FOUNDERED IN A GALE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17067, 27 July 1917, Page 6

FOUNDERED IN A GALE

LOSS OF THE TUG NYORA. SURVIVORS' TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES. (Feoh Oue Own Cobeespokdekt ) SYDNEY, July 11. All except two of the crew of the tug Nyora were lost when the vessel sank suddenly in a great storm in the Australian Bight, and the two men who escaped had a_ terrible experience. Full details .of . the disaster have just reached Sydney. The Nyora was towing the schooner -oistoria from Port Pirie to Melbourne, and when they got clear of Spencer and St. Vincent Gulfs they met a terrible sea, sweeping from the south. The waves were mountainous, and repeatedly broke over the tug. But the men hung to their task all Sunday afternoon and night. About 11 aCrn. on Monday a bigger wave than usual came aboard, smashed in the woodpn door of the engine room, and poured inside. The tug immediately listed. Wave after wave then rushed down the companion way. The captain immediately ordered the boats out and the towline to be cut away.' The line was cut, but the tug was now fully in the grip of the sea and could not be rig-hted. . Her list was so heavy that the boats could not bo'iclcared. The tug was obviously sinking, arid the captain ordered the boats to be cut away, so .that they might float clear when the ship sank. She went down by the stern in 15 minutes, and the crew were left struggling in a mountainous sea, 16 miles from Cape Jaffa, near the Victorian boundary. The men fought furiously for life. Some of them kept afloat for some time, their hopes fixed on the Astoria, their tow. For some reason not yet explained the crew of that vessel made no attempt to save the drowning men. Instead, they put up some sails and made off for the sheltering headland some miles south of Cape Jaffa. Many of the_ Nyora'a crew were carried down by the ship. The chief engineer climbed on to a capsized boat, where he was presently joined by a seaman named Lansley. jl. few minutes later they saw the captain 100 yards away, swimming towards them, and they helped hiin up. A' little later they picked up a fireman. They righted the boat, but it capsized again and again. They had no oars, but they tried to steer with a board from the bottom of the boat. Two hours later, the fireman died from exposure; after that, the chief engineer became delirious and presently succumbed. The two survivors struggled on ,the gale driving thorn towards the shore. When darkness fell they saw the Cape Jaffa light. They drifted all through that bitter night, being often capsized, and as often fighting their way back. Tho next morning they entered the breakers opposite the lighthouse. They were driven through the outer breakers, being washed ' over and over. The lightkeepers, who had sighted them, signalled them to keep away from the inner line of breakers, but they were too utterly exhausted to do anything but drift Then two lightkeepers, one a man over 60, put off in a small boat into the raging sea and, after a terrific struggle, got both men ashore, unquestionably saving their lives. The action of the schooner, in sailing away and leaving the tug's men to their fate, and the delay in '«vunching a lifeboat from the adjacent port oi Beachport, which could not ue got ready for hours after the alarm was given, are being officially inquired into.