Pirates’ Thorough Job On Yacht

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30535, 2 September 1964, Page 16

Pirates’ Thorough Job On Yacht

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Sept 1. Pirates in the Philippine Islands had finished the hopes of two young Wellington yachtsmen, Messrs Thomas Corkill and Barry Willis, of sailing from Japan to New Zealand, said the father of one, Mr T. Corkill, today. Letters received recently from his son in Manila con-

firmed that the typhoon damaged yacht, the Maiko, had been taken from her moorings near San Fernando Bay, 50 miles north of Manila, while her crew was ashore, said Mr Corkill. “The yacht was taken about 25 miles out to sea and stripped completely. Even her floor boards and everything else moveable were taken,” he said.

Tom was in Manila at the time, getting parts for the auxiliary motor. Barry left the yacht and went ashore to sleep, and when he woke in the morning, the yacht had gone.” When the drifting yacht was found, all their money, clothes and possessions had been pirated, said Mr Corkill. “Barry was left with a pair of shorts he went ashore in for the night. Tom was luckier. “He at least had a shirt and the money he took ashore with him to go to Manila.” “It was only 50 miles from Manila, where they would have been able to repair and remast the Maiko and get on their way again. “Perhaps after all the trouble they had on the way from Japan, with the typhoon and other damage, it may be just as well it turned out this way. In his last letter, his son had said Barry had been taken on as greaser boy and he as a deck boy on a Swedish cargo ship, the Rhodes. In her they intended to sail as far as Australia on their way home.