Inquiry Into Ship’s Fate

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28699, 24 September 1958, Page 13

Inquiry Into Ship’s Fate

<Rec. 8.30 p.m.> HONIARA, Sept 23. Three hundred scraps ot wreckage salvaged from the Pacific may help a commission of inquiry. which began at Honiara today, to solve the fate of a 240ton ship lost near the Solomon Islands in July. The Solomon Islands patrol and trading vessel Melanesian, with 82 passengers and crew aboard, including seven Europeans, disappeared on a routine inter-island,, voyage from Malaita to Sikalapa. ' The Melanesian left Malaita on July 9, and reported next day that she was only 25 miles from ■ Sikaiana. She was not heard of again. Five days later, after an extensive air and sea search, an aircraft sighted part of the Melanesian’s superstructure off tha east coast of Malaita. Later, ships picked up more pieces of broken timber, a crushed lifebuoy and a life raft.

On July 20 a search ship found the mutilated body of the Melanesian's boatswain, David Daewo. Next day the search was abandoned.

Novelist’s Death.—The novelist, Mary Roberts Rinehart, died in her sleep tonight, aged 82, in her home on Park avenue. Mrs Rinehart wrote more than 80 novels and mysteries. Her first success was “The Circular Staircase.” published in 1908. It sold 1,250,000 copies.—New York, September 22.