LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

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Pasithea

HARWICH.—On the 16th February, at 6 P.M., information was brought by a Ramsgate smack that a large vessel was ashore on the Long Sand, and that the crew were in great danger. The Life-boat Springwett immediately proceeded there, but, on account of the low state of the tide, she could not then get alongside the wreck. At high tide the steam-tug Harwich came up, and, with the aid of the Life-boat, managed to got a rope fast to the stranded ship; she was, however, unable to get her off. The wind subsequently freshened, and a heavy sea sprung up, when the ship gave a heavy lurch, the ballast having been thrown out of her, causing the sea to dash over her amidships. Signals were then made by the men on board for the Life-boat to come to their aid, and accordingly she went alongside and succeeded in taking off 13 of the crew and 10 smacksmen who had gone on board to assist. Two of the men fell between the vessel and the Lifeboat as they were trying to get into the Boat, but were fortunately rescued. The Life-boat then remained by the wreck until daylight, when it was found that the steward was missing, and on looking at the vessel he was seen in the mizen rigging. The shipwrecked sailors were then put on board a smack, and on the Life-boat returning to the ship, the steward lowered himself by a rope from the mizen boom into the Boat, and shewas then towed back to Harwich. The vessel was the barque Pasithea, of Liverpool, bound from Hamburg to Cardiff, in ballast..