Rowed To Waiting Rescue Ship

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30497, 20 July 1964, Page 1

Rowed To Waiting Rescue Ship

(New Zealand Press Association'

AUCKLAND, July 19. Five New Zealand officers and 10 Chinese crew rowed a lifeboat more than a mile from their wrecked ship to a waiting freighter after the 1330ton Dorothie grounded a week ago on Jomard reef, off Papua. “We had to leave some of our gear ... All we took in the lifeboat was what fitted in a suitcase,” said Eng-lish-born Alan Lacy, second engineer in the Dorothie, who returned to Auckland yesterday. “I heard that natives in canoes went to the ship after we left it to see what they could find,”’ he said.

The Dorothie’s master, Captain Leslie Boulton, the chief officer, Mr Harold Ray, and the chief engineer, Mr Evan Morse, also returned today. The radio operator, Mr J. Shortall, is still at Rabaul. Mr Lacy said after the Dorothie grounded she fired flares. The flares were seen from another ship. Captain Boulton kept the engines ahead to save the ship going

off the reef. Otherwise she would have gone down. She was holed near the engineroom, which was awash. “The lights were still on and the engines active when we abandoned her,” he said. At The Oars “In the lifeboat it was all hands and the cook on the oars. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the Baron Jedburgh, the rescue ship. The rescue freighter let the men off at Rabaul after steaming 36 hours.”

The Dorothie, formerly the New Zealand coaster Karu, left Auckland on June 23 and at Sydney loaded rice, sugar and building materials for Guam.