Marooned on Rangitoto

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 5

Marooned on Rangitoto

Five Men Without Food A DARING RESCUE Per Frcss Association. AUCKLAND, Last Nsght. ! Marooned on the Rangitoto beacon . since 9 o'clock yesterday morning, I heavy weather making it impossible to tako thorn off last evening, five members of the yard staff of the Auckland Harbour Board spent a cold and cheerless night beforo they were rescued from their uncomfortable position by tho harbour board’s tug To Awhina shortly after noon to-day. Tho tug was assisted by two harbour board launches, Orero and Te Hauraki. Attempts to send lifelines across the beacon by means ot rockets ended in failure this morning, when two rockets iired not only missed their mark but snapped the lines, which became fouled wheu unrolling from the boxes. Shortly after 13 o'clock two harbour board employees, in a daring attempt iu a dinghy, buffeted by heavy seas, succeeded in securing a line let down by tho men in the beacon. Food was sent up to sustain the marooned party until such time as the tide had dropped sufficiently to rescue them. The five marooned men were Harry Butterworth, J. Amriger, F. Newald. At. Bacon and George Brink. The rescue was effected by means of a dinghy. Shortly after noon tho sea bad calmed considerably alter a stormy morning aud the men climbed down the steel ladder, ran around tho foot-wide base of the beacon, jumped to a rock and thence into the dinghy. Tho men were taken to tho beacon yesterday morning shortly after eight o'clock and lauded by dinghy from the harbour board launch. Their work for tho day was to chip and paint the beacon, a job that is carried out at length y intervals. When the launch returned for them it was seen to be impossible, owing to tho heavy sea which was running, to take them off. Tho dinghy would bavo been dashed to pieces on the jagged rocks that surround the base of tho bcacou. It was decided to return later, but at 7 p.m. tho sea had not abated and the launch came back to the city.

The Auckland Harbour Board authorities decided to make no further attempt until this morning and at 9 o'clock tho tug To Awhina, under the command of Captain Probert, aud accompanied by tho board's launches, Orero and Tc Hauraki, put out into the channel in the teeth of a strong northeasterly. Tho strong, buffeting sea mado the voyage to the beacon unpleasant and tho spray, whipped by tho wind, came up over tho tug’s superstructure. She arrived within 200 yards of tho beacon, which is six and a-quarter miles from Auckland, shortly beforo 10 o’clock, and hove to, wallowing heavily in the trough.

Tho launch To Hauraki then drew alongside and tool: on board rockets aud lifelines, the intention being to drop tho line across tho beacon, when tho marooned men could draw up a heavier rope to which a breeches-buoy could be attached lor their rescue. At this point it canto on to rain heavily and the wind, instead of decreasing in force, becarno stronger. The launch half circled the beacon, standing off to tho south and approaching to within 70 yards of tho proposed mark. Tho rocket gear was rigged, but difficulty was experienced owing to the pitching of the boat iu the choppy seas. After tho rockets had failed to reach their mark, a dinghy was put off from tho Te Hauraki manned by J. Forsyth aud Brown, members of tho crew, who daringly pulled iu under the very ledge on which tho beacon stands, and attempted to secure a rope. All around them wero black rocks which occasionally showed up in the fierce run of the sea. One ill-timed move and they wouln have been overturned and battered on the rocks. After 15 minutes' ticklish work they succeeded in getting the rope into the dinghy and rowed back to tho launch, where the lifeline was attached. Food was then procured and scut up by the line. This was the first meal tho men had to-day. It was then decided to wait until the tide was full out, when tho men could bo taken aboard by means of u breeches buoy which had been made ready for use. Snortly beforo 12 o’clock, however, tho rain ceased and the wind died down. As the soa grew calrnpr it was realised that it would be possible to take the men off by means of a dinghy and this was successfully accomplished. One of the men explained that they had been unable to sleep comfortably, as the staircase in the beacon ends only in a 2ft. ledge. It was on this ledgo that luckily they sheltered from tho rain and wind and they had spent the night. They had not been cold, as they found some old wood and lit a fire. “Wo spent our time singing and talking," said one of the party. “Last night wo saw the Alariposa and Aorangi putting out to sea, and we wished ourselves aboard and at the dining table. All wo could think of was food."