LAST OF RIPPLE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 August 1924, Page 5

LAST OF RIPPLE.

SEEN BY STEAMER WAIKAWA. WIRELESS OF NO USE. (by TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) i> , m AUCKLAND, Aug. 13. 1 robably the last vessel to see the Ripple before she came to grief north of Cape Palliser was the large cargo steamer Waikawa, which left Wellington about half an hour after the illcoas^er last Wednesday. The \\aikawa went to New Plymouth, and master, Captain Davev, left the ship there and is now in Auckland. He states that he was only a short distance behind the Ripple, both standing out in the -fierce gale t° get well clear of the land and making only about a mile an hour.

“It would be difficult to imagine a ni K ht >” said Captain Davey, although we could see the Ripple’s hgats between the squalls. Most masters travelling up the East Coast past Gape Palliser give the land a wide berth, and on this occasion the Ripple was standing out further than usual to get well cleai-. After battling for an hour or two the Ripple went to the east, and we headed through the Strait. If she had broken down an hour later she would in all nrobability have been fairly safe, although there Mould have been a risk of her going ashore about Castlepoint.” Captain Davey ventured the opinion that the Ripple did not founder in open water, but touched rocks and so came to grief. He was also of opinion that, even if the Rintile had been fitter! with wireless and he had received her signal, he could not have rendered assistance, for had he been alongside her it would have been suicidal to put a boat over, for no small boat could have lived in the sea.