TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21326, 29 October 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES

CAUGHT IN A GALE TWO MEN IN A YACHT NO COMPASS AND NO FOOD Two men who sailed from Whitstable, Kent, to Holland without a compass, spent 15 days in a Dutch prison, and were taken to the frontier and told, "Look: Belgium. Get out! " described their adventures in statements read at Canterbury Police Court recently. The men were Johannes de Wit, aged 44, a South African seaman, and Edgar Lake, aged 32, a miner and a native of Plymouth. They were charged with being concerned together in stealing the yacht Lapwing, valued at £IOO, the property of Ernest Arthur Russell, of Whitsable. De Wit, in a statement produced by a detective, stated that on July 20, he and Lake went on board the yacht to sleep. When they woke the tide had risen and the boat was afloat, and he slipped the moorings and set the sails. Toward the evening," the statement continued, " it started to blow hard, with rain squalls. I shipped the rudder and headed for the Dutch coast. On Saturday afternoon I sighted the coast, and'as wo had no food, I ran ashore on the lee side of a large dyke. " Saturday night it blow hard, and as I was on a lee shore, I put well out to

sea. On Sunday it blew hard, with a heavy sea running. It was all I could do to keep her afloat. On Monday a German fishing boat showed me his charts and directed us back to the coast, as I had no compass. On Tuesday morning I sighted the Dutch coast. " There was a gale blowing and a fearful sea running. A Dutch steamer came to our assistance. Then we crossed the bar, where I let go the anchor. They told us we were 15 miles from Flushing. I was exhausted with cold and hunger, and could go no further. I had no hat and had to tear my shirt up to make lashings for reef points in the mainsail. They took us to the Mayor, who gave us food and a hat, and he arrested us for having no passports. They took us to Middleberg prison in .1 motor-bus, the Mayor and seven reporters going with us. We were in prison 15 days, and then the Governor came in and said: "The prison door is open. You can go where you like. Here is a prison nightgown you can wear for a shirt, and 25 cents you earned in prison. " We walked down the town and were arrested and taken to the police station the next morning. They took us to Rosendaal by train and handed us over to the police station. They kept us till 8 o'clock, and two police on cycles marched us along a big main road for five miles and then to a small post, and said, " Look! Belgium: Get out. If you come back, we shoot you." We walked all night and arrived at Antwerp at 12 o'clock the next day." " A Wonderful Seaman " Lake, it was stated, told the police that he met De Wit at Poplar and walked with him for company. He had never been on a sailing ship and left everything to De Wit, Lake said. " Steamboats were running for shelter, but De Wit kept our boat going. He is a wondorful seaman, and had it not been for him we would never have come through. Hail stones as big as walnuts fell. We were drenched to the skin, hungry and thirsty. At times we were running with the deck half under water on our lee side. It was an absolute nightmare; we dared not sleep as it took us all our time to man the sails. De Wit even tore his shirt to pieces to make reef points for the sails." Lake, in evidence, said that once they were afloat he was helpless and an unwilling partner in the adventure. The case against him was dismissed. De Wit pleaded guilty, and said that had he found any food on hoard he would have chanced it and sailed for the African const in order to get home. The police said that De Wit was the son of a Pretoria clergyman. After being apprenticed to the sea he went to Australia and became connected with a gang of desperate criminals, and married the daughter of the head of the gang. Ho was sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labour.