A REMARKABLE VOYAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 116, 17 May 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

A REMARKABLE VOYAGE.

An extraordinary story of the sea is given in the "Hongkong Daily Press It relates to a remarkable voyage made by the Evie I. Ray, an American barque, oc which "Captain Francis Kasten is the master and principal owner. In June la»* he obtained a charter with a Chinese" firm to proceed from Hongkong to Rajang, North Borneo, to load lumbar for Hongkong. The ship carried a crew of Japanese, and shortly after leaving Hongkong beri-beri broke out amongst th" men and most of them died. With great difficulty the skipper put into a Cochin China port, and by that time the Japanese sailors had all succumbed to the disease. The captain telegraphed to his agents to forward him another crew, and in four weeks the new men (all Chinese) arrived from Hongkong^ but they, too, were attacked with the same disease before the vessel was ready to continue her voyage, while to make matters worse the chief officer also contracted the malady. Leaving all the sick men behind, the captain proceeded shorth&nded to Rajang, and while the vessel was being loaded the few remaining- men were attacked. It was impossible to secure sailors in the Borneo port, and the captain decided to make the best of his way back to Hongkong, but when two or three days out only the skipper and two officers were fit for duty. For several weeks these three men worked the ship themselves. They encountered exceptionally heavy weather, and at times expected to lose the craft. They tried in vain to make the coast, and eventually they were picked up by~a steamer, and taken in tow to Subig- Bay, where they were taken care of by a United States supply ship, and escorted to the Phillippines.