DREADFUL CASUALTY TO THE SCHOONER “RAPID.”

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 171, 22 April 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

DREADFUL CASUALTY TO THE SCHOONER “RAPID.”

SUFFERINGS OF THE CREW. SIX LIVES LOST. The cutter ‘Swallow’ arrived in port yesterday from the Great Barrier Island, and brought intelligence of a fearful disaster which happened to the schooner ‘ Rapid’ while on her way from Mercury Bay to Auckland, William Page, one of the survivors, was a passenger by the ‘ Swallow,’ and wo have taken the following particulars from his own Word of mouth. He says : —“ We left Mercury Bay in the ‘Rapid’ on the evening of (Saturday) for Auckland, and loaded with timber. We passed through Mercury Islands with very light weather and it continued so until Sunday morning. The wind then freshened, and kept freshening gradually all day. I went below at 7 or 8 o’clock that evening, and the wind still kept freshening. The ‘ Rapid ’ is a new boat of about 30 tons. About 9 or 10 o’clock they shortened sail; two reefs were taken in in the mainsail. While below I felt the vessel plunging into the sea very heavily. I-went on deck, and as I passed along the deck, I saw one man hanging on to the fore rigging. He was a passenger; and he cried out to me “ We are gone, Bill.’” All sail was then down, the lee side in the water. The vessel was then going well free from the wind. I have been a sailor, and I said to the captain that he had better hoist the peak up and try the vessel up to the wind. I was trying to do that myself, but found that the peak halyards had run aloft, and I could not do it. The captain said hoist a bit of the foresail again, but I feared it was no use. About this time one of the seamen went to the forcastlc, looked down, and sang out that the vessel was filling with water. This was caused by her plunging into the sea so heavily. Directly after the man sang out that she was filling with water, she fell over on her beam ends and filled. When I sang out to the captain to set sail, M’Fadgen was standing on the quarterdeck, and he cried out, come hero—do come here Bill. Those wore the last words I heard him • speak. After the vessel went over we were quite helpless. Four of us took the fore-rigging, and Paget, a passenger, was below in the cabin, and was drowned by the vessel filling with water. He was a bad sailor, and was alarmed, and was probably helpless to save himself. This all occurred on Sunday night last, and wo were then between the Little Barrier Island and Tiri Tiri. As the vessel was filled with timber she was, of course, waterlogged. Mr. M’Fadgen was at first on the quarter-deck, and when the vessel went down on her beam ends, he floated away on two planks to the masthead of the vessel. JHe then got off the boards, and worked himself up to ■where we were holding on. The keel of The vessel being to the wind, the sea (was breaking over us, and we found great difficulty in holding on. About half-an-hour after that Captain Meiklejohn called out that M’Fadgen was dying, and I said take a rope and lash him to the rigging, which the captain did. Shortly after that M’Fadgen died, and about an hour after that Portuguese Joe died in the rigging, where I was. He was washed off two or three times, and wo pulled him in again but at last we found it was no use, that be could not hold on. I can't remember now whether it was the same day or next night, but they went off one by one after that. The last was just when we were leaving the Great Barrier. We saw one

ashore, and this man either dropped off, or in attempting to swim, was drowned. We pulled him into the rigging two or three times but he was so far gone that we could not pull him on any more. We were not far from the shore, the vessel having drifted in close to the rocks. As soon as the three of us who survived got ashore, we lay down and had a sleep until daylight. Wo got up and tried to walk to Mr. Harding’s, but the captain being best able to walk, said he would go on and send a boat for us which he did; and we were taken to Mr. Harding’s house, and treated very kindly, and I came in the ‘Swallow’ to Auckland. 1 The following are the names of the unfortunate men who were drowned:— Mr. Neil M’Fadgen, a shareholder in Mercury Bay Saw-mill Company. Mr. Paget, a passenger, and settler from Mercury Bay. Joe, a Portuguese, a passenger. Mr. Burns, a passenger, and a working man, from Mercury Bay. Mr. Eobert Clarke, a farmer, and a passenger, who'"was drowned just as we reached the Little Barrier. L. Mieklejohn, son of the captain, and one of the crew|; aged about IV or 18 years. The following are the those who survived the disaster:— Myself (William Page), a settler in Mercury Bay. Captain Meiklejohn, captain of the ‘ Swallow,’ and Frank, a Frenchman, and one of the crew. Before I left the 1 Eapid ’ was righted, and sailed for Oma, just below Tiri Tiri. We should say that Page, who gave us the above narrative of the sufferings of himself and his companions, appeared as might naturally be expected, to be still suffering from the disaster, which will account for his statement not being so precise as it might, or exactly consistent with the captain’s account. Each of the survivors were floating about for three days on the wreck, under a burning sun, and with the sea washing over them, so that it can be well supposed that they were thoroughly prostrated when, through Providence, they were enabled to reach laud.—Southern Cross.