WRECKAGE ASHORE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18211, 3 October 1922, Page 6

WRECKAGE ASHORE.

WHITIANGA BEACH STREWN.

SHIP HATCHES AND FITTINGS.

A considerable quantity of wreckage was washed up on Buffalo Beach at Whitianga on Sunday morning, telegraphs Constable 'Kirby, consisting of hatches, planking, cabin fittings, and portions of stairway. Portions of the wreckage are branded Ml, F.H., S.A. 11/11, F M/ 111. The timber is mostly pine. It has not been in the water very long, but has been considerably knocked about on the rocks.

In a second message he states: —"Further patrol of ./he beaches cannot establish the identity of the wreckage. Seamen and others state that it is not identical with anything from the Wiltshire. A piece of-the wreckage bears the words ' petty officers.' The vessel must have carried corrugated iron, a considerable portion of the wreckage being the casing used for the transport of this material."

SOURCE OF THE W&EOKAuE.

WILTSHIRE SUGGESTED. [BX TELKQKAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WHITIANGA. Monday. Regarding the wreckage which is strewn on the beach for some miles, opinion is divided. A competent authority .thinks it came from the Wiltshire with a northwest wind and set into the bay. Nothing of value has come ashore. Tne longer pieces of plank apparently were part of the hatches. Nearly all the wreckage is Oregon pine with small portions of teak and cedar from broken fittings. Some of the wreckage his small barnacles on it while other portions evidently hav e been in the water a few days only. The remains of crates which contained galvanised iron have apparently been wrenched apart and are quite fresh. Quantities of fine cork axe on the beach, perhaps having ieen used for insulation. Possibly the use of dynamite in salvaging tho Wiltshire may account for "the 4uantitios found.

Whitianga, or Mercury Bay, is on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula.