Canoe Survivor Floated Alone For 79 Hours

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30405, 2 April 1964, Page 14

Canoe Survivor Floated Alone For 79 Hours

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

PORT MORESBY, April 1.

Raymond Lewis, ninth survivor of the ill-fated native canoe voyage from Port Moresby on March 27, was dragged almost dying from a log on a reef by native fishermen on Tuesday. Lewis, who is from Bowen, Queensland, is aged 32.

He was finally brought to Port Moresby by an administration-chartered vessel Kano, after being sighted at the native village of Kaparakasn which is about 60 miles from Port Moresby and 90 miles from the point where the canoe carrying 10 people overturned on Friday.

Lewis had drifted this distance after leaving the canoe for assistance on an inflatable rubber mattress at 10 a.m. on Saturday until the time he was picked up from the reef at 5 p.m. by native fishermen yesterday.

He had been in the water on his own, first drifting on the mattress and when that sank late on Monday, on the log. Native people who rescued him told members of the Kano’s party at the village Lewis was “nearly dead” when found.

Captain Frank Doura of the ship Kano said Lewis told him that on the afternoon of the last day of his terrible ordeal he had been attacked by sharks when lying on the log. Lewis had said every time sharks circled him he would with immense effort drag his feet out of the water on to the log. During his time alone Lewis had no water and was forced to moisten his mouth with seawater.

Badly Burned

When taken on board the Kano, Lewis was terribly burned by the fierce sun and scarred badly around the underside of the knees where he had been clinging to the inflatable mattress. He was taken from the ship to Port Moresby’s general hospital for observation.

When rescued by villagers he was fed and given a hot bath in the house of a native school-teacher. He also was given cigarettes and smoked several before falling asleep from exhaustion.

by strong winds and unable to make any headway to the island.

“I could see both the island and the canoe drifting away from me,” Lewis said. Without food or water he drifted 90 miles in a southeasterly direction along the Papuan coast and outside the main reef until he was opposite Marshall lagoon.

Coconut Revived

Sometime on Monday, Lewis lost his inflatable mattress, which by this time had become waterlogged. But by chance a long log drifted near him. He let the mattress go and leaped for the log and managed to grasp it. For the rest of the time, Lewis said he did not remember a gr,eat deal, with day drifting into night and back again.

Lewis said his 79 hours alone were a “terrible ordeal.” He said he had recovered reasonably well after being treated by natives. He said he left the canoe with nine other persons on board about 10 a.m. on Saturday, when it neared Fishermen’s Island, which is about seven miles off-shore from Port Moresby. The canoe which was then upside down had drifted about 30 miles from the island of Idia, where the accident occurred. He felt he could make it to Fishermen’s Island, where there often were picnic parties over holiday week-ends, and they would help save the remaining nine on the canoe. But he was swept out to sea

had come to their village but they knew, he was in some sort of trouble and were determined to help him. Hospital Observation

Lewis will remain in Port Moresby’s general hospital overnight for .observation. He then is expected to be discharged; Eight other people on board a canoe were rescued on Monday afternoon by a United States Air Force helicopter, after being sighted from the air by a twin-engine Cessna the same morning. The party included three young boys, two of whom were 12 and one five.

When found by natives who were fishing, he was spreadeagled on a reef outside the Marshall lagoon area, which is about 60 miles south-east of' Port Moresby. They dragged him into their canoe and took him to the village and to the house of the native schoolteacher. There they fed him with the juice of a green coconut, which revived him. Captain Doura said the natives told him Lewis could not have lasted three hours more, he was so weak and ex? hausted. Captain Doura said the Kano, which left Port Moresby on Tuesday, calling in at every village on the way down the coast, came upon a native fishing party on the, reef’s edge about. 10 a.m.- today. ‘‘l called to them and asked, if they had seen or heard of a white man,” said Captain Doura. “They replied, ‘Yes, we have a European man in our village, but we don’t know who he is.’

The father of one of the boys, Donald Hamilton, aged five, is still missing but the search for him. has been called off. He left the canoe about midnight 1 on Sunday, telling the others he was “going for a taxi.”

“My heart leaped for joy because I had a feeling that this was the missing man,” Captain Doura said. Captain Doura said he talke dto Lewis in the schoolteacher’s house, where he was lying exhausted on a bunk, sipping water. He said he had been “very lucky” to have been found at all. Lewis said the natives had taken great care of him in the village. They had washed him with hot fresh water, given him plenty of liquids which he craved at’the time, and later on fed him with bully beef and native root vegetables. They did not know why he

Searchers believe Donald Hamilton, sen., has drowned and no further search for him will be made. The eight had drifted about 80 miles from the point of the canoe capsize before being rescued.