NEW "ISLAND."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 68, 21 March 1935, Page 9

NEW "ISLAND."

OFF NORTH CAPE. TWO SHIPS IN SEARCH. TALE OF LONG AGO. After many years the fi'le of how two ships were chartered by newspapers in Auckland to seek an island that had suddenly appeared off the North Cape of New Zealand, and how the island turned out to be something else, was retold to-day by Captain Robert Girling, of the South Australia pilot service, who for many years was in the New Zealand coastal service. He is in New Zealand 011 holiday. In those clays —it was nearly 50 years ago—Captain Girling was an A.B. 011 the Glenelg. The same Glenelg is still 011 the Waitemata; but in those days she was the smartest of crafts, trim, and one of the belles of the Northern Steamship Company's fleet. Captain Norbury was in command.

"We had just finished discharging a load of coal at the old Railway wharf at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon," Captain Girling remembered. "We were just getting cleaned lip to go ashore when the captain came back with the order to take on 40 tons of coal because we had been chartered by an | Auckland newspaper to try to confirm I the report that an island, previously | unknown, had been reported oil' the I North Cape." Waiting in the Darkness. The story of the island, he said, had arisen through the report to the Marine Department of Captain Savory, of the vessel Herald, wliich had just arrived in Auckland with a cargo of coal from Westport. He said that in very rough weather lie had sighted the island near the Cape, but because of weather conditions lie had not been able to make close inspection. "The newspapers got hold of it," added Captain Girling, "and so it came that we were chartered. The Awhina, an old wooden vessel, under Captain Campbell, was also chartered by a rival newspaper. "Awav we sailed in the Glenelg, in fine -weather, up the coast. We arrived at the Cape on Sunday afternoon, and there was not a ghost of a sign of any island, so the captain decided to confer with the lighthouse-keepers at Cape Maria. He went ashore in his boat, and was met at the foot of the lighthouse rocks. "The lighthouse men said they had not seen an island, but what they had seen was something that looked like a ship, floating bottom up, drifting steward with a ship's boat alongside. We stood off the land until night; and when dark had fallen we extinguished all lights and stood off waiting for day. We wanted to be first with the news, and so did not want to let the other vessel, the Awhina, know where we were.' All night we moved about, slowly; and what was our disgust to find at dayliffht that we were only a very short distance away from the Awhina! , . , ~ „ "Well, then, the two skippers held a consultation, and they arranged that it neither found anything by the end ot the dav. they were to meet at a certain place. ' But they never met, as you shall Offer of £5 Reward. "After breakfast the reporter 011 our vessel offered £5 to the first man who should see the upturned vessel. You can imagine what that meant to the crew. The man off duty in each watch went to the masthead and stayed there with his eyes strained. "Nothing happened for some time. We just sailed 011, with the man at the look-out doing all lu> could to make the trip successful. Then, at 11 a.m., there was a great cry from the look-out man. He had seen it! There it was! \ lsione of £5 became brighter, almost a reality. Soon everyone could see it clearly. "But as' we moved closer, faintly at first and then increasingly stronger, we bean to smell a smell, a smell which was not like that of any ship we had ever known. The nearer we (new the worse the- smell, until we saw the 'island.' > . , "There lay our upturned vessel, witli the 'ship's boat' alongside. The only semblance was the shape. The big loomin" bulk was a dead whale, with a big bit of blubber hanging, the prey of all the sharks in the sea, not to mention 'sun fish. . "What happened to the Awhina 1 do not know, but 1 do know that the Glenelg crept very quietly back Auckland, and the £5 we never saw.'