Shipwreck Ends N.Z. Man’s Voyage Home

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29333, 12 October 1960, Page 23

Shipwreck Ends N.Z. Man’s Voyage Home

[From the London Correspondent of “The Press”]

LONDON, October 3. Mr Russell Elliott, of Napier, has abandoned all hope now of sailing home from Britain after the failure of his second attempt at the voyage. His 35ft yawl, the Mary Anne, was completely dashed to pieces in last weekend’s storm after being driven on to a rocky breakwater between Penzance and Marizion, Cornwall. Mr Elliot is 29. Still dispirited after the disastrous failure of his venture, Mr Elliott said today that he had been a in New Zealand and had come to Europe four years ago. He married his Dutch wife in Holland and two years ago they attempted to sail to New Zealand in the Mary Anne; but they had to be rescued from near ship-wreck by the St. Mary’s lifeboat from the Scilly Isles. His wife and two young children are now in New Zealand. Mr Elliott said that he had lost everything. “I have no clothes, I have lost two radios, the sails have gone, all my linen and stores. Yesterday the wreckage was strewn up and down the shore. The only things left are a few battered spars and portholes. Nothing was insured. I put the loss at about £1500.” With a young linguist and writer, Tony Jones, aged 20, of Hampstead Hill Gardens, London, Mr Elliott was planning a ninemonth cruise to New Zealand calling at Spain, Madiera, and the Canary Islands, then across the Atlantic to Barbados and Panama. Now he will probably stay on in Penzance for a while and try to get a ship passage home. Mr Elliott’s parents, Mr and Mrs H. H. Elliott, live at 191 Hastings street, Napier. When the Mary Anne set off from Penzance last Saturday afternoon, Mr Elliott had a forecast for decreasing winds, and in fact was becalmed soon after he cleared the harbour. About four hours out, squalls came up and heavy rain. He decided to put back to Penzance but the auxiliary engine would not start. So he sailed into the harbour. “I got alongside the quay and even got a boathook on to the quayside, but we could not get a line ashore,” he said. “Then we were blown near the rocky breakwater and grounded. We should have got the boat off and we tried to hoist the sails.” The Mary Anne was slowly pushed ashore dragging her

anchors. The Penlee lifeboat stood by. . While the Mary Anne was near the breakwater a young Penzance man waded and swam out to her with a line to persuade Mr Elliott and Mr Jones to come ashore. At first they refused in the hope that they could get the boat off. Finally, they stepped ashore when the boat was pushed against the breakwater. Neither was injured. They were put up for the night at the Coastguard Hotel. Mousehole, near Penzance. “People have been very nice here,” said Mr Elliott. “They have lent me money and clothing to get by.” Until recently Mr Elliott has been working with a boatyard at' Penzance.