TRAGIC WRECK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 238, 8 October 1941, Page 5

TRAGIC WRECK

NINETEEN LIVES LOST

SURVIVOR'S LONG SWIM (0.C.) SUVA, September 23 Although five months have obpHl since the loss of the Rogovoka, no inquiry has been held into title disaster. The vessel was wrecked on April 12 on her way to Suva from the Yanawai River, on Vanua Levu, and 19 lives were lost.

Under section 10 of the Wreckage land Salvage Ordinance of 1887. ■stories taken from the three survivors by the Receiver of Wrecks have now been posted at the Customs House, Suva. The Rogovoka was undoubtedly overloaded, having on board, besides the owner, his wife and two children (all of whom were lost together with 15 others), some sixty sacks of copra, a quantity of timber which was carried inside and on the roof of the cabin, as well as passengers' effects.

According to the story of John Miller, one of the three survivors, when the engine broke down they tried to hoist a sail, but this was blown away, and the vessel drifted with the current back towards \ anua Levu, where she struck the reef at Vatuicake. Miller, with two Fijians, then volunteered to try to swim to the shore, which he reckoned was about 15 miles distant. After swimming all day Sunday, Sunday night and Monday, Miller eventually reached the reef near the village of Damu, but he did not see the two Fijians again. The other survivors, two Indians, climbed on a raft with two women who, however, were lost when the raft struck a reef and they were all thrown off. The Indiana took the raft across the reef and pvam with it towards the land, restr mg on the reefs on the way.

< The feeling locally is that a mat ter of such importance as thig and lattended with so much loss of life ishould have been the subiect of a searching inquiry, and tha't regulations should be tightened up to prevent small vessels heavily loaded crossing the open sea.