“A TERRIBLE ORDEAL."

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 August 1924, Page 14

“A TERRIBLE ORDEAL."

STORY OF A TREVESSA SURVIVOR'.

WONDERFUL SEA ADVENTURE

CHIEF ENGINEER NOW AT WELLINGTON.

Among; countless stories of British heroism on land or sea, that of the crew of the lost seamer Trevessa will stand always in the annals of successful human endeavour against, almost hopeless odd's. There is at- present in Wellington one of the survivors of the Trevessa, Mr. Norman V. Robson, who was chief engineer of that vessel, and who is at present filling a similar position on the steamer Tremere, discharging New York cargo. To a Dominion reporter, Mr. Robson told of his- personal experience fcf this never-to-be-forgotten 23 days’ voyage in an open boat, after the Trevessa foundered in mid-ocean.

Mr. Robson, whose home was at New cas 11 e-o l'i-Ty n ; e * bad ibeerj six months on the Trevessa when she loaded 7000 tons of zinc concentrates at Port Pirie for Antwerp. The vessel called at Fremantle for bunker coal, and saijed on May 23 last year for Antwerp and Durban. “We started off in a howling westerly gale and high head-sea. For eight days the Trevessa pitched and strained heavily until we were compelled to heave-to' Water was reported in No. 1 hold, ten minutes after midnight of June 3. We could hear the water rushing about, but when the tanks and wells weire .sounded) everything was reported dry. We could not raise the hatches as heavy seas were sweeping the decks. It was soon • apparent that the water had entered the ship high up on her side, and as the water would not permeate the zinc concentrates it could not get to the suctions in the bottom of the ship. The wireless operator sent out the “5.0.5.” and he got replies from four or five unknown ships which acknowledged receiving the latitude and longitude of the Trevessa. The ship began to settle by the head, so the lifeboats were ordered to be got ready at 1 a.m. At 2.15 a.m. the boats were lowered as the Trevessa.’s fore-deck was 6 or 7 feet under water, and she was commencing to stand on her head. The engines were stopped at 2.10 a.m. but the electric lighting dynamo was left running. The two life-boats on the starboard side were, launched after much risk. I was in Captain Foster’s boat with ID others, and there were 24 all told in the chief officer’s boat. The officers, engineers, greasers, and sailors were Britishers, the firemen were Arabs, Indian coolies and Portuguese West African negroes eleven coloured men all, told. Every one, to a man, was qffite cool considering the circumstances.

“A heavy gale raged, and mountainous seas were running when we stood off the ship at a distance of half a mile. We were nearly swamped several times, and bailing was continuous. The ship soon went down, head foremost, like a. giant whale slowly ‘sounding,’ her stern standing up- high in the air as she went beneath the waves. '

“We • remained hove-to till 5 p.m. on that day, hoping to be picked up by any vessel that might have received our S.O.S.’ call. The gale, which had continued with terific force all day, now showed signs of moderating. Although no rain had fallen we had been drenched -by the seas. All we had to put across us in our boat was .a canvas boat cover. .Each life-boat had a mast and big sail, and any amount of oars. Captain Foster then decided to set sail for the French island of Rodriquez, in the Mauritius group. This island was 2100 miles away in a straight line. The skipper calculated on the time likely to be occupied in this almost hopeless voyage, so he drew up the scale of rationing’ 'We were each alloted a top of a round ‘SO/ cigarette tin of condensed milk twice a day, half a (ship’s biscuit twice a, day, and a third of a ‘so’ cigarette tin of water once a. day. There was only sufficient condensed milk to last us four days, even at that small allowance. Short as we were of rations we had an abundance of cigarettes, tobacco and matches, and I assure you these were very welcome, and helped us along quite a lot. The tiny drink of water was served out at *2 p.m. each day—after the heat of the mkb day, when it was most beneficial. Of com so, we had no blankets or spare clothe)}. All we had was -what we stood in.

Owing to strong head winde wo had to tack day after day, and our boar, was leaking tlirongh a split 01 one oi the planks caused when launchJng. Everyone ached through having to bail continually for the first two days. Eventually we stopped the leak by baulking the crack with an old swealt rag. fl 'he seas, however continued to come aboard, and once or rtwltce-j wte Jwere half - hwamped.. rfU e log was kept by me, and it recorded our difficulties. The watches were four hours on and eight hours off. There was no rootii to lie down to sleep • we had just ’space enough to sit up, ’and that is how we slept during tventythree days. ' ' Kot-h (boats talked |for an [hour each way, and kept close together for five days. I'lien Captain Foster decided that it would be better if we separated; firstly, owing to the difficulty oi keeping i„ sight of each other; and. secondly by separating it increased the chances of either heinopicked up by a vessel and reaching land and sending help to the other, hach boat’s crew cheered the other heartily on parting. There was only about V?ft. 'fjin nec-board to our boat, but she sailed veil on the wind. Sometimes Ithc gales drove us oft our course and -simply bad to run before the sea Uther times we used a sea anchor made of four oars lashed together the sorts wero Go severe that two oi the oars in the sea anchor were smashed. We also had one spell of r ' a * ni - The sun was (hen tornhic. and at night time we were ‘almost frozen with cold. We huddled together to keen ourselves as warm las possible. During the calm we rowed easily off and on for four days i.n halt-hour turn 9. Dio mon had no strength, but Captain Foster told Ithem to take if easy. The idea was more 10 keep the men oceunied and to gel their thoughts off om- predicament.

