Date: December 28 1912

The Cork Examiner, 28 December 1912
THE GALE
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STEAMER'S TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE
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TWO LIVES LOST
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IRISHMAN A VICTIM
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London, Friday Night.
The steamer Duchess of Cornwall arrived at Falmouth to-day and reported having experienced a terrible time in a gale off the Lizard on Thursday night. She was making for Falmouth to repair some damage when a tremendous sea struck the steamer. So heavy was the impact that the steamer's funnel was torn away and washed overboard. All the boats were smashed, the fires put out, the cabins gutted, and the skylight smashed in. Large volumes of water found their way into the vessel's hold.
The wave washed the chief mate, Mr. W. Walquest, of Cardiff, overboard, also a seaman named Martin, of Wicklow, who was steering at the time, both men being drowned. It was only the heroic work of the engineers and stokers that saved the ship, for they worked up to their knees in the water and kept the fires going.
Captain Yeo had a very lucky escape from being hurled overboard. He was standing on the bridge with the chief mate, and only left to examine a chart in the chart room when a big sea struck the steamer. The Duchess of Cornwall has six feet of water in No. 4 hold.
DEATHS.
AHEARN—On Dec. 25th, 1912, at his residence, Green road, Lismore, Patrick Ahearn. Deeply regretted by his sorrowing wife and children. R.I.P. American papers please copy.
STEAMER DAMAGED
London, Friday Night.
Signals of distress were sent up eight or nine miles off Hastings. A lifeboat made several attempts to get afloat, but was unable to launch owing to the heavy gale and heavy seas. To-day it was ascertained the vessel was the Bedechurn of Newcastle. She had lost a propeller, and after beating to the eastward was taken in tow by a tug.
WASHED UP BY THE SEA
HEADLESS AND ARMLESS BODY
London, Friday Night.
A headless and armless body was washed up at Hastings to-day. Sea-boots were on the legs.

The absence of any news of the steam yacht Wild Rose, which was lying opposite Queenstown for several days before leaving on Saturday last for a French port, continues to cause grave fears, and not without reason, as she was not the likeliest vessel to weather the storm which burst soon after she left. A French captain and Southampton crew had charge of her. Official inquiries regarding her were made here to-day. The tug Hibernia, of London, which took the four-masted barque Marion Lightbody in tow from here for Limerick on Sunday last, is still unaccounted for, but she met bad weather often before, and always weathered the storm successfully. She is likely to have done so again, and is probably taking refuge somewhere. The two buoys which broke adrift in the outer harbour cannot be replaced for the present.
GALE IN IRISH SEA
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SCHOONER'S THRILLING EXPERIENCE
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WORST SEA EVER WITNESSED
London, Friday Night.
A Southampton telegram relates the thrilling experiences of the Dorothy Watson, a three-masted schooner of 200 tons, during the recent gale. The crew of the vessel were brought into Southampton to-day by the Clyde Shipping Company's steamer Garmoyle, which came to their assistance on Christmas Eve. The Dorothy Watson, which belongs to North Shields, was then proceeding to Glasgow with a cargo of china by way of the Irish Sea.
The terrific gale rendered the vessel unmanageable, as it was impossible to set sufficient canvas to enable the vessel to be properly controlled. The captain of the Garmoyle made repeated but unsuccessful efforts to take the schooner in tow. Ultimately the vessel had to be abandoned.
Coming up Channel the Garmoyle had renewed experience of the gale, the captain declaring he had never previously witnessed such seas in the Channel.
FEARED LOSS OF A SHIP.
London, Friday Night.
Lloyd's Penzance Agent telegraphs—Sundry wood wreckage was seen floating by a lifeboat and a steamer from Scilly, off Wolf Rock, and near this coast, to-day, consisting of bulwarks, stanchions, etc.; also the dead body of a woman. There was nothing about the wreckage to identify what ship it comes from.