A FOR THE SHIPWRECKED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 122, 23 May 1908, Page 9

A FOR THE SHIPWRECKED.

THE SOUTHERN DEPOTS.

SOME DEFECTS.

What is the truth about the depots in the Southern Ocean for the. comfort of castaways? Since the survivors of the French barque President Felix Faure \yere landed, statements of all kinds, positive and negative t -about the sheds and stores in the Antipodes have been published. To get a "clear idea of the facts as Captain Noel found them, a representative of The Post had a conversation with him yesterday. The captain repeated his disinclination to speak after enjoying the hospitality of the New Zealand Government, but he, agreed to make some explanations, needed after Mr. Laurenson's communication with the Lyttciton Times.

Briefly the shipwrecked men, twentytwo all told, found two small huts. In one, about eighteen feet by twelve, seventeen men had to sleep, and five passed tho nights in the other. The winter was setting in. "It rained and hailed twen-ty-six hours out of the twenty-four," laughed the captain. They had damp straw for their resting place.

In the main hut the stores 'were found intact, but they were not on a scale to suit twenty-two men. There were six pairs of boots, and the clothing and other articles were designed to comfort six men or so.

Tho fishing lines were perished, and soon were useless.

Captain Noel has submitted a report to Captain Bollons, of the Hinemoa. Details of this document are not available, but it is understood that the Government is urged to enlarge the huts, increase the variety and quantity of stores, especially clothing, and examine the goods more frequently. The captain says these things as one who has seen the need of improvement; He desires it to be said that he and his men,, from the time that they were picked up by the Pegasus, have been treated nandsomelv. "Not friendship, but brotherhood," he exclaimed lyAt present the Southern Islands are visited by a Government steamer twice a year. Formerly those far-away spots were touched more frequently, because a warship alternated with' the State steamer. Latterly, however, the order has been changed, and- the warship call has been paid about the same time as the other. It is expected that an effort will be made to revert to the old programme and so better the prospect of any sailors, who may.be forced to take up an abode in those desolate regions.

This last wreck is likely, too, to forcibly revive the ocean-survey matter. Within three years three vessels, the Anjou (a French barque), the Dundonald, and the Felix Faure, _ have crashed on to rugged coasts in the Southern Seas, which are not properly charted. It was hoped that the Nimrod expedition was to make these ocean tracts less dangerous, but apparently, the survey which that vessel was to accomplish has been indefinitely postponed.

To enable Messrs. Harland and Wolf?, of Belfast, to proceed with the construction of the steamships Europa and Gigantic, of 45,000 and 46,000 tons gross register (according to an exchange) there has been constructed in Belfast Harbour a floating crane capable of - rtysing weights exceeding 200 tons, mounted on an immense pontoon. It is in the form of a huge boll-shaped tower, supporting in rum an adjustable jib capable-of lifting any load with which it may have to deul to a considerable height above -rater level, and at long out-reaches beyond the sides of the pontoon. A special feature of interest is that the whole of the crane will revolve on the pontoon, making- « complete circle, and will <hus have' an unusually large range. It is intended to moore the crane alongside the -big shins for lifting beavy boilers, engines, find other big pieces of machinory on board after launching and during completion. It is entirely electrically driven, and is the largest of its kind in existence.

For Bronchial Coughs and Colds, Woods' Groat Peppermint Cute, lg 6d and. 2s 6d jaw haUla.<~)Adjck