NARRATIVE OF ONE OF THE SAVED. A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE DISASTER.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 119, 15 November 1902, Page 5

NARRATIVE OF ONE OF THE SAVED. A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE DISASTER.

LIFE AND DEATH ON THE RAFT. »r ci , AUCKLAND, This Day. Mr. btephen Rabone Neill, one of the motor-men brought over by the Electric Iramway Company, gives a graphic account of the sufferings of the survivors on the raft. Mr. Neill wore a very weather-beaten appearance, his face being very much tanned by exposure to the sun and s.ilt spray, while his hands and feet were all swollen. The main details of the terrible experiences he had under- > gone were indelibly impressed upon his ( memory, and were told to a reporter in a ' concise but graphic manner. Just a moment or two after the interview had begun, one of the officers came up and informed Neill that his wife, from whom he had parted before leaving the wreck, was saved. Nefll fervently grasped the officer's hand, and said: "God bless you, sir ! That, was my only trouble I parted from my wife and child before I left the wreck, assisting other women ' and children. I did my duty as a man, and I am thankful now that I know they are safe." Neill then resumed his story : "We left the wreck on Sunday night, and since then we have had practically no food or water. There were sixteen of us all told, and we existed four days and four nights on two apples — one eighth of an apple each. In fact, all I had wps a sixteenth xif an apple. There was a keg on board, but it did not contain a drop of water. We kept it on the raft for three days, the stewardess using it to sit on until she became too exhausted to sit up any longer, and then threw it overboard. "The Elingamite struck between 10.30 and 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, and immediately began to sink. I was the last, bar Captain Atwood, to leave the sinking steamer, arid no one knows more about it than I do. A couple of foreigners caused some trouble in one boat. I helped to get the women and children into one of ths boats, putting my wife and child in one, and that was the hardest part of it all — to have to go away and leave them. "There were about eight of us on the raffc when she first got away, but ultimately we had nineteen on board. The purser's boat came up to us through the fog, and took off three of the men, leaving us with sixteen. The purser's boat could take no more, being then very full. "Mr. Wetherilt was on the raft, and he acted like a, real man. We made him captain of the raft, and he remained in charge until he lost his memory for n short time on the morning before we were picked up, and then we had to take the command out of his bauds. "When the purser's boat came up I called to him and asked what we should do. He told us to try to get to the lee of the island. We then had one oar and one rowlock, but we improvised another. With these it was altogether impossible to make any headway, and to add to our misfortunes the scull broke in half. 'We had only an oar and half an oar left to propel the unwieldly craft, and what could we do with these? We soon lost sight of the purser's boat, but we saw another boat and asked assistance. The men in the boat did not respond, though it seemed to me they had room. We sighted the island several times, and on one occasion passed it within 100 or 150 yards, but could not reach it. "The raft was terribly overloaded, with fifteen men and one woman, and the cylinders were more than half awash, with the result that we were partly in the water, and the raft being so low in the water and so heavily laden, wo were quite unable, against the current, which ran very strong, to cover the short distance between us and the shore. We drifted about all night, and when morning broke we were out of sight of land. "That day (Monday) was a terrible one. We had> two apples on the raft, but absolutely nothing else in the way of food, and not a drop of water. During the day we divided the first apple, keeping the other apple for future necessities. It was maddening for us in this condition of imminent starvation to remember that when in the vicinity of the wreck on Sunday tons of fiuit had drifted past us. We did not secure any more oi it fhan the two apples mentioned, expecting to reach the land almost immediately. "On Monday uight Dickson, one of the passengers, died from exhaustion. We kept his body on board until the morning, hoping to sight a boat or land. It was a fearful experience we went through that night. The weather was fair but foggy, and the sea moderately smooth, but there was a, bit of a swell on and tho night was very coid. We were tenibly hungry, but the agonising, thirst was even haider to endure. We strained our eyes through the fog, hoping against hope to pick up a light. "When the morning dawned two more of our little band lay dead beside Dickson — one a man whose name I do not know, but who was connected with a. steel trnst, and another with whose name I am also unfamiliar, but who told me that he lived in Auckland and that his father owned a yacht, on which he had fiequently ciuised round about here. I took the coat •worn by the man belonging to the trubt and gave it to a fireman who had got off the wreck with nothing on his body but a singlet and trousers. I myself had only a shirt, coat, and trou> sers, but the rest were fairly well clad. I kept other articles of clothing belonging to all the bodies for purposes of identification. "When we found that there were three dead men on the raft and that Dickson's body was already in a state of putrefaction, and there being no land or vessel in sight, we decided to push the bodies overboard. Dickson had been a mate of mine, and I could not bring myself to consign his body to the sea "in such an unceremonious style, but I pushed the other two bodies overboard. Some one else pushed Dickson's body into the sea. "Our experiences of Tuesday were an aggravated repetition of the sufferings we enduied on the previous day. On that day (Tuesday) the desiie for water was overpowering, and some of the people on the raft began to dtink salt water, despite all that could be said of the terrible consequences that must ensue. It was very hard indeed to resist the temptation with the ocean all round us and us dying with thirst, and sev-ernl times I had to shut my eyes to hide from my view the tempting sight. "During Tuesday night wo saw the light of a steamer and raised as loud a shout as we could. They must have heard us, because they lowered a boat, put the masthead light in the bow, and pulled in our direction. They passed within forty or fifty yards of us, and although we again shouted as loud as we could they did not hear us, and went back to the steamer, which eventually 1 disajajeared, leaving jis to jour fate..

