ORDEAL ON KETCH

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27914, 10 March 1956, Page 9

ORDEAL ON KETCH

Shark Only Food In Two Weeks (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 12.15 a.m.) HONIARA. March 9. A six-foot shark, cooked over a primus stove, was the only food 19 people aboard the island trader Arakarimoa ate in their last two weeks of helpless drifting, a survivor said today. A baby born during the voyage lived only a few days because the mother had no milk, he said. As the Arakarimoa wallowed helplessly, drifting before varying winds, its complement sighted two ships and signalled desperately with hastilymade flares. They received no response. Eight Gilbertese survivors, recovering from their ordeal, were interviewed in Honiara Central Hospital. The only English-speaking survivor. Eberi of Maiana. a tall 28-year-old Gilbertese. told the story of the voyage, frequently conferring with his companions to check facts. Eberi said that the Arakarimoa left Tarawa for Maiana on December 28. Three hours out, the engine stopped. “The starter battery was flat and the engine room crew could not restart the engine. We tried to anchor but the water was too deep, so we put out a sea anchor and waited for daylight.” he said. “At daylight, we hoisted a sail and tried to return to Tarawa, but a northerly wind prevented this and we sailed south for nine days. “There was no map aboard, but there was a good compass.” Eberi said that the Arakarimoa carried 40 11b tins of meat, four 561 b bags of rice, and a 501 b tin of ship’s biscuits. For the last two weeks before their landing at Guadalcanal they had nothing but the shark, which the cook, loakim, caught on the ninth foodless day. “This lasted only a day.” Eberi said. They had four drums of water which they easily replenished by rainwater caught in awnings. Eberi said. After the first nine, days, sailing south from Tarawa, the Arakarimoa was becalmed for three days. They began sailing south again for two weeks, then the wind carried them south-west for two weeks and west for another two weeks. Then they sailed north-west before sighting the Guadalcanal coast.