The Addenda Wreck.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7936, 18 October 1904, Page 7

The Addenda Wreck.

When the ship Addenda, which is now ashore at PallUer Bay, leffc Lyttelton on Thursday morning tbe gale at ■Wellington was blowing with hurricane force. It was only light outside Ljtte!ton. By night it had freshened up, and all hands were on deck all night making and shortening sail. CAST ASHORE. When dawn, broke Palliscr Bay opened out nhead through the thick weather, and in the hurricane that was blowing directly on shore nothing could have hauled, the unfortunate vesael round eithßr of the pcints (Pencarrow or Palliser) that form the extended arms of the bay. The tea, with tho pent up force, of a two days' hurric-fno from tbe south, ran into the bay in mountainous ranks, and broKe ovor the spit between Lake Ferry and Wharepapa into the lake. Canvas was blown clean out of the bolt-ropes, and it -would have been impossible to get holding ground in the sandy bottom in a much lees fierce gale. Fortunately the Addonda was not carriod on to the cliffs at either • Whangamoana or Wharepapa. When j she struck the men were thrown down and the decks were buried in the waves that broke continuously over her. She was fifty yards from the shora on a steep shelving beach in a roll of surf, a fresh roller banishing over her stern every minute. A BID FOE LIFE. There was nothing for it but to get out of the ship. Half an hour after she struck Captain Astrup called for a volunteer to carry a line ashore. It seemed a forlorn hope, but the Scandinavian second ma.te A.Lundin, stepped forward to try. A line was made fast round him, he took another in his hand and jumped out of sight into the churn of the breakers. Gradually the life-line was run out as he made some headway on the broad back of the "grey horses." Then the treacherous back-wash of Palliser Bay, wrestling with the incoming rollers for possession of their burden, triumphed for a while, and carried the swimmer hopelessly away from the beach. It seemed a desperate task, and Charles Malm, a gigantic Norseman, leaped over to Lundin's rescue. They fought and struggled for minutes that seemed hours to themselves and their shipmates. Time after time their feet touched the sandy beacb, only to be ' carried from under them by the jealous back-wash. At last Maim, seeing a full-chested roller with life or death m ■ its grasp, made a desperate leap out of ! the undercurrent to its crest. In a ■ minute he was on its back, carried irresistibly forward and thrown high and dry on the beach Lundin was dragged out of the surf and the life-line was ashore. • A breeches boy was considered unsafe under the circumstances, bo the captain fitted a bowline, and, standing on the deck, passed one after another of the crew ashore. The waves were breaking over the vessel's beam by this time, and at every roil Captain Astrup was thrown from side to side of the deck, receiving severe bruises. , When the chief mate had gone off, and it was hi 3 own turn to leave, he was sore, cold, shivering, and ; weary, and be landed on the spic in a temporarily exhausted oondition. NO END OF TROUBLE. ; Nor was the terrible experience yet at an end. Only partially clothed, and ! j drenched to the skin,- the crew were i huddled together oh a narrow sand spit three miles long, lying between the lake and the sea. The gale was at its height, blowing sheets of ice cold spray across the spit, and there was no shelter of any kind. The men had been up all night, i and had not eaten a bite since five j o'clock ihe previous evening. Conse- | quently. when they reached the shore j they were in a state of utter exhaustion, unless something was done soon, the weaker must perish. The only habita- I tion in sight was the Like Ferry Hotel, about a mile to the eastward. They trudged along the spit, m hope of reaching it, enly to find when they got within a quarter of a mile that the way was barred by a sheet of water. THE LAKE OUTLET. ! They tried to attract attention. It was too early. Nobody was astir, and yet if they waited inactively for the people to rise somebody might die. " We walked up and down the beach ■ for more than an hour," said the eap- | tain, " waiting for the people to get up. ! Finally, we all got in a bunch, and hollered together abreast of tbe house, the wind blowing right from us down to the house. This brought somebody out. The people got down a small boat which was full of water. They baled it out, but could, not find any oars. When they did find oars they tried to get across, but could not face the gale, and so gave it up. We saw them go back into the house, and thought that all hope from that quarter was gone;: Torrents of rain, mingled with the spray, made it impossible to stay on the spit. Yet where should they go ? On the west side of the lake there was not a habitation of any. kind, so far as they could see—only flax-grown swamps, low-lying lands covered with the overflow from the lake, or wild hills. But something had to be done, and they started to trudge along the spit two weary miles, until they struck a road. They kept on along this. Those who were lucky enough to have gum-boots had to stop every tew minutes to empty the water out of them. The boy, Englund, and the cook, Britton, were almost exhausted. Streams had to be forded waist-deep. It could not go on for ever. IN EXTREMIS. When the next stream was reached the cook, an elderly West Indian, was too weak to cross. He left the crew and turned back, saying he would go to the ship. The river was the Ponui, runniog bank sigh from the rain-soaked hills to the westward. It defiad the weakened energy of the castaways to ford it, and they struck along the bank into the hills. Gradually one after another dropped out. It was seventeen hours sinco the starvation and exposure began, and they felt the end of the. tether. Sonre of them tried to catch a sheep to kill, but the animals were too healthy. The captain travelled far up the river. He saw some wild pigs, but, of course, couldn't kill any. It seemed as if they would have to lie down and die without ever seeing a human being, seeing there was no warmth, no shelter, no dry ground to tread on. When the craw became scattered, Peterson and Malm persevered in "their.efforts to find a ford, They saw a horse with a cover on. Determined to follow up this clue, they jumped into the river and got through i naif scrambling, half Bwimming. HOPE AT LAST. Then they searched with renewed! vigor to prevent tbemßolveß from falliDg

victicDß to cramp; and quite by chaace they ran into the whare of Messrs A. A McLnren and S. H. BJaaford and the caßtaways soon had the asaistanee they so badly needtd. When the cook turned back for the wreck he went down over a point, and this fact alone prevented Mr Young from meeting him. Trudging wearily along the spit, he arrived again opposite the Lake Ferry Hotel. This time the ferry was able to cross, and Bntton was taken over .about half-past 4 o'clock. He is now at Wharnpapa. Restates that the people ac the ferry had not given up hope of rescuing the crew when they went away in the morning. They were merely going for assistance, and lhe castaways are now distributed between the Wharepapa homestead and the whare at Ponui.— N Z. Times.