3-077-775 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The steamship Quetta, wrecked in Torres Straits, North Australia, 1890. 'News telegraphed from Brisbane...announced a terrible disaster at sea, with the loss of nearly 140 lives. The Quetta, a screw steamship of 2254 tons,...on her way to Queensland, by Torres Straits, struck on an unknown rock near Somerset, Cape York, on the north coast of Australia, and sank in a few minutes, her side being quite torn open. There were 282 persons on board, of whom 136 were saved, including the captain, three of the officers, the purser, and five saloon passengers, one a lady. Fourteen or fifteen ladies perished, and twelve other saloon passengers, among them a brother and sister of Mr. Archer, the Agent-General for Queensland in London; about forty steerage passengers, with children, fifteen Englishmen of the crew, and some fifty Lascars and Javanese, are missing; but it is possible that some have got ashore on the neighbouring islands. The steamer Albatross has been sent to search for any who may have escaped when the Quetta sank. The chief officer, Mr. Gray, and Miss Lacy, a passenger, have thus been found living. We give an Illustration of the ship, which is the first that has been lost in the Company's service. She was built in 1881, on the Clyde'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.