The Italian barque Lothaire had a very exciting encounter with last Wednesday's typhoon. The vessel was formerly a tea clipper trading between China and London and was very speedy, having won three medals for making fast trips. For the past fifteen years she has been engaged in the South American trade; and on the present occasion she was on a voyage from Callao, Peru, to Hongkong with one hundred and twenty Chinese passengers on board. She left Callao on the 16th of May and experienced very good weather until twelve o'clock noon on the 29th of July, when the barometer began to fall rapidly and the wind gradually increased in force. The vessel wi then about twenty miles away from Gap Rock, and the captain, Mr, Santo Ferretto, son Suw that a typhoon was approaching, The wind raged with terrific force the barometer fell to 28.80, and for five hours the vessel had to fight against the full strength of the typhoon. At 2 p.m. she was labouring heavily and the ballast shifted to leeward. All hands were set to work to trim the ballast, but their efforts were quite ineffectual, and at 6 p.m. the ship was on her beam ends and all the lee side under water up to the hatches. The rigging was then cut away and the main and mizzen masts and the foretopmast went over the side, leaving only the lower foremast standing with the fore-val, When the storm abated the. ship had drifted about forty miles. With the one sail left the vessel's course was directed towards Hongkong and on Friday evening she arrived off Lamma Island, where she remained until Saturday morning, when she was towed into the harbour by launches. Besides the passengers there was a crew of fourteen on board. While the storm was raging the passengers, consisting of men, women, and children, were almost paralysed with fear, They shouted -and_ cried and implored the captain, Mr. Santo Ferretto, to save then The captain did all he could to allay the fears, but it was not until he told them th: if they contimted to make a noise the vessel would go down that they pacified themselves.—Daily Press, 3rd August.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.