THE LOCH LOMOND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13879, 13 October 1908, Page 6

THE LOCH LOMOND.

A FRUITLESS SEARCH. MYSTERY OF THE SEA. The discovery of the lifebuoy at the Great Barrier, bearing the name of the missing vessel, the Loch Lomond, led to the supposition that in her voyage to New Zealand from Newcastle the barque might have got blown to the north of her course, and got round Cape Maria in an endeavour to make Hauraki Gulf. In consequence of this idea, the Northern S.S. Company's Chelmsford, under the command of Captain Taw, was chartered by the Union S.S. Company on Saturday, and despatched that evening to make a search of some of the gulf islands for any signs of wreckage, or, perhaps, castaways. The s.s. Chelmsford, with Captain Stevens, representing the Union Company, and Mr. Harrison, a relative of "one of the men on the Loch Lomond, and representatives of the press, left Auckland at 10 p.m. on Saturday, arriving off the Barrier at daybreak on Sunday, and commenced the search near Tryphena. The vessel slowly worked up the rough and inhospitable coasts- of the eastern side of the island, also circling around Arid Island. Everywhere along the coast a careful look-out for wreckage of any description was kept, but nothing oeyond the usual driftwood from bush country was discovered. The steamer then inspected the northern end of the Barrier, without finding anything of note. On the way the scene of the great Wairarapa wreck was pointed out to those seeing the locality for the first time. The Chelmsford called in at Port Fitzroy to pick up the lifebuoy which had been found by a resident of the locality, on the beach of an inlet not far from the main entrance to Fitzroy. There was no one at home to detail the circumstances of the finding of the buoy, or to describe its appearance before cleaned to ascertain the name, so Captain Stevens, finding the buoy at the house, took possession of the relic and left a note to indicate to the residents that the burglary of theiil premises was not carried out by a very desperate character. The appearance of the buoy only deepened the mystery surrounding the missing Loch Lomond, for there was nothing to show that it had been a long time in the watei, or that it had travelled any great distance. The buoy had evidently had many coats of paint, and the house flags and the words "Loch Lomond, Glasgow," had been painted over, but still were plainly visible. Small barnacles had attached themselves to the buoy in places, bu* in these sub-tropical waters marine life attaches itself to a floating object fairly quickly. The rope on the inner side had been broken away in two places. Having regard to the general appearance, it was thought by the seamen on board the Chelmsford that the buoy had been in the water a month or six weeks at most; but it may have drifted from almost anywhere. The s.s. Chelmsford, after leaving Port Fitzroy, lost n< time in running up to Mokohinau Island, the cliffs of.which look almost as forbidding as those of the Barrier. No trace whatever of wreckage was seen at Mokohinau, and the lighthousekeepers had seen no sign of the Loch Lomond. From Mokohinau the search was continued to the Poor Knights Islands, between Whangarei and the Bay'of Islands. This group was reached just at sunset, and the whistle was sounded at intervals ag the steamer cruised round, but no signals of distress were seen or heard, and no wreckage sighted. The Chelmsford, then started on the" return journey, arriving back in Auckr land at 7.30 a.m. yesterday. The dangerous nature of the. coasts of the Bai-rier and the other islands renders a search from the sea side somewhat of a, difficult proceeding, and the presence of uncharted rocks in such places as the channel between the Barrier and Arid Island necessarily inclines a nevigator to give the locality a wide berth, but the Chelmsford, under the fine seamanship of her master, felt the way round the ! precipitous bluffs and dangerous reefs, and carried out the search as thoroughly as it is passable to search from the sea side.