SHIPS IN DISTRESS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1945, Page 5

SHIPS IN DISTRESS

Caught In Fierce Cyclone In Coral Sea SOME SURVIVORS RESCUED Rec. 1.30 p.m. BRISBANE, this day. A second raft has been picked up off the Queensland coast, and five Europeans and eight natives have now been rescued from a ship which is believed to have been sunk in the Coral Sea during the cyclone last week-end. The search is continuing. Two submerged lifeboats and a quantity of wreckage have been found. An Allied merchantman, which survived the buffeting of the boiling seas and wind, which at times reached 80 to 100 miles an hour, has reached a north Queensland port. The ship was returning to Australia when the cyclone struck it. By Wednesday heavy seas had reduced the ship's speed from nine and a half to three knots. Early on Friday morning the steering rod was carried away, but was repaired after four hours' work. Distress signals received showed that the other vessel was losing her lifeboats and could use only one boiler. Her lights had gone, and she was shipping heavy seas. No further signals were received. The weather began to moderate on Sunday, and the ship commenced to search for the other vessel, but as stocks of oil were running low it had to make for port.