THE WRECK

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 58, 9 March 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE WRECK

(By Elizabeth Hartnell; age 11.) "A wreck! A wreck!" These startling words, accompanied by the demoniacal shriek of the wind, aroused me from my slumbers. Casting off my sleepiness I rushed to the window and tried to pierce tlio impenetrable blackness of the night. My efforts being of no avail, I joined my family and we hurried, with all possible speed, down the narrow clitf path to the 'bay. Here a huddled group of neighbours wore gathered, tho women sobbing, the men chafing at their inability to help. Tlio flashes of lightning illuminated the white faces of the crowd and revealed the grim majesty of our surroundings. The white-capped breakers thundered in, and, at their highest, crashed upon the beach, pounding against the long lines of jagged rocks. Ban-en clifl'is looked down on the tragic scene enacted below them. Above the boom of the surf we heard the howl of the gale and the muttering of distant thunder. A vivid Hash of lightning showed the f\ill pitiful plight of the ship. The great waves were breaking completely over her bows and the stern was slowly settling in tho water. Tiny fingers could be discerned clinging to the side, and our hearts went out to them. There was a etir in the crowd and a faint cheer as the lifeboat, \KJth her sturdy crew, was launched. Slowly the Strong steady strokes of the onrs overcame the distance, and when some hundred yards from the ship the life-line wiis flung. There was now little time to be lost. The storm had abated somewhat, and Ui<> moon was flooding the sombre sky with her beams. One by one the survivors crossc:l the narrow life-line to be received by willing hands. Even as the captain set foot on the beach and turned to watcli with sad eyes the fate of the vessel he had loved, she shuddered from stern to bow and sank—another gallant ship had found its last haven far beneath, the turbulent waters.