“The skipper .forbade mu- of ms p, go o\ ei the side lor fear oi losinoanyone through exhaustion. He was determined to get us all safelv lo land t\ T one of ms abandoned hope, hut the -mental strain was severe apart from our physical misery as the dnvs wore on. Our principal anxiety was for those ashore who were worrying for us. O-iice or twice a. ten-foot ’shark -cruised along with us for a while, hut ■we saw no other sea- life, if you can except some pilot birds that hovered, over the boat for eome time, We all

grew long beards and we managed to joke over the uncouth appearance. “Eating a dry ship’s biscuit is quite a feat at any time. It was a tasteless dry powder in my mouth which ;Vas parched with thirst, and I was unable to swallow the biscuit. Some of us would go a' week without our biscuit ration as it was too dry to swallow. Water was too precious for soaking a piece of biscuit. With plenty of water we would have been a hundred times better off. The canvas '•boat cover goff 'saturated iwith salt water, so it was of no use for catching rain. •If the captain sighted a Mack cloud he would steer for it, and \vhen rain fell we managed to obtain extra drinking water. We cut biscuit ting into squares of about 16 inches by 10 finches, and bent them into curves like channels. We held these against our chests and when the rain fell on these tin squares it ran down into the ‘so’ cigarette tins held at the lower edge. Sometimes we managed to get a full tin of water, other times less than half an inch. This chasing after rain clouds lengthened our voyage, but was the means of saving our lives!

1 “Another way of assuaging thirst was to take turns in stripping off our clothes during the heat of the day, and others poured buckets of water over us. Yet another method was to lash a cigarette tin on the end of a stick, and while one man leaned over the side of the boat another scooped .sea-water up and poured it over the nape of his neck. This was exceedingly soothing and stimulating. . “On the sixteenth day out a Lascar ‘fireman, Jacob Ali, began to sing weird songs at night time. His constitution could not withstand the exposure and Starvation. Someone was detailed to sit beside the poor chap and watch him. He was delirious, hut continued to take his water and biscuit. Next day he just slowly collapsed and passed quietly away. No one seemed depressed, We took fit as 'inevitable! After four hours the body was lowered overboard, and it was left behind. “That day one of the Arabs took sick. He said he felt very ill and asked for water, hut none could he ■spared. As the poor chap later on really showed /signs of collapse, Captain Foster gave him /a drink. He also passed away quietly on the following morning. I must say the coloured men were heroic to * the end. They were splendid. “We were beginning to fear we had missed the island, which meant another week to Madagascar. A feeling of dismay began to spread among the men. We had no trailing log to cheek the distance traversed. We had no chronometer, or hook .of tables. The captain had his sextant and managed to check our position to some extent, lint it was easily possible under the circumstances to miss the island. 'After 23 days in the boat, we sighted land, which proved to he the island or Rodriguez, fifteen miles away on the port side. We all gave- three hearty cheers. Some of the white* men went with joy. Captain Foster gave all hands a full cigarette tin of water, which was relished, but no one could eat biscuit. We sailed up under the stern of a 2000-ton steam tramp off the island. It was 7 o’clock in the evening, and when we were hailed by the people on the steamer we told them we were a shipwrecked crew 23 days adrift at sea, Their pilot came off in a* small boat and took us through the reef to the wharf.

“It was difficult for us to walk when we stepped ashore. Our ankles were frightfully swollen, and we'had to be suppoi ted, 'I hree or four of the worst cases had to he carried to the hospital. A rapid recovery was made under the kindly treatment of the local doctor and residents. The cable station there dispatched the glad tidings of our escape, from death to our relatives and the ship’s owners. The other boat readied the island of Mauritius. Going up the Thames a,s. passengers on the l nion Castle liner Joorkha, shipping on all sides greeted us with bunting and whistles. Captain C. R. T. Foster 7 of the, Trevessa, and his chief officer Mr. James Charles Stewart-Smith, who was in charge of the /second boat, each received Lloyds’ silver medal for saving lives at .sea. Captain Foster proved liimself a true Britisher the ehole of the terrible ordeal. Ife vas the hero of this adventure.”