AUSTRALIAN WRECK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17271, 22 September 1919, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN WRECK.

PRIVATIONS OF THE CREW. STRUGGLE THROUGH THE BUSH. [feom otr own coeeespondekt.] SYDNEY. Sept. 12. The crew of a small steamer named the Rostrevor, which was totally wrecked on the coast of Victoria while on a voyage from Hobart to Sydney, suffered terrible privations while fighting their way from the lonely beach where they were wrecked to civilisation. The vessel went ashore at 3 a.m. in thick darkness and with a biting southerly blowing, and immediately began to break up. The captain sent volunteers 50vds through the surf wit|w a rope. They landed, but lost the /ope. So the crew went ashore anyhow, one by one, and the captain, a man of only 26, was the last to leave. He loaded himself with tins of biscuit and meat. The whole crew, wet and only partially clad, crouched among the sparse bushes and waited for daylight. Cold rain fell at intervals. The captain, who had been fully clad, shared his clothes with the others.

At daylight the party set off for a place called Mario. After struggling for hours through rough country, they found further progress barred by a wide deep lagoon. They returned reluctantly to their camp on the beach, which they reached at 5 p.m. Only a part of the ship was still in sight, but it contained the captain's cabin, where food had been stored. The party was starving, so some of the men managed to get out to the wreck and get some tinned fruit and beef. Further cold rain fell heavily during the night and the halfclad men had a miserable time of it. At daylight the following morning (Thursday) they set off again through thick bush, at an angle calculated to take them round the lagoon. All day they fought their way through swamps and scrub, and at dusk they found their path blocked by another lagoon. They camped there that night, and on Friday they managed to cross the second lagoon, up to their necks in water most of the way. Then they swung round again to the coast which they reached at dusk, and they. camned there. By this time exposure, hard walking, and lack of food was telling severely upon the men. Next morning they came upon a track which led them to' isolated settlers, who helped them and took them to Mario.