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Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 March 1927, Page 5

Tho arrival of the Home steamer Port Caroline in Waitemata Harbour this week recalls a sea epic, when the finest traditions of the P,ritish mercantile marine were lived up to (says the "Auckland Star"'). When the steamer was passing through Cook Strait in the dusk of a stormy day three years ago, a member of the crew either jumped or fell overboard. Despite a heavy sea a lifeboat was hurriedly manned in charge of the chief officer, and a long and vain search was conducted. In blinding rainsqualls the little craft lost sight of the liner, but at a time when the chief officer was thinking of running for a far-off lee shore the lights of the big steamer were sighted, and contact was made. In the end an exhausted crew was got aboard, and the lifeboat was abandoned to its fate. Subsequently it was washed up on the beach near Waitotara. Manned by a fishing party on a later occasion, the lifeboat capsized in the ’surf, and on that occasion one life was lost.