ADRIFT ON THE OCEAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

ADRIFT ON THE OCEAN.

SUFFERINGS OF SAILORS. WRECK OF THE DUMARU, V f " LOSS OF EIGHTEEN LIVES. A story of the suffering of shipwrecked sailors in an open boat is told in " The Wreck of the Dumaru" recently published. 8 Many garbled versions of thtg> story ap. peared in American newspapers when th« survivors of the Dumaru were rescued but the account given in this book is bv Fred Harmon, first assistant engineer of the Dumaru, as he told it to Lowell H Thomas, the American author. The Dumaru was a wooden ship, built at Portland, United States, when the German submarines were playing havoc with the merchant shipping of the Allies. Like " others of her class, she was built of green timber, and was a subject of scorn and derision sailors. No one wanted to go to sea in her; but a scratch crew was got together, which included men who had never been to sea, but were anxious to escape being conscripted f or , military service in France. The vessel, after taking on board a cargo of petrol and explosives at San Francisco, to be discharged at Honolulu and at the island of Guam and the Philippines, for the use of the American navy, left on her maiden voyage. She reached Honolulu and Guam in safety, atad left the latter port on October 16, 1918, for the Philippines. Struck by Lightning. A few hour 3 after' leaving Guam she ran into a severe storm/and was struck by lightning, which ignited the fumet from the petrol drums and set fire to the ship. Owing to the rapidity with which the fire spread, only two lifeboats were launched. It was realised that the ship would explode when the fire reached the explosives, and therefore there was utmost haste on the part of the crew to get away. The first boat, in charge of the third mate, had only nine men on board, but the second, in charge of the first mate, was crowded with 32. The captain and five sailors launched a life raft, and clung to it. All assumed that there would be no difficulty in reaching Guam, which had Tieen left a few hours before. On board the lifeboat which carried 32 men a sail was hoisted, and t course was set for Guam, but owing to the danger of being driven on the reef which surrounds the island the sail was lowered at night before the island waj reached, and a sea anchor was put out. In the morning a start was made for the island,' but half an hour later the wind, which had been blowing toward the island, veered round and blew off it. The sail was useless with an off-shore wind, for the boat would not tack The wind increased to a gale, and blew the boat out of sight of land. This was the trade wind, which, after blowing for weeks from one quarter, always veers round and blows steadily from the opposite quarter. These unfortunate sailors had the to encounter the change when in sight of Guam. Deaths from Hunger and Thirst. After trying for nearly a week to remain in the vicinity of Guam in a boat which would not tack it was decided to run before the wind, realising that eventually the boat would reach the Philippines, which stretched across their course for nearly 2000 miles. It was 1300 miles to the Philippines, and owing to the fact that the boat carried nearly twica as many men as she had accommodation for the small supplies of water and biscuits soon gave out. The first drath' occurred on the thirteenth day, and after that death came rapidly to men suffering from hunger and thirst, and exposed to a tropical sun and cold nights. Sixteen deaths occurred before the boat was washed up on the v 24th day on Samar, one of the Philippine islands, and two men were drowned when ihe boat overturned in the surf. The survivors were treated kindly by the natives of a neiglibourinig village, and eventually reached Manila, where they learned that the nine occupants of the firsts boat had been rescued, after making the voyage to the Philippines in comparative comfort, because the boat was amply provisioned with water and biscuits for such a small number.