ORDEAL ON LUGGER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23968, 19 May 1941, Page 8

ORDEAL ON LUGGER

SIX DAYS WITHOUT FOOD STORMS ON PLEASURE CRUISE SYDNEY, May 17 After heavy seas had washed their stores overboard, nine men on the Darwin lugger Ellen R. fought storms for six days with nothing to eat and nothing to drink but brackish water. With six white men and three aborigines on board, the Ellen R. was on a pleasure cruits from Darwin to Melville Island. The first night out a violent storm struck the ship near Cape Don. Through the night the men worked the pumps continuously, but the heavy seas kept stalling the engine. For hours, with the engine not working, the Ellen R. drifted in fierce seas. In the morning she struggled into an inlet on the mainland and took shelter. When the storm had gone down the men sailed again for Melville Island. But soon a second storm struck them, and they were blown 80 miles off their course into the Timor Sea. When finally they reached Melville Island they were on the side opposite to where they had been making. There was no food to bo got, and they had only one gallon of water. They headed for Melville Island anchorage in the hope that a pearling lugger would be sheltering there, but there was none. Exhausted by hunger and thirst, they decided to sail' back to Darwin. Eighty miles from Darwin they were sighted by an aeroplane which had been searching for them. The white men paid a tribute to the seamanship and faithfulness of the aborigines.