TRAWLER WRECKED

Evening Post, Volume 50, Issue 50, 27 August 1926, Page 7

TRAWLER WRECKED

OFF VICTORIAN COAST

THEILLING ESCAPES: ALL HANDS SAVED.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, 20th August. The Australian coast claimed its third shipping disaster within six weeks when the trawler Brolga, owned by the Coastal Trawling- Company of New South Wales, went ashore on Beware Keef, near Cape Evarard, on the north-eastern coast of Victoria, early last Friday morning, and became a total wreck. On 7th July the Cooma was wrecked oil the Queensland coast, and a week later an explosion caused the petrol-laden Kooringa to be burnt to the water's edge in Bass Strait. None of the disasters has been attended by loss of life. The Brolga had taken a catch of fish to the Melbourne market, and was returning to its headquarters at Sydeny, .when it was wrecked. The chief officer was on the bridge at the time. A heavy southwesterly gale was blowing, and despite the strict watch kept, blinding rain and a thick haze prevented danger being seen. It was 2 o'clock in the morning, when the Brolga struck the reef. Subsequent happenings are best told in the words of the master (Captain Benton). THE CAPTAIN'S STORY. "In ordered all hands to take lifebelts and man the boats," said Captain Kenton. "A big sea hit the ship and washed three men overboard. Two were thrown to the vessel's rail by the backwash, and they scrambled aboard again. The third man, MTherson, the second officer, had to swim desperately to regain the vessel, and did bo only by seizing the end of a trawl net which had been washed overboard. There was no confusion, but owing to the heavy sea great difficulty was experienced in launching the lifeboat. It would not have been accomplished had not the dynamo kept the lights going. There was great fear that the boiler would burst while the chief officer was down. in the wireless room vainly trying to get enough power to send out an S.O.S. It is fortunate that the vessel struck the edge of Boware Eeef end-on and slid off into deep water, otherwise she would have been smashed to pieces and all lives lost.'.' A PERILOUS JOURNEY. Captain Eenton and the crew stood by and watched the Brolga disappear within three'minutes from the time the boat was launched. The boat's head was then turned eastward, and the journey made along the inhospitable, densely wooded, and uninhabited coastline to the first habitation, the Cape Evarard lighthouse. That perilous journey; in a lifeboat with the bottom partly stove in, was made in eight hours, and it was 10 o'clock when the party landed safely at the lighthouse. The three men stationed at the lighthouse caved for the shipwrecked men, and one of them rode on horseback through dense forests along a rough bridle track to Cann Biver, the nearest telegraph station, 25 miles away. That arduous trip was not completed until the middle 1 of the afternoon. Immediately messages were flashed to the navigation authorities in Melbourne. The crew rested at Cape Evarard for two days, and on Monday left for Cann Eiver. Then they travelled by motor-lorry to Bombala (New South Wales), and thence to their homes at Sydney. The Brolga was formerly owned by the New South Wales Government, when it was engaged in the trawling industry, and was built for that purpose by a Middlesborough (England) shipyard. When the Government decided to abandon its trawl- i ing project in 1923, the Brolga was sold to Sandford, Ltd., of Auckland, together with the Gunnundaal, and the two were purchased by the Coastal Trawling Company last year. The Brolga was returning from the first trip by which the company hoped to establish its catches on the Melbourne market.