MANY CASTAWAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 26

MANY CASTAWAYS

SAGA OF LONELY ISLAND

WRECK OF THE DIEGO

From a remote coral isle in the Indian Ocean has recently come a stirring tale of shipwreck, the marooning of eighty-two persons with scant supplies, and their subsequent rescue, says the "New York Times." The scene of the story is Eagle Island, the property of the Societe Huiliere de Diego et de Peros and a source of copra. The cast includes the Diego, a sixty-seven-year-old British sailing, vessel, her crew and passengers, and the labourers on the isle. On June 20 last the Diego arrived at the island on one of her rare visits. The Societe had decided, in view of the low price that copra was fetching on the markets, that its venture on Eagle Island was no longer profitable; the workers were to be removed to Mauritius, several hundred miles away. The next day a gale blew in from the north-west and by evening the Diego had piled up on the reefs; her company was soon in desperate straits. Three of the vessel's four boats were washed away; her hold and cabin were flooded. Rockets made the folk-ashore aware of her distress. Beacon piles were lighted on the beach to guide any attempt to reach the shore. A native-named-Tallat, after two hours of heroic effort, reached the ship in a small boat, dragging a line with him from - the shore. Then two by two the passengers wer t . brought by Tallat to land, the line steadying them on their journey. Six children, two women, three men passengers, and the seventeen members of the crew were saved in this fashion.

Without Tallat's aid, according to the crew, the women and-children would have perished. • He was unanimously voted a hero. FIVE BAGS OF RICE. The Diego carried no wireless and there was little chance of communicating l with the :outside world. At Mauritius the ship was not expected before the end pf August. : Meanwhile the stranded persons, eighty-two in all discovered that they-had only "five bags of rice to sustain themselves. This they could eke out with coconuts, still green, and occasional bits of octopus. The fish they caught were largely poisonous. ..';■;■. . ; Ship's discipline was established among the company. The Diego's chief officer volunteered to sail a small open boat with four others to Peros Banhos, an isle fifty-four miles off. Two days out and in sight of Peros a squall forced them back to Eagle Island. Undaunted they set out again, reached Peros to find it without stores; they proceeded to Salomon Island, thirty-two miles further on. There they received limited supplies. After a voyage of ten days they got back to Eagle island, where the company was found to be in a pitiful condition. It was obvious that additional help was needed. The chief officer, although injured (he lost a finger), almost immediately set out again for more stores. The second trip lasted seventeen days and involved much hardship. On, September 2 the steamship Clan McPhee, en" route to Bombay from Mauritius, and ordered by the Societe to search for the missing vessel, stopped at Eagle Island. She transported the half-starved castaways to Salomon and left them there with .supplies enough to last until they could be carried to Mauritius.