POOR START TO RAFT VOYAGE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27400, 13 July 1954, Page 9

POOR START TO RAFT VOYAGE

Lehi Becalmed Off Golden Gate (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) SAN FRANCICO, July 11. After being practically becalmed for nearly 48 hours, the raft Lehi today was reported to be only 38 miles south of the Golden Gate and 28 miles offshore. The five-man crew of the 32ft craft remained determined to drift the 2400 miles to Hawaii, in spite of hunger, thirst, and fatigue. They were still trying to find a westerly current. The raft apparently made no westward progress during the night, as coastal currents and winds moved it south. The skipper, de vere Baker, aged 38, radioed that his crew had had no food since yesterday, and that they had made only one quart of drinking water from a solar still. The crew had expected to live off the sea, subsisting on sea life and rainwater. A boat under the direction of Dr. W. C. Fearson, a University of San Francisco professor, and father of one of the members of the crew, planned to tow the Lehi 100 miles out. It was hoped this would take the raft out of the south-moving coastal currents and into the south-western currents that supposedly would take them to Hawaii.