ILL-FATED WILTSHIRE BREAKS IN TWO

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11225, 2 June 1922, Page 5

ILL-FATED WILTSHIRE BREAKS IN TWO

CREW WILL BE LANDED THIS MORNINC

FOUR ALREADY ON BARRIER ISLAND

VESSEL SWEPT BY ANGRY SEAS

FRB rRKSS ASSOCTA,TfON. AUCKLAND, June 1. The Wiltshire ran ashore at the eouth end of the Great Barrier, while trying to make port on the voyage from Liverpool. She is commanded by Captain B. G. Hayward, the company’s commodore, and carries ninety officers and men but no passengers. It was a dirty, black night when the vessel struck at Rosalie Bay, which is about three miles north of the extreme southern end of the island. The coast at this point is one of tho rockiest and wildest spots of the Gulf Islands. As soon ns the news reached Auckland, the harbourmaster took steps to intercept the vessels in the neighbourhood and dispatch them to the scene. Later a message was received stating that two holds were full of water, and that the ship was very exposed to the gale. Two hours and a half after the Wiltshire struck came a message that the steamer was badly on the shoie, and rocking about, and immediate assistance was required to save life. Several steamers were coming, but too far off. The nearest steamer was the Union Company’s Katoa, on her way from Auckland to Whangarei. She was tw.enty-five miles off Rosalie Bay. The Dundala, coming to Auckland from. Newcastle, was about ten miles away, and the same distance off was the Arahura, bound for Gisborne from Auckland. The Moeraki, which left port at 1 p.m. to-day, is taking rockets and other life-saving applianoes, and will call at Tryphena to land them for dispatch to the Wiltshire. At 11 a.m. word came that all the crew were still hanging on, as it was humanly impossible to communicate with the shore. A Heavy seas were pounding over the ’ vessel, which was then full of water. She has a large number of holds, all separated by massive bulkheads, hut the pounding on the rocks had knocked her about to such an extent that she was full of water from end to end. The wireless was still uninterrupted, and those on board were able to communicate tho news of their dire peril. The position of the crew was then TimU. crir.ioalj owing to the violence of the seas. • A still later message gave the position as “worse and desperate.” Residents of Tryphena Bay set out for the scene of the disaster on horseback, and will endeavour to render assistance to the Wiltshire’s crew. This party may be connected with the relief operations by the crews of the Arahura and Katoa, but the message reporting its movement reads as though the two parties were separate.

Upon receipt of news that the Wiltshire, a well-known trader to Wellington, had been wrecked on Great Barrier island, amt that it was not thought possible to save the lives of the crew, numbering 109, citizens were greatly concerned. A later message, however, js more reassuring. It states that communication has been effected with the Wiltshire and that four of the crew have been rescued. Darkness prevented the work being continued; the weather is less boisterous, and vessels are standing by with a party of naval ratings, in addition to their own crews, awaiting daylight, with /every prospect of those still on board the doomed steamer being safely landed.