ANOTHER OCEAN TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 278, 2 December 1907, Page 5

ANOTHER OCEAN TRAGEDY.

■ —0— HINEMOA RESCUES SURVIVORS OF A WRECKED SHIP.

EIGHT MONTHS MAROONED.

CAPTAIN, MATE, AND TEN MEN DEAD

"Per Press Association. Invercargill, Dec. 1. "The Hinemoa has arrived at tlie Bluff having on board 15 survivors from the ship Dundonald which was Wrecked on Disappointment Island in March last. , . ; j; Twelve of the crew, including the Sb&ster were drowned.. • ... ■ Thecliief mate JabeZ Peters, died island. j >' The ship was bound to'Falmouth from Sydney, wheat-laden* : 7 All the survivors are well. . THE QUICK AND THE DEAD. 'Survivors second mate), Knudsen, Harry Walters, All Finlow, Jno. Judge, Santiago Masine, Jno. Punhohe* .Herriman Querfelt, Ohas. Eyre. (A.B.'s); Robert Ellis, Adelaide; Jack Stewart, WaiSato; Jno Gratton, Michael Paul, Arthur Ivimey, 4 ( ordinary seaman), Jabez Roberts (cabin boy). , : The drowned were Captain Thorn - burn and his son James, Wm. Smith Steward), Thos Crawford (sailnaaker), Edward Lee (carpenter, Walter Low, Sam< ;CJ»rl An*person Holdersen,' ImmamieL Largerboloom, James Orom- . BINDING ! ; i Mr Crosby Smith supplied the following particulars,, ; jupluding his dotes of Ohas. Eyre's story:— ■ On arrival of expedition in Port Boss,. at Auckland Islands early on the morning of Saturday the loth , November great excitement was '<)auied : v?hen, on sig:litifi|t'-thCfGOlT-ernment depot, it was noted that a white flag- was flying tokeri.af the presence of a shitfwecked m<w. a 4b :i|f the Hinemoa's boat approached the depot a cheer went up from at, least a dozen men who were congregated; there, and was answered froin 1 the Hinemoa. After a very short delay Captain • lowed by five of the strangers m the depotoboafc—the second matei (Mr. McLaughlin), third mate (Mr Knudsen Harry Watlers, Cliaa. . Eyre, and another. > ■ : HOW THE WRECK OCCURRED. crew it that the four-masted barque 1 JDdndonald, %r-300a tbM, left Sydney: ofl-thß" 17th February bound for Falmouth, laden ■ with wheat. She carried a crew of !inj addition to whom; the captain's son, a. lad of sixteen who was rioi in .good ■'health; Contrary winds were met with all the way, and a great disturbance pf. the compass had been noticed; half way bt- L tween Sydney and the Auckland Is;on ifoe ship sfcruok on a reef on the west «ide .of Disappointment Island, of tW l Auckland group.' The ftgjit was thick, with half a gale blowing, and the reef was not seen until immediately before the ship Isfcruck, An effort was made to wear ship, but < it was- too late and she was driven stern first right into a crevice in the clifl, which towered up 300 feet above her. A NIGHT OF HORROR. Tn a few rtainutes "the fore part of the ship dropped into the sea, Which caused a huge wave the deck, carrying in one BWeep eleven men, who were 'never seen again. Amongst these \?ere the. captain and his pon. *; The test of 'the creW, hung to various fixtures, andwheaAhe wave had cone by, rushed up the rigging. Three men got ashore from the jigger ; mastf, but one of tlie meh 'slipped over the oliff and{ met f ; death. . ! , V While, the men were Oft islands , tWo ships passed .them, the "first in! July and the othe* later on, but the castaways could not .attract their at-jj tention -aether vessels were a con-j Idistanoe off.: i A,B~&TQRY, v , > : » Suddenly, i,n;,thick weather, at< 12.30 a.m. on the B.th, land.i^asseenright ahead. We tried to'wear "ship; shotfrrbund, bufrehewbuld not stay,! and went stern first..into,a arevice the cliffs. Orders were given toV, dear the lifeboats, but it was found to be useless as there was a big sea &nd rooks all round nd: Tlie mptaiff ' wdswji us> to put, on our JThe steward gave up ill hope of saving himself and said "It's good-bye boys. I am top. bad to- get He went into bis cabiii, shht tbs door and fsoon aflgr »i* blew up the deck. The mate told us to get under the- forecastle MM the ship must be dismasted. We were there two ..or three minutes when she started shipping seas. We went on the fOp'sle\head. One trp- , mendotjs sefc. W&slm clean over us, • and although we V all managed to hang onUhe iisxt one washed us all & Whirled-round roniid. I caught told of tbe foot of the foc'sle, but was instantly'torn away. I then caught old of on? of the shrouds; ■ and climbed up... 'John Judge fol-. •lowed ine to jfore-top-gallant vard Ab it w&fi/ca4ted towards th® shore We thought it, was touchiug the cliff, butiound it to be abopt 16 feet away. Wo were going to try to swing ashore on ; the i end of a rope, but found the rope Was too short. Unfortunately, we had dropped the only knife we liad ! , and could not cut another rope to lengthen it. •We sp A nb night up there and heard maay distressing cries around us About ail hour before daylight we-began to climb down to the foretop and found about 12 men tliere, including the first and second mates, The mate told us to prepare for the worst as the mast could not stand much longer. He thought we had j better cut a few lines as we might be able to help one another ashore, j Taking the mate's knife I went up j again and cut away some of the run-; ning gear. heard a voioe from the shore opposite and it to be Michael Poole, a Russian' Finn. I cut one of the top-sail bunt lines, thiew it to him, and we < made it fast at both ends. By this : means we all to got ashore. The oliff was about 800 feet high, i and at the point just above the mast was a very steep slope which allowed us to climb up with comparative ease. There were 16 of us out of 28 got ashore. The others were washed away when the big sea swept the ship. We now learned that the first man ashore, Walter Low, called out to pass a rope but before this could be done he silpped over the cliff into the sea and was never seen again. We w ere very much -exhausted, being very hungry -and cold. When in the topgallant

