GRAPHIC ACCOUNTS OF WRECK AND RESCUE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1902, Page 5

GRAPHIC ACCOUNTS OF WRECK AND RESCUE.

REPORTS FROM SEARCH STEAMERS.

ONE BOAT AND ONE RAIT STILL MISSING.

THREE BODIES PICKED Eg;

AN AUSTRIAN iieCOuif^ OE THE CALAMITY.

.Tie arrival of -the Zealandia with eighty-nine of the passengers and crew of the ill-fated steamer Elingamite still leaves . thirtyTeight passengers and some members of the crew unaccounted for. Of these seventeen are on the missing raft/ and very little hope can be held out for their safety, for those who managed to land are unanimous in the opinion that with another night on the island many would have died from exhaustion, and it must be immediately recognised that those on the raft were in a much more serious plight than those who managed to reach the rocks. Without thoiight of shelter, foodless, ill-clad, tossed about at the mercy of wind and Waves, probably, wet through for the greater part of the time, their condition from the first w-as one of the grayest anxiety, and unless some external aid of w Thieh so far no advice has been /received reached them no hope can be entertained for the safety of a single occupant of the raft.

Those in the third mate's boat, of which nothing has been heard since it disappeared in the fog, after the officer in charge had told the purser that he was going to the' mainland, were in a much better position, and there is room for hope that they may be yet picked up. In the opinion of Mr P. Chambers, the purser of ihe ill-fated vessel, the boat was the best found, of all, and she was also fairly well provisioned. Still, it is now four dafS since the wreck was left and there is no word of the arrival of the boat at the mainland. The provisions would not hold out for many days,

and unless word comes through be« lore long the gravest anxiety for all the missing must be felt.

From the statements of survivors ytho arrived by the Zealandia it is evident that several lives were lost when the wreck took place, a -good number, of bodies having been seen floating in the vicinity of the wreck. Jfo one was able to give the eaact number of these,' but several pass-en-gers report having seen over half a dozen bodies amongst the wreckage.

The survivors who arrived by the Zealandia yesterday afternoon had a very perilous experience, and the thankfulness with which they reached dry land was manifest in the majority of the worn and haggard faces. Their first hews from the shore since communicating with the Omapere was obtained from the steamer chartered by the proprietors of the "Star," which met the vessel at Tiri, the representatives aboard having to answer a number of queries as to the iniss|ng before getting detailed accounts of the casualty from the survivors on the boat.