STEAMER FOUNDERS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 80, 5 April 1926, Page 7

STEAMER FOUNDERS

OFF QUEENSLAND COAST

CAPTAIN AND HIS SON ALONE

SAVED

SEAECH FOE MISSING CREW IN SHAEK-INFESTED WATERS.

A tragedy of the wa is r*w»l«d in the captain's story of Cm taautdcring of the steamer Dorrigo oil the Queensland coast on Good Friday morning. The captain and his son were picked up on » raft a day and a half after the wreck. A search is being mads in •hark-in-fested waters for the missing crew of twenty-two men who wwre last seen clinging to various flotiam. Grave fears are entertained for their safety. (United Press Association.—Copyright). (Received sth April, 11 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Bay. The steamer Dorrigo, bound from Sydney to Thursday Island, foundered 14 miles south-east of Double Island Point. Captain Grey and his ion w«rt picked up by the steamer Moruya after being 34 hours on a raft. The Moruya remained in the vicinity till shortage ■of coal forced her to proceed to Brisbane. Neither the Dorrigo nor the Moruya is equipped with wireless. The latter signalled the news of the sinking to the keeper of Double. Island Lighthouse. The steamers Burwah and Cape York are sweeping the seas in the hope of finding the 22 missing members of the crew. Considerable wreckage has been cast upon the coast. The beaches in the vicinity are being patrolled. .' Captain Grey was landed at Brisbane. He states that he cleared Moreton Bay at midnight on Thursday, with a moderate sea running. About • o'clock on Good Friday morning tlic vessel took a volume of water aboard on the. port side. This caused her to take a heavy list, and water entered the stokehold. She foundered a quarter of an hour later, rolling on to her port beam and sinking stern first. The deck cargo, consisting of benzine cases and Oregon pine, broke loose. Nearly all the crew had donned lifebelts. They made an effort to clear the port lifeboat, but were unsuccessful on account of the heavy list. When the vessel went down all the crew were afloat clinging to flotsam. He saw seven men on the capsized lifeboat and six more were on a raft made of four pine spars 60ft long. Other - were clinging to isolated pieces of wreckage.- ""he sea In the vicinity is infested' with sharks, and grave fears are entertained for the safety of the missing men.