SCHOONER WRECKED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 107, 2 November 1926, Page 10

SCHOONER WRECKED

STUCK FAST ON ISLAND REEF

EFFORTS TO REFLOAT HER.

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "Th« Evening Pojt.")

AUCKLAND, This Day,

Details of tho wreck of the auxiliary schooner Tome Veneula, more familiarly known as the War Lord, which went ashoro on a reef off Nukunouo Island m the Union Group on 10th July, were given by the master, Captain G. George, who arrived by the Tofua last evening. She struck on a calm morning, and it wa3 later proved that two natives, who wore on the look out, were asleep up to 15 minutes before the vessel struck. "The mate, engineer, and I remained aboard for sixty-five days after tho wreck," Captain George said. "The nearest village was five miles away.

"After a week the crew deserted, and I went ashore to round them up, but they wore exceedingly hostile, and I had to show a gun or I would havo been clubbed. Later I threatened them with letters, and they soon camo round and wanted to come aboard again, but I would not have them. Unfortunately there is no Act in the islands by which a crew could ,be punished.

"Fifty-days after the wreck tho Greyhound arrived on the scone with salvage gear. At one stage the War Lord was actually refloated, all sail was set, and the engines were sot going astern. At a critical moment the cable broke and the vessel was again carried hard and fast on the reef by the swell, and further attempts to refloat her proved futile."

Captain George said that the schooner was unsuitable for island trading owing to the tremendous leeway she made. Ho stated also that tho island was wrongly placed on tho chart. A nautical inquiry was hold at Apia, and the Court exonerated Captain George and attributed tho wreck to an unusual set to the north-east.