the train must have passed right throngh the centre of the typhoon in coming up from Hiroshima. No danger was apprehended, however, until the train reached the section between 1tozaki and Onòmichi Sta- tions where the line runs close to the sea on a low embankment. It was then about half-past one in the morning. The regular train had passed the spot safely about two hours earlier, and it would appear that afterwards while the typhoon was at its worst, the ballast of the track had for some distance been washed away by the sea, leaving scarcely any support for the rails, Cousequently, as soon as the full weight of the train came upon the rails, the line gave way al together, and ten of the carriages, together with Five the locomotive, were thrown into the sea. were completely wrecked and the others caunot yet be found, being covered by the waves.
The German steamer Helene Rickmers got ashore about seven miles west of Kuchinoiz, át a The engine-driver and his two assistants were little village called Katsosa. She lies broadside killed by the fall or drowned, and the engine is ou on a shingle beach or bar which runs across said to have quite disappeared under the water. the mouth of a small river. Apparently the Of the men in the carriages overturned, forty strain has all been directed amidships and she were killed and seventy or eighty seriously in- is reported to be somewhat seriously dam.jured, and it seems extraordinary, when the cir aged and is making water in her forward hold. Like the Marechal Suchet, she also struck the rocks under the light before coming ashore. In the No. 1 hold she had about 3 feet of water and about 34 feet everywhere else, ac cording to soundings taken on Saturday. Under her engines, the bottom is badly bulged in and leaks considerably. A diver and pumps have been got to work, but owing to the destruction wrought among the lighters and junks little has been done up to the present, and it is considered that the vessel is in a bad way and that the get ting of her off is doubtful, even when the cargo has been discharged.
Twice only, since meteorological observations have been recorded in Nagasaki, has the baro. meter fallen so suddenly as it did on Wednesday morning last. Ou Tuesday it stood at 754 mil limetres, gradually falling to 7525 at 2 am. Shortly after 6 u.m. it fell rapidly and continu. ously until at about 1.30 p.m., when the storm reached its height, it stood at 7132. With de crease of barometric pressure the wind increased in violence, and at about 12:30 reached the phe nominal force of 30 metres per second. First it came from the N.E., ther from the EN.E. then E., and finally from the South. At this point, at about the minimum recorded by the barometer, a full occurred, and shortly after. wards the pressure increased as the wind veered, round to W. and, blowing again nearly as
Bar.
10 a.m. 29 94... 2 p.m. 29.96
10
11
29.81.
midnight, 29.77.
6 a.m. 29.77.... 10 29.85..
"3
Wind
E. Force 3
""
"
T
"
**
S.S.W. S.W W. by S.
W. The barometer was at its lowest at midnight, but it blew hardest at about 1 a.m., when the wind had hauled to abont S.W. by W., its force then being about 9. The total rainfall during the blow was only 0.80 inches.
The K.
R. & A. C. is a heavy sufferer by Wednesday night's typhoon, the pontoon having been swept away as well as the landing-stage. Fortunately all the boats are safe, the boathouse not having been damaged. The blow came on so suddenly that everybody was unprepared, and the sendo did not take the usual precautions for securing the poutoen.
Kobe, 28th July.
According to the latest reports concerning the accident on the Sanyo Railway, only 8 soldiors were killed on the spot, besides 3 employes of the railway, making 11 in all who niet with their death, Eleven others were seriously injured, and 72 received slight injuries, while one is missing. The earlier reports placed the number of deaths at forty. The wounded were carried to a school building, where they were treated by Surgeon General Sato and other military surgeons who came there from Hiro- shima. The bodies of the killed were cremated on Thursday night.
Mr. Haraguchi, Chief Civil Engineer of the Railway Bureau, Mr. Sengoku, C.E., and Mr. Matsumoto, President of the Sanyo Company, arrived at Onomichi yesterday in order to in- vestigate the cause of the accident.
Kobe, 30th July. Mention was made in Friday's issue of the cumstances of the disaster are considered, to- steamship Auretta anchoring off Rokuren on the gether with the few carriages which remained 24th inst. for refuge from the tempest. Further on the line, that the loss of life was not greater.information, which we have received from Sakai, We are still without full details of the terrible states that the steamer rode at a chor (double) disaster, but it can easily be imagined that the with 90 fathoms of chain ont, and (thanks to a struggle for life which went on in the intense good anchorage) rode out the storm in safety- darkness of the night, and amidst that howling in company with a P. & O. vessel (Verona). At storm, must have been terrible, especially as the six the following morning the storm had abated conditions were such that those who were in the and the steamer left for Sakai in a very heavy From 6 to 8 a.m. they passed quantities of carriages remaining on the track must have been sea. incapable of offering any effective assistance to wreckage, all apparently of the junk description, and two large cargo juuks, bottom up, but no sign their comrades
We learn from one who was on board a Nip.of life about. Shortly after 8 a.m. they came pon Yusen Kaisha steamer lying at Onomichi up to a large junk, dismasted and with one side on Wednesday that the centre of the typhoon torn out; two poor creatures were clinging to what Mr. Taylor (the chief passed right across that district, so that the remained of the wreck. place where the railway accident occurred must officer), three sailors and a fireman immediately have experienced the full violonce of the storm. manned the lifeboat and in a very heavy sea, During the evening the wind at Onomichi was rosened the two men on the 'junk from death. blowing in great gusts from the general direc-The junk had been smashed up early in the man had been washed off tion of N.N.W.. but was continually shifting. Lyphoon and one
The two rescued men were in At 7 o'clock it fell dead calm, the centre of the and drowned.
condition very exhausted
and received typhoon having been reached, and at 8.30 the h
attentioz from the captain, the wind began to blow in heavy squalls from the very S.W., the storm lasting with great violence until Japanese, the purser and his staff. They were midnight, when it gradually lulled. On hoar-bound from Moji to a small port to the north- ing of the accident next morning, it was foundward, and the boat, which was theirown property, possible on steaming past the place where the Euo was broken to see something of the wreck which had occurred. One or two carriages still remained on the line, the ballast of which has
10
ad no recoguised name Captain Henderson ery kindly organised subscription on behalf f the shipwrecked mon--which was generously espoudod to by all Eands in the ship, the
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