OVERDUE AWANUI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17113, 19 March 1919, Page 8

OVERDUE AWANUI.

AMERICAN SHIP'S REPORT.

UNKNOWN CRAFT SIGHTED.

SIGNAL NOT READABLE. [by telegraph.— correspondent.] WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Tho master, Captain R. Zolling, of the American schooner Else, now in port for extensive repairs to damage sustained in , heavy weather, encountered on a voyage from Tonga to Portland, Oregon, was su-ked if he had seen anything of a sailing vessel answering the description of the schooner Awanui, which is six weeks overduo on a round trip from Auckland to Niuo Island. He said that on February , 12, in fair weather, ho passed a small three-masted vessel proceeding on a north-westerly course. The ship in question was then at a point between 27 or 28 * degree* south latitude, and 171 or 172 degrees east longitude. There was a distanco of 12 or 14 miles between the two craft, but it was seen from tho Else that the stranger was flying a signal, which could, howevor, not bo read, even through the glasses. A strong south-easterly wind was against the American, so she was unable to be taken nearer to speak the other ship. In tho circumstances ho considered that had the signal been of distress tho slrauger, which was with the wind, would have approachod the Else. Full sail was in use on the unknown sailer, and from. appearances it looked as if she was 'all right. Her flag could not be distinguished. One significant fact that should help to establish tho identity of the passing sailor was that she was in nautical terms a " baldheaded " schooner, or did not have topmasts. Locally it is not known how the missing ship is rigged. Captain Zolling says that after the two schooners were out of sight of each other ho was struck by a succession of southeasterly gales covering a period of 20 (lays, "it was during this time that his ship came to grief. Considering that the Awanui, if sbo was the ship that was sighted, was about 400 miles from her destination, and sho would probably suffer the same storm through which the Else passed, Captain Zolling fears that something has happened to her. Other members of the ship's company arc moro optimistic, and point out that the vessel seen by them might have been the American three-masted schooner, Esther Buhnc, outward bound from San Francisco to the Islands with a general cargo and a deck-load of lumber. One of the crew says that the vessel they sighted carried a deck load, and in tint case it

would have been tho Esther Bnhne, as she was due to arrive at Suva about that time.

The position of the strange vessel described by the master of the American schooner is anprox ; mate!y 500 miles due north of Auckland and from 150 to 200 miles to the eastward of Norfolk Island.

The term " bald-headed " is applied to a vessel carrying only gaff topsails. The Awanui is rigged in this fashion.