"After this occurrence one of the passengers who had been drinking salt water became, insane and jumped overboard. His Christian name was Herbert; his surname lam not acquainted with. No attempt could be made to stop him going, because he went quickly overboaid without giving the slightest inkling of his intention. "Wednesday morning came in with our numbers reduced to twelve, and before night it was destined to be still further lessened. Most of the party had now become very despondent, but Mr. Wetherill did his best to cheer them up. I, like a hypocrite, told them that everything would be all right, that the Auckland people were not going to allow us t.^ drift about there without doing everything in their power to rescue us. I told them also that Steve Neill (himself) was not going to die. We managed in this way to cheer them up a little. " During the day (Wednesday) we ate our last apple, which was divided evenly amongst the twelve, but it did not go far to stay the pangs of our hunger, as you may guess. I chewed and ate a handkerchief, which, though not a. very digestible morsel, for the moment somewhat alleviated the pangs of hunger. " When we first, got on the raft, which was a vei-y small one, there was not sufficient room for all of us to lie down, and we were sitting in all sorts of cramped positions, with out feet and portions of our bodies under water. The deck of the raft was actually under water, and consequently we were never dry. To this fact I believe we owe our lives, our bodies acting as a sort of condenser and absorbing a little moisture. Of course, we could have found comparatively dry places on the cylinders of the raft, but there we would have been in imminent danger of being washed off. The raft was much lightened by the throwing over of the dead bodies, and consequently tho deck rose slightly. "Pretty, one of the passengers, became light-headed before nightfall, and ended his suftenngs by jumping overboard and disappearing without a word. The same night we lost Muirhead,' a passenger. I had noticed that he was becoming lightheaded, and spok-A -'to him, saying that we would be all right, and that we were sure to be picked up, and telling him to stick to it." He shook hands with me, and assured me that he would, but ien_ minutes later I heard a faint voice saying from the water : "I'm going." I threw a lifebelt to him, .which fell within a foot or two of his hand. He pushed it away, and was singing a tune as he drifted away to his death. " On Thursday morning Miss M'Guirk, the stewardess, died in my arms from sheer exhaustion. She bore up very bravply and was plucky till the last, iillis, the second saloon steward, was the last to go. Four times I caught him to drink calt water, and I had great difficulty in preventing him from going the way of Muirhead. I had to hold Inm back several times when, thinking I was dozing, he attempted to get to tho -water. He died in my arms with his head on my breast. Soon after that hts body was committed to the deep. Had he lived a few hours longer he would have been picked up alive, for four houra later we were found by the Penguin."