AN UNSUCCESFUL QUEST.

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

AN UNSUCCESFUL QUEST.

THE CLANSMAN'S CRUISE

WRECKAGE ENCOUNTERED.

CAPSIZED DINGY PASSED

THREE CORPSES PICKED UP.

BURIED AT SEA

(BY OUR REPORTER ON BOARD THE CLANSMAN.)

HOHOURA HEADS, Wednesday ni.srht.

We have just arrived from the Three Kings. We saw no sign of the missing boat or raft. -

After leaving, here last night we spoke the Zealandia with seventyseven survivors, and shortly after we picked up the Hohoura^ whaleboat crew who had intercepted the Zealandia, and we took them on board. Mr Burkett, chief officer of the Elingamite, boarded us at Hohoura.

We steamed northwards to sea. Spoke H.M.s. Penguin this morning thirty miles east of the Kings. She had seen nothing. After conferring, the Penguin and Clansman zig-zag-ged to Three Kings on parallel courses. We went round the islands from the* south, the Penguin going the other way. We passed much wreckage, but saw no living person. We spoke the schooner Greyhound off the South-western King.

Captain Subritzky reported that he had picked up three dead bodies floating off the rocks, each with a lifebelt round it.

Mr Burkett went aboard the schooner on which the bodies were. He believed one was that of a fireman, and the other two steerage passengers.

The former was a young man apparently "about thirty, with a light moustache. One of the others was an old man with a bald head, grey whiskers. The third was a young man apparently about thirty with Sandy whiskers and moustache.

After consultation Captain Subritzky decided to bury the bodies at sea, owing to the difficulty of landing anywhere.

Resuming we circumnavigated tlie Kings.

The wreckage passed included the ■capsized diing-y ;boat in which the purser and carpenter left the wreck.

They are amongst the Zealandia's survivors.

H.M. Penguin again spoke us, and reported that she had found nothing. She then steered away north-cast, intending to go some sixty miles off.

After leaving the Kings we spoke the Omapere, which was searching. She steered for the Three Kings. Mr Biirkett. the chief officer, states that he last saw a boat (no.doubt the one missing)- several miles ahead of him four hours after leaving the wreck. She was about hull down, and had a sail set. She was heading south. The chief officer believes she

may have missed Cape Maria and possibly run down the West Coast. She could not hold more than thirty safely. Mr Burkett's lifeboat, which reached Hohoura, was the last to leave the w?reck. Some one in the hurry had cut the boat's falls, ancl consequently she could not be launched, but she floated out safely, and went round picking up survivors. The chief officer took the water from the flying- bridge when the steamer listed, and was afterwards taken off the wreckage by the boat of which he assumed charge. He saw the captain and yseeond mate clinging to the funnel's guys. It was the captain and second mate who subsequently pulled him on to the same wreckage with them.