IRE SEARCHING STEAMERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 13 November 1902, Page 6

IRE SEARCHING STEAMERS.

3S TO TRACE OF THE MISSING BOATS. fni TELEGBAPH —PEES 3 ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, This Day. The Clansman arrived off Hohoura Heads last night from the Three Kings, having found no trace of either the missing boat or raft. The Clansman met the Penguin thirty miles east of the Kings on Wednesday morning. The latter vessel also had seen nothing. After conferring, the two vessels zigzagged to the Three Kings on parallel courses, then the Clansman went round the islands from the south and the Penguin from the north. Large quantities of wreckage were seen, but no living person was encountered. Off the south-western Kings the schooner Greyhound was spoken. She reported having picked up three dead bodies floating off the rocks, each with a lifebelt round it. Mr. Birkelt, the chief officer, who went on board tho schooner to. attempt to identify the bodies, could not definitely do so, but he believed they were those of a fireman and, two steerage passengers. The former was a young man, apparently about 30 years old, with a light moustache. One of the others was an old man with bald head and grey whiskers, and the third, a young man, apparently about 30, with sandy whiskers and moustache. Xt was decided-to bury the bedies at sea. The' Clansman, continuing her search, circumnavigated the> Kings. The wreckage passed included a capsized dingy — the boat in which the puoser and carpenter left the wreck. The Penguin, which again spoken, steered away north-east, intending to go. sixty miles off. "After .leaving the Kings, the Clansman spoke the Oinapere, steering for Three Kings. Mr. Birkett, chief officer, whose' boat saw another under sail heading south four hours after leaving the wreck, tlunks that possibly it may have run down the west coast. The boat could not hold more than thirty persons safely. Mr. Birkett's boat, which reached Hohoura, was tho last to leave the wreck. Some one in tho hurry had cut, the falls, consequently it could not be launched, but it floated out safely as the steamer snnk, and went round picking up survivors. The chief officer took the water from the tlying bridge, and was pulled by the captain and second mate on to some wreckage on which they had clambered after being washed off the steamer. •Thirty-seven of the passengers picked up by the Zealandia signed* the following—"We desire to express our appreciation of Captain Atwood's coolness, judgment, and bravery on board the Elingaraite, and consider. that he did everything in Us power to save the- ship and the lives of the passengers." Later. •Further particulars of the three bodies found show that one was aged about 25, with fair brown hair, well built, • height sft lOin; another, 28 to 30, very fair, sandy whiskers, bill on Glebe Bros., Sydney, in pockets; third body, height sft 6in, age 60, fair.