RAFT VOYAGERS SIGHTED

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27403, 16 July 1954, Page 7

RAFT VOYAGERS SIGHTED

Graft Only 20 Miles Offshore RADIO OPERATOR TO BE TAKEN OFF (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SAN FRANCISCO. July 14.. The raft Lehi and its crew of five amateur mariners who set out last week to drift to Hawaii on ocean currents were sighted today by a private search aeroplane 20 miles off the Californian coast in the rolling Pacific. The pilot radioed that he had sighted the raft 20 miles offshore from San Simeon, California, and'about 200 miles south of San Francisco. He said he was holding a position over the raft to guide rescue boats on their way to remove the raft’s ailing radio operator. Today’s sighting was the first since Monday, three days after the little gold-painted, five-sided craft left San Francisco on a “scientific” drifting cruise of 2400 miles to Honolulu. Two small craft were chugging to, the aid of the Lehi. The fishing boat Varjan left San Simeon harbour, and the Arenisco put out from Morro Bay after a heavy fog lifted earlier today. De Vere Baker, aged 38, and his four companions left San Francisco last Friday, planning to eat only what fish they caught, and to obtain drinking water from a portable distiller on their long voyage. Their 32-foot raft was caught in wayward coastal currents instead of floating out to sea, and drifted south of San Francisco.

Don Smith, the Lehi’s radio operator, demanded in a message received yesterday, that he be taken off immediately, complaining that he was ill. His message said he had had no food and little water, and was “really sick.” Listeners thought Smith’s message suggested he was fed up with the venture, and conducting a one-man mutiny. They quoted him as warning amateur radio operators: “Don’t repeat this . . . they’re listening,” and as saying: “I will say what I want when I get ashore.”

Coast Guard vessels until now have kept out of the search because, spokesmen said, the Coast Guard could’ go to Smith’s help only if a distress call came from Baker, the “master” of the raft.