yard, the mate told us there was a depot on the island. Later on we discovered that there was no depot on the island. This was a great disappointment to the mate, who along with the second mate had been seriously ill from exposure. We never expected • the second mate to recovei, but he gradually got better. THE MATE DIES! The mate, however, after finding he was not on the main Auckland Island was disheartened. He sank rapidly and died on the twelfth day after the wreck. He was over 60 years of age. By this time we had discovered that we were on Disappointment Island. : After the mate's | death we shifted oyer to the eastern I side of the island because the water | where we struck was very bad. The J first day after getting ashore we ate | raw Molldy Hawks; .. The matches i amongst us were Wet, and it was • three days before we Could get them dry. When we once got a fire going we banked it tip, and kept it alight for seven months. Until May we covered outselves up with canvas we got from tlie ship before she diasppeared, .but ,snow and hail came on and we started to dig holes in the ground with our hands. About the } holes we built up sticks and put sods on top forming huts about six feet long and four feet wide. We managed to scrape through the Winter all right by living on sea hawks, .Molly hawks, .and seals. -When we saw the seas first bobbing up on the water we thought we had got the sea serpent, all right. We did not know how to. kill. them at first, we used to whack them on the back with a stick, but one of the fellows happened to hit one of them on the pose,! and it rolled over, so after thai we had no difficulty in despatching them. In the beginning we to cook ..everything by putting it on the flames, but afterwards we made a mud oven, and cooked food on a spit. BUILDING A CANVAS BOAT. We knew the depot was on the other island about six miles distant, so it was decided to 'build a canvas -beat. - We had cut up our clothes for sails and blankets, as we had scarcely any clothes on when we got ashore from the ship. In July three a bdat of canvas and Sticky. > , To do this we had fo put .in pieces of our clothes and blankets and sew them together and the task fw&S;all th(B harder as the sailinaker arid carpenter Were both' drowned. We sewed with a small bone from §ne of the birds, with a hole bored lhit, and nsed a little bit of wire we. had. On, 31st July., a start was matfe in the'boat 'for the main is•lahd which was reached all right, but as they could not find the depot they acme back on. the 9th August. They had six matches with them and used fom while over there. A was built in September. and another party started for the main island, but the boat was smashed by + the sea before it could Set away. »W® built a third one in , •otober and started again—Knudsen, Walters, Gratton and myself. We got over to the large island bnt as We reaohed the shore we struok a rock and the "boat was- smashed, sending us all into the water. We scrammed ashore again but- the mishap put out a fire which we had carried in the boat on a sod in order to sate our two matches. These got wet aiid even after drying them for three days we could not get them alight. " FINDING THE DEPOT. On the fourth morning we started 1 in search of the depot, and after walking across '-the island and about . 15 miles through, the bush and sorub ; We struck right on it. There was a good boat at the depot, but no 1 sails,- so We cut up our clothes to make a sail, so that we could return to. Disappointment Island for the rest. . On the next day we tried to sail round fpr them, but the weather was too bad and we had some .difficulty in. returning to the depot. OiMihe following day we made another start g.Qt„ there about three o'clock. We had found clothes atJibe, depot audi exchanged them, for what wo were wearing and we had. also cut each, others' hair ,and beards, which 'daring, the i seven months had grown so -long we looked like a lot Of spring poets. As we got nearer our old camp, our mates did not know us in our pew toggery, and thought we were seal-, ers." The next morning we.piii: half; the men ashore where we firsts landed with the canvas boat, and left; them to make their way over to the depot.'"Then we took the second officer and the others round to the depot. ■ We had beea aev&i mohfchp on Disappointment Isl&nd. We Saw from a piece of •. paper in the depot that the Tutanekai had been there On this -Ist February and that some' other Government boat would call: in about six months," so we were on the look out for a boat" every day after we got to the depot. ' You can imagine our delight when we saw the Hinemoa. After talking with the castaways Captain Bollohs supplied them with some additional stores and told them he would call tor them on his return from the Bounty and Campbell Islands in 10 or 12 days, THE LAST SAD RITES. At 5.30 in the' morning of the 28th Captain Bollons weighed anchor in Port Ross, and steamed for Disappointment Island,' to land the members of the expedition for a few hours. Tney saw the frame of the canvas boat first built. A more rugged structure could not be imagined. It was ail elbows and knees. It was built of veronica elliptica, which rarely has two feet of straight wood in it. The wonder is that the men had sufficient patience and ingenuity to build it at all, and how such a boat reached its destination, propelled by oars made ot' fo.'kecl sticks, with canvas tied round them, is a miracle. Four of the castaways went overjthe hill to their first camp to exhume the remains of the mate. This took a couple of hours. About 4.30 two boats put off from the Hinemoa containing all the passengers and the ships' company, which landed to attend the funeral. The party numbered about 60. The service was a most impressive one. Tlie captain read the Anglican Church funeral service and the body enclosed in a sea chest was lowered to its last resting place by the second and third mates of t'.ie Dundcnald.