STORY OF THE SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 300, 18 December 1911, Page 9

STORY OF THE SEA.

FRENCH SAILOR RESCUED, AFTER. 12 HOURS ON A PLANK. A stirring story of the sea was told by the captain of the German-Australian steamer Ehnshorn, irbich arrived at Sydney on Monday last from Hamburg, via Algioa Bay." When steaming along in rough weather off the Spanish coast, the lookout on the Eknshorn observed a man clinging to a plank some distance off. The vessel was immediately stopped, and a boat lowered at consideriafblo risk. The crew rescued him. On the way back to the steamer a corpse wis observed floating in the water, and it also was picked up. The man proved to be a French sailor, and he told a remarkable story, which was repeated by the Ebnahonr'B officers to-day. The man had been clinging to the plank for 12 hours, he said, and was one of the crew of the French steamer Biolrbaks, which was towing another French steamer named Liberia to Marseilles. During the night the EioliDaks' engines had broken, down. The Liberia hail been lifted on a huge wave and dashed on to her disabled consort, with the result that she tore an immense hole in the hull of the Eiolibaks', which sank almost immediately. A boat was launched from the Liberia, and two passengers and 12 of the crew of the Eiolibaks were rescued. In the dark the sailor picked up by the Ehnshorn had, despite his cries, been unnoticed, and had drifted away on his plank. In all 26 men were drowned. The captain of the Ehnshorn proceeded in the direction where the catastrophe occurred, and sighted the Liberia, flying signals of distress. Running close to her, he again launched his "boat in the heavy sen, with a tow-line to attach to her. This -work was extremely arduous and dangerous on account of the 'boisterous conditions, and it took four hours of incessant toil to link the two steamers effeetivelv together. The FJmshorn then laid a course for Las Palmas, some hundreds of miles distant, and subsequently reached there with her prize.