STORY OF WRECK

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 October 1928, Page 4

STORY OF WRECK

TERRIBLE TYPHOON NIGHT. The story of the sinking of the Cap Lay, a nearly new French liner of 8477 tons, belonging to the Chargeurs Reunis, in the Gulf of Tonkin, on the occasion of a typhoon in July, while on a voyage from Marseilles to Haiphong, Annam, is told in the South China Morning Post. The dreadful conditions obtaining on the night of July 14 are visualised, as, caught in the vdrtex of the cyclone, the ill-fated iship was borne at terrific speed before the wind and hurled against one of the numerous rocks which abound in that part of IndoChinese waters. In the rescue work that followed many a story of individual daring ami self-sacrifice was created, as seamen and soldiers who were on board gave their lives in order that women and children might be helped to safety on the little fragment of rocky escarpment on which they were cast.

The Cap Lay on her outward voyage from Marseilles had picked up a failamount of cargo and a full list of passengers, the majority of whom embarked at Saigon to go to Haiphong. The day before the storm the Cap Lay touched at Tourane, on the Annam coast, and, proceeding to her final port of discharge, found herself in. the Baic d’Along on the afternoon of Sunday, July 15. Later in the evening the barometer fell, and with the freshening wind, it was decided not to proceed, but to find shelter. Throughout that bight and the whole of the following day, Monday, there was no news of the ship, wireless communication had suddenly ceased. Then ihe report spread like quickfire that the Cap Lay had foundered in the storm, with the loss of many lives. The first authentic information was obtained when a Customs cruiser picked up a lifeboat containing nine survivors who were cast up on a sandbank on the coast. On learning of the disaster three other launches set out for the rescue of the passengers and crew, and they arrived at the scene in time to take away the majority of the survivors, who reached the rocks when the ship sank. Many others went down with the ship or perished by falling down the cliff after obtaining a precarious foothold. The captain of the Cap Lay, Monsieur Benten, who was,one of the survivors, stated in his‘ story that the wind rose to such a phenomenal pitch that he was forced to drop anchor with the view to riding out the storm in one of the passes in the Baie d’Along. The darkness was made the more impenetrable by reason of the heavy rain then falling, and the danger was intensified by their unknown position. It was hoped that visibility would sufficiently improve to enable him, said the captain, to take bearings and determine their exact place of anchorage • but disaster overtook the ship before any decision could be formed. Before a second andhor could be dropped the chain of the first one snapped asunder, and to the horror of those on board the Cap Lay was carried with incredible speed before the storm into th© darkness. EXPLOSION OF THE BOILER. The ship struck a rock which here, in the dreaded "Henrietta Pass, juts needlelike out of. the water at the northern end of the channel. Again and again tlhe Cap Lay was borne back by the waves to be hurled with sickening force against the rocky face of the cliff. Nothing could stand against such treatment, and the ship began to sink, holed in many places. With the first shock the ship vibrated from end to end, the boiler exploded as water filled the engineroom compartment. To add to the horror of the situation the electric lights went out as the dynamo became submerged. Captain Benfeu early gave orders for lifebelts to be donned by the passengers, and when disaster came he had mapped out his plan for their rescue. It was terribly handicapped by the worst weather conditions imaginable—the stygian darkness as the ship’s lights went out, the torrential downpour of rain and the repeated shocks as the vessel hurled itself again and again on the rock. In the work of rescue which followed tribute is paid to the heroism and presence of mind of the. ship’s officers and crew, who, assisted by the military who were on board as passengers, put the work on a more or less organised basis. One of the ship’s lifeboats which was .still undamaged was launched with some of the crew in order to pick.up those passengers who were thrown into the water. It was this boat which got adrift from the wreck and was the following day found by the Customs launch Enga stranded on a sandbank.

While the captain directed the evacuation of the passengers from the upper deck, the other passengers were similarly being looked after by the chief officer. The ship was sufficiently near the rock to enable life lines to be connected up with the shore, but this by no means represented the hist stage of safety... Many passengers were torn from the face of the rock to fall back into the water" between the base of the declivity and the sinking ship. The chief engineer, M. Damour, and the third officer, M. Camus, did superhuman work, holding on to the rock metaphorically by the skin of their teeth as they pulled to’ safety women and children whom they helped to get ashore with the lifeline they had rigged up. Many others lost their lives while saving their less agile companions, a notable instance being that of a French military sergeant who went aboard with an electric torch, discovering people trapped in the holds and cabins of the ship and bringing them out to safety. He was never seen again after the general rescue, and his heroism now remains as one of the uplifting incidents in the story of the wreck.

Other sidelights on the rescue work are provided by the parts which the pilot, Lerroque, and a French private, George Barberis, played. Barberis was going to Tonkin on enlistment in the colonial service, and revealed his devotion to duty by the Following modest account of what he and Lerroque did : ‘ “When the ship was sinking,” he said, “I was able to leap on to the rock. M. Lerroque did likewise, but noticing a rope dangling from the ship, he had seized it and attached one end to his waist. As the ship was continually closing in and then drawing back from the rock, we profited by those moments when the deck was sufficiently brought within reach to haul the passengers out to safety. But the slippery and sloping surface

of the rock offered at the best but a treacherous foothold, • and Private Barberis said that he saw many passengers drop back into the sea, to be crushed to death between the ship and the bas of the cliff.

Monday morning, weather conditions improved somewhat, but dawn broke on a wild scene. Many persons had gone down with the ship, of which only the one remaining mast was visible • above the water, the other having snapped off like matchwood during the storm. The ship, in sinking, had taken a heavy list to starboard and was in some forty feet of water. The survivors were dispersed along the surface of the rocky escarpment on which they found themselves. Others were washed on to neighbouring islets to be later picked up by the (histoms launches.

When day broke, the captain of the ill-fated ship called for a volunteer to swim to the neighbouring village of Cacha, where there was a radio station, which could be used to apprise the authorities on shore of the wreck of the Cap Lay and the plight of the survivors. Barberis volunteered for the task, and he set out for his long swim equipped with a lifebelt.

The course which Barberis took was strewn with many rocks and islets which time and again deceived the exhausted swimmer into thinking that he had arrived at his destination. Many hours of precious daylight were thus spent in negotiating one island after the other, and night had fallen when, from a rocky pinnacle which Barberis had climbed, he espied in the distance a number of junks. Barberis was absolutely nude, and the boatmen, although surprised at seeing a White man in that condition, were little disposed to come at his signal. He had, therefore, 'to iswim toward them and eventually got on to the nearest craft. The boatmen gave him rice and tea, and by signs and gestures they were at length induced to take Barberis to the wireless station at Cacoa.

The number of those rescued during the first two days were given as nearly two hundred, but this falls short of the number on the ship’s list and shorter still of a later list issued. This revised list states that in addition to the crew and 70 passengers, there are 175 Annamite troops who were being repatriated from France in the ship. They were stated to have been accommodated in the steerage when the ship sank.

Aboard were French officers and (>'overnment functionaries proceeding to their posts in Tonkin, and many of these embarked at Saigon on. the illfated journey. Civilians of both sexes and women-folk and children belonging to the military fully took up the upper deck accommodation.