HISTORIC WRECK

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21146, 23 April 1934, Page 7

HISTORIC WRECK

death of survivor Believed to have been the last survivor of the wreck of H.M.S. Captain, which capsized in a fierce squall in the Bay of Biscay at midnight on February 7. 1870, Mr John Walker, an old resident of the Papakura district, died last week, at the age of 90 years, states the "New Zealand Herald." He was one of the 18 survivors of the historic wreck. Mr Walker, who served in the Navy for 11 years before adopting a life ashore, cultivated a farm in the Papakura district for half a century. He had many a story to tell of his adventures at sea and of the places to which his service took him. Describing the disaster to the Captain, in which 463 lives were lost, he said: "I was washed overboard by heavy seas from windward, and on coming to the surface I was dragged into a launch that still had its canvas cover en. "What I remember most clearly before being pulled on to the launch was that I lashed out at something that had gripped my leg. I thought it was a shark, but it turned out to be a youth named Gribble, who was saved, but he had a swollen face and a black eye for a long time." The troubles of the men who managed to reach the launch were not over. All night they drifted where the gale blew them, trying merely to keep the stern on to the sea. One of the men was washed overboard in the darkness. It was 16 hours before the Spanish coast was sighted at a point 13 miles from Finisterre. Help was sent from H.M.S. Monarch and the next morning the survivors were taken to Portsmouth.