WRECK OF THE TASMANIA.

Hastings Standard, Issue 388, 2 August 1897, Page 3

WRECK OF THE TASMANIA.

I AN UNIDENTIFIED BODY. A SEAMAN MISSING. PITIABLE CONDITION OF THE SURVIVORS. [By Telegraph.] (Per i'r< va Association.) Gisjjorne, July 31. The two bodies picked up on Te Kawakavva beach near Mtiriwai were brought into town by Constable Smith late this afterno ,*n and laid out in the morgue. Both were fine strapping fellows one clothed in a sailor's jersey and clothes and the other in the garb of a working man. Both had gashes about the face where they had come in contact with the rocks. The first was a seaman (M'Nellie) and the other has yet to be identified. Nothing was found about his clothing that gave any clue to his identity. He is of medium height, live feet eight or nine, aged about 45, shaved but with a busby sandy moustache, a pronounced Roman nose, clothed in greyish tweed trousers, blue coat and waistcoat. It is stated that he informed one of his fellow occupants of the boat that he was bound for Lytteiton. Another occupant of the carpenter's boat—a sailor, name unknown—has yet to be accounted for. He was washed up on the beach by. the surf with the others, and started off with them across the hills. On the road he said he saw a woolshed in the distance, and made oft" iu a different direction to the others. So far as can be learned no tidings have since been heard of him, though search was being made by the settlers this forenoon. The country over which he was travelling is very rough and sparsely settled. The steward (Ross) when picked up on the track was in a fearfully exhausted state, perishing from cold, and in fact about done for. His rescuers had to light a fire alongside him to giye him some warmth and restore animation. Good service was rendered at Muriwai by Mr Woodbine Johnston and a white man named T. Bartlett, who did all in their power to help and comfort the survivors and bring in the dead bodies, which had to be conveyed in a sledge drawn by bullocks for some miles. |