WRECK STORY

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 August 1920, Page 3

WRECK STORY

IT WAS THE KIA OKA. A SEARCH FOR HERSELF. (Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, August 28. The wreck story from Rototahi station about the steamer seen in distress ten miles south of Gable End Foreland has been fully explained by the fact that it is definitely established that the steamer Kia Ora was cruising at that place between noon on Sunday and 6.30 p.m. that clay in the course of standing off till the heavy weather abated to enable the ship to 1,0 in and eomplcfe her loading at Tokomarn Bay. The Ivia Ora was loading at the Bay when a storm came up on Friday, and she put to sea, cruising from Gable End towards the East Cape under easy steam. On Monday the ship like the Monowai picked up the wireless warning sent out that a vessel was in distress off Gable End, and set out there to give assistance. There seems no doubt the Kia Ora was thus hunting round looking for herself like a cat chasing its own tail. It thus transpires that the explanation given by the master of the Monowai, who was early on the spot and could find neither ship nor wreckage, was the light one. The Kia Ora had got a dusting while cruising about the vicinity on Sunday, and this, combined with the facts that no sign of wreckage could be found, and that the report came from landsmen, explains the mistake made. No sailor could have made such a mistake, for only landsmen are incapable of distinguishing whether a ship is merely making bad weather or drifting helplessly and about tT founder. While cruising there the Kia Ora did not blow the whistle, but the fact that the vessel was on the spot at the time mentioned, and with a better opportunity than even the watchers from the land of seeing any other ship that might be in distress at the place stated, completely dissipates the disconcerting uncertainty that had surrounded the story.