THRILLING ACCOUNT OF THE WORK ON LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1922, Page 7

THRILLING ACCOUNT OF THE WORK ON LAND.

WHAT THE RESCUE PARTIES HAD TO SUFFER. HOW THE LINE WAS BROUGHT ASHORE. . c i (By "Star" Special Reporter.) TRYPHENA, this day. The apparenly impossible has been accomplished, and every boy and man aboard the Wiltshire has been safely landed, and within a few hours all Avill be bound for Auckland on the Union Company's Katoa. It is difficult for townspeople to visualise the terribly strenuous work that the rescue has meant. Nothing that one could say would be too much in praise of the magnificent work done by the first rescue party sent overland ' by the Katoa, which consisted of the chief officer (Mr. Bowling), the third engineer (Mr. O. R. Cosens), the purser (Mr. L. Munn). and two sailors (J. Kehoe and AY. McCallum), and the settlers who gathered so speedily when the alarm of a wreck was given. This first party from the Katoa and some of the settlers reached the cliffs ' overlooking the wreck on Thursday morning, and with very indifferent and makeshift gear managed to get twelve men ashore—a splendid feat, especially •when one remembers the conditions. AA r ith such a spell of rain from the north-east and east as the island has experienced all the creeks are up. Even at the best of times the track over the ridge from Tryphena to Rosalie Bay, where the Wiltshire went ashore, is a mere goat track", so it can bo readily imagined what the rescue parties had ; to put up with, laden, as they were, with gear. RESCUERS HAVE A STRENUOUS TIME. Some of the creeks were waist deep, the track, where there was a track, j was little better than a mud-slide, and the rescuing parties had a gruelling • time Pack horses were used for carrying the heavy gear, and one of the I animals got into difficulties in one of the creeks that had to be forded, and : was only got out after a hard struggle. I Added to the roughness of the track and the rain was the cold, which was felt bitterly by the drenched men. Even when the cliffs above Rosalie Bay were reached the plight of the rescuers was no better, as they were exposed to the full force of the storm, with lUtle or no shelter and very little to eat. GREAT WORK BY KATOA'S MEN. Considering that the Katoa's first party had no rocket apparatus it '' seems a miracle that they ever managed to establish communication with the : wreck, and it was only after repeated attempts and hours of anxiety that this was effected. ... 1 The men clingin" to the remains of the Wiltshire could be seen throwing i out a light line attached to a slab of timber. In such a boil of water the slab , was churned about and tossed hither and thither, in every direction but that I of the shore. Several attempts were made, and the shore party climbed down i the steep cliffs and got on to a ledge of rock on which the seas broke heavily ' and ominously. Dozens of attempts were made to reach the lines sent out from the wreck, but it seemed hopeless. At last, however, one line was washed among : the rocks and was caught on a projection. Taking a desperate chance Kehoe, one of the sailors off the Katoa, rushed out with a receding wave, and clutching ] the line just managed to get back to safety before the next surge roared '. ashore. A LINE ASHORE AT LAST. r vScrambliner up the almost perpendicular cliffs again the party got the i line up off the 5 beach. When the men on the Wiltshire saw that their line was in the hands of the shore party they bent on a heavier line, which was j hauled ashore and made fast to a tree on the top of the cliff. It was the only tree that was suitable, but owing to the slippery ground sloping away to the 1 edge of the steep cliff the position was a most dangerous one. ', After a great deal of arduous work the gear was rigged so that with an endless rope a bosun's chair—practically just a loop in a rope, so tied that it i won't slip and a man can sit in it, but has to hold on with both hands-could be hauled from shore to ship and back again. A MISERABLE NIGHT ON THE CLIFFS. It was with this hastily improvised rough gear that the first dozen men were hauled ashore. And it must be remembered that the men off the Katoa had been "oing continuously Since they left their ship in the early hours ot Thursday morning. Added to this they had had hardly anything to eat When night came and stopped the rescue work they shore party settled down to spend a most miserable and trying night, wet through, with a cold wind blowing no shelter, and no food. Some of the men were so chilled that ' tbcv had to get up and walk to and fro to get up circulation again.

BLUEJACKETS ON THE SCENE. It was daylight yesterday when the-reinforcements sent down from Auckland—the officer and men from the Philomel—fully provided with life-saving apparatus, came ashore at Tryphena, and it was not until nearly noon that they had reached Rosalie Bay; and their arrival was most welcome to the halfdead rescuers, who had stood so heroically to their work. As soon as day broke yesterday the devoted hand of sailors and settlers again got to work with their rough gear, and by the time the Philomel partyarrived twelve of the Wiltshire's crew stood on terra firma. The "handy men" lost no tame in tailing on to the rope with which the wrecked sailors were being hauled ashore, two at a time, a work which took about a-quarter of an hour from the wreck to the top of the cliff. Other members of the Philomel party got to work and rigged a proper pulley through which the endless rope ran. This new gear worked beautifully, and the work was so speeded up that ten trips an hour between wreck and shere were made. And the Ene which had been sagging into the waves was working clear of the water. SETTLERS PROVIDE HOT TEA. As the men were helped out of the bosun's chair they were taken in charge by the settlers, who in spite o* the awful weather had managed to get a few fires going under the trees. Hot tea, biscuits, tinned meat and fish and chocolate were relished by the shipwrecked men, especially the tea. as the watertanks on board the Wiltshire U«_ gone when the stern half of the vessel was can-lied away. When they were refreshed the rescued men went overland in batches, and made for the Katoa in Tryphena, where they got a true sailors' welcome. MEN ON WRECK SUFFER THIRST. During the preceding night the Wiltshire men had been able to get a signalling lamp going, but the shore could not reply, as they had no signalling apparatus. The great need of the men on tho wreck was water. An attempt was made to send some off in a tin billy-can, but by the time St got aboard the knocking about it had received left very- little water in it. After the Philomel's men arrived some biscuitß and cigarettes were sent out to the men on the wreck by the line. The order of sending the men off the wreck was boys first, then trimmers, firemen, cooks, stewards, seamen, engineers, Avireless operator, and the officers, with Captain Hayward last. WRECKED SAILORS LOSE ALL. Everybody that came ashore had obviously spent a terrible time, and some of them were quite exhausted. They saved only the clothes in which they stood up, but (strange touch of human nature!) one sailor brought off one of those queer nuzzles which adorn seaside inns—a full-rigged ship inside a bottle. All day long the tedious work of hauling the endless rope with its bosun's chair went on. and by about 4 p.m. there were only the officers and a few of the men to bring ashore. The great Avork yvas accomplished before nightfall, everyone being dead beat. Owing to the darkness it was impossible to send all the rescued men overland to Tryphena, and about thirty of the unfortunatps had to pass another night practically in the open, except for some rough shelter which was rigged under the lee of some trees. ANOTHER NIGHT OF EXPOSURE. It. was a terribly hard experience for the already exhausted men. who before the night came on were guided over the rough bush track to Tryphena. Many of them just managed to struggle across, and ovVing to the nature of the track it was impossible to improvise any adequate means of transport. Pome of the shipwrecked men did not reach the Katoa until after dark. Everyone aboard the Katoa naturally did bis utmost for the suffering sailors. and it was surprising how much could be done on a boat that is only a coal-carrier and naturally does not boast the resources of a passenger sli : p. And the Great Barrier settlers were simply splendid. Every man. woman anrl child in the neighbourhood did something or helped in some way to make rescued and rescuers as comfortable as was possible in the impossible circumstances.