Battered and tossed in what is described by the master as "one fof the worst seas I have seen on the China coast," propeller and keel often out of the water as far as the main mast, and receiving 8.0.8. signals from a sister ship, the China Merchants str. Hsinming at last fought her way through a snowstorm and gale to the str. Hsinchang and after many: weary hours of waiting was successful in getting a towing rope to. the helpless vessel.
Tt. will be remembered that on January 2, the China Merchants Wwirelessed to the local office of the company to the effect that she had lost her shaft and propeller and was helpless off the coast in heavy goas and a gale in the vicinity of Wenchow and was raply drifting south, The company immediately des patched the str. Hsinming—the fastest ship in the fleet and at tone time the premier vessel on the Shanghai-Tientsin run—to the scone, At one time two Japanese vessels stood by the Hsinchang but their many attempts to pass. the vessel towing rope were unsuccessful and they could only wait with a view to saving life in case the vessel foundered, Scon after the arrival ofthe Hsinming, both departed. In connection with their
is worth relating. The Hsinchang departure following incident is commanded by a Chinese master and. all the passengers were Chinese. When the latter saw that the "Japanese ships had departed, they' threatened the captain think: ing that he had allowed them to Further, when the Hsinming arrived and had waited many hours in the heavy "seas without any success, the passengers told the captain that they would throw Rim overboard if he let the sine ming go. away. This alan state of affairs was communicated to the Hsinming: and on the Hsin-iting a reassuring reply, the, passengers assumed a more reasonable attitude,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.