ELINGAMITE WRECK RECALLED.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10571, 28 September 1910, Page 4

ELINGAMITE WRECK RECALLED.

ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF PROVISIONS. (Per Press Association.) Auckland, September 27. ft will be remembered that when the K.lingamite was wrecked one of the rafts', after drifting thousands of miles, was picked up by a warship. One of tho occupants of the raft starved to death. The other became insane and jumped overboard. It is stated that recently Air Alitehell, in overhauling the raft (which was built on the pontoon principle, with two large air cylinders supporting the middle decking), discovered provisions which had been stored away for use : u case of shipwreck. Displacing a board, a cavity in the decking was disclosed, and in it was a large soldered tin about IBin long by 18in deep. Half of the tin was filled with ship's biscuits soaked in rum, and the other half contained 13 tins of raisins. Both biscuits and raisins were in an excellent state of preservation notwithstanding the number of years since the vessel was wrecked. They have been forwarded to Sydney. "It is a sad reflection," comments the Australian paper, "that while the shipwrecked people starved to death they were unconsciously standing on provisions, sufficient to have kept them alive for another week, by which time they would have been saved by the rescuing warship. Evidently the poor unfortunates noiv unaware of the fact that the raft carried provisions stored awav, as the decking had all been painted alike. Had the builders of the raft had the forethought to have some indicative word painted above the provision cavitv there would have been a different tale to tell, and many valuable lives would not have been sacrificed. The raft is at present located round Green Point, and is worth inspecting as a relic of the sad past." , "All impossible story," was . Mr Weiherilt's comment on reading the above reprint. Mr Wetherilt is one of the survivor's of the Klingamito's raft, and as he is also Government inspector of ships at Auckland he is in a position to speak authoritatively on the matter. "I would stake mv life oil it," continued Air Wetherilt. "I_hat there were no provisions of any kind whatsoever on the rail. The practice of provisioning rails-did not come about till after the Eliiigamito wreck, which was the direct cause of the precaution being enforced bv legislation, and it is only fair to state "that the New Zealand Government was the first to move .in the matter. Alorcover. the Eliugamite's raft was of an antiquated type even then, when the provisioning of raits was not. thought of."