ADRIFT IN GULF

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 38, 15 February 1943, Page 4

ADRIFT IN GULF

BLANKET AS A SAIL

ADVENTURES IN LAUNCH

To drift for twelve and a half hours in a disabled 26ft launch and then run aground on Kawau Island was the experience of two men last Friday. They were Mr. P. T. Revell, of Cambridge, and Mr. D. J. Lamont, of Ngaruawahia, who are both staying in Auckland while engaged on work on the Great Barrier Island. They had finished their particular contract on the island and were preparing to return to Auckland in Mr. Revell's launch, the Pelican, but owing to engine trouble and a broken ■tail shaft, they were forced to seek a tow by the Norma McLeod, a Public Works launch. The two vessels left Great Barrier Island at 10.30 on Thursday night, with a fairly heavy swell running. Things went normally until about 4.30 on Friday morning, when the tow-line snapped just as the boats had passed the Little Barrier. Mr. Revell said it was fairly dark at the time, but the Public Works launch seemed to abandon the tow and the two men received no assistance. They drifted in ten-foot seas all day on Friday and attempted to use a blanket as a. sail, but this made no check on the drift of the launch. Signalled With Two-cell Torch The vessel drifted in a southwesterly direction, and at 5 o'clock on Fridav night ran on to rocks at Kawau Island, about eight miles from Mansion House Bay. Mr. Revell commenced signalling with a two-cell torch, in the hope that he might attract attention from Whangaparaoa or Tiri Tiri Island. The station at Whangaparaoa received a message at about seven minutes to eight, and a naval vessel went out and took the helpless launch in tow. The tow was kept up all Friday night, and Messrs. Revell and Lamont were forced to pump and bail continuously to keep the Pelican afloat. By about 10 o'clock on Saturday morning they were able to make temporary repairs to the tail shaft and get the motor running. The launch cast off from the naval, vessel just inside Tiri ,Tiri Island and proceeded to Auckland under its own power, arriving at St. Mary's Bay at 3.30 in the afternoon. Mr. Revell stated this morning that he and Mr. Lamont had nothing to eat from 6 o'clock Thursday night until seven on Friday night, when they were fed by a family of Aucklanders on holiday at Kawau. He said the launch was rather extensively damaged and was now on the slips. He and Mr. Lamont were none the worse for their experience.