WRECK OF THE QUEEN BEE. [By Telegraph.

Otago Witness, Issue 1342, 18 August 1877, Page 9

WRECK OF THE QUEEN BEE. [By Telegraph.

mv , T - Nelson, August 9th. The steamer Lauy Barkly returned at eight o'clock last night with the boat in which the mate of the Queen Bee came to Motueka, and the following passengers, who left the wreck in a lifeboat with three A.B.s and one ordinary seaman :— Mrs Gibbs and infant, Messrs Gibbs (2), Mrs Chiel and child, Messrs Chiel (2), Mrs Pearce and Miss Saundera. They report that the ship made the New Zealand coast on Thursday, and had dirty weather to Cape Fare wtl. -At eight o'clock on Monday night tuey wert. abreast of the Spit Light ; rounded to, and at midnight struck, the light bearing N. W. and showing red. It was then tear low water, aud heavy seas at once commenced breaking- over her, and she bumped so heavily that the men could scarcely keep their legs. The mate and four men left for Motueka, as reported. At six o'clock, the passengers and crew left the ship, the captain and officers and two passengets (Heiliard and Beckett) iv the gig and lifeboat with the passengers named above; and the cutter with Dr and Mrs Maunall and two children, Misses Fosberry (2), Mr Gibbs ai.d five children, Messrs White and Hnrtell, Mrs Chiel and son, one able-bodied and three ordinaiy seamen. The lifeboat was much damaged in launching, and. while knocking about all yesterday, the women had to bale her out. Off Awaroa, they were picked up by the schooner Merlin, and shortly after transferred to the Lady Barkly, which was returning from the wreck. The captain ef the Lady Barkly says the ship is completely submerged, except a portion of the starboard quarter. Had she been 200. yards further out, she would have cleared the spit end. Mrs Gibbs is in a terrible state of mind, as a number of her family are in the missing boats, for which the Lyttelton and Lady Barkly are now searching, the latter having gone out again. The lifeboat was in such a damaged state that she was abandoned.

Noon. There are no tidings yet of the missing boats. The Lyttelton and Lady Barkly are still out searching. There is very great anxiety here By direction of Lloyd's agents, the Queen Bee will be sold by auction to morrow morning.

4 p.m. The Lady Barkly has returned, after a fruitless search for the missing boats in the neighbourhood of Croixellea. Ihe Naval Brigade will go out in their boat to night to search.

August 10 th. There are no tidings yet of the miasing boat?. The Lady Barkly went out again last night, and the Naval Brigade's boat, with a crew of 20, including the second mate and one of the crew of the Queen Bee, this morning. The latter will go round D'Urville Island, said probably meet the Manawatu.

Messrs Sharp aud Pickering report the sale of the vessel and cargo for L 740. Messrs Edward 3 and Co., agents for the ship, protested against the sale, on the ground that the vessel was not abandoned, and that the insurance offices had no right to interfere.

3.30 p.m. The cutter Bruiser returned to port to-day, after being absent on a fishing expedition since Monday morning, Westrupp, the owner, re-> ports that when fishing off Astrolabe yesterday afternoon, he saw two boats, one apparently strongly manned and the other full of people, enter Bark Bay. He knew nothing of the wreck at that time, but shortly afterwards met the Lyttelton, and reported tha circumstance. She then stood for Bark Bay. The question now is— if they were the missing boats, why has not the Lyttelton returned, as she might easily have done ?

5.40 p.m. No further news of the boats, and not likely to be for some hours, as the Lyttelton is nob yet signalled.

12.50 p.m. The Manawatu has just arrived at the outer anchorage with the crew of Captain Davie3's boat. She arrived at Port Harrly at 2 p.m., and found the Captain and crew. They report they left the wreck at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, had fearful weather during the night, and at dusk on Wednesday made Port Hardy.

The weather was very rough, and the boat cap sizjd on lan.li'ig, drowning the carpenter and smashing the feet of Hellard a passenger. Two men went on the hills and were missing. The whole of them are in a very emaciated condition, having had nothing to eat since leaving the ship. Captain Davies thinks there is very little chance of finding the cutter with the women and children, it being impossible they could endure the privations he and the crew met with. Just after leaving Port Hardy, the Manawatu met the Lyttelton, which had searched other sides of the Bay. She will look for the missing men, and continue the search for the cutter, the finding of which appears most improbable. The Government have issued instructions to the authorities at Nelson to send Manawatu or another steamer to go at once in search of men left on the Island. The Sappho left Welling, ton to-day to assist in the search.

August 11th.

This morning the Naval Brigade boat, manned by volunteers, found the other missing boat, with the women and children, at Elmslie's place, near the French Pass. They were all safe aad well at Wakapuaka (Cable Bay) at noon, and are expected here at three o'clock thw afternoon.

3 p.m. — The Aurora found the missing cutter nt Elmslie's, French Pass, yesterday afternoon. The following are full particulars :— Left the Qneen Bee on Tuesday at 7 a.m., with 21 passengers in aIL The boat had only three oars, whi^li were almost useless, no sails, rudder, or mast, and no water, excepting one bottle which a passenger happened to have, and three tins of preserved meat. We tried to keep on to the vessel to get rid of some of the passengers as the boat was overloaded, but could not, the wind and sea very high from the west. After struggling for an hour, we had to mn before the wind. When tvo-thirds across the bay, we found we were making no southing, <*nd expected to be blown seaward. The boat filled three ti^es, but fortunately the wind shifted to the N.W., and by means of a rug held on to a brass rod, we made a little southing. At 8 o'clock we sighted Savage Point, above the French Pass, when the wind shifted to the west again, which blew us to the mouth of Prenia harlx>ur, where we held on to the os»rs all night, and we had hard work to keep off the shore. At daylight we gradually rowed into Prenia harbour, and landed on the beach, where we made fires jvml boiled water. Some of the crew went over the hili to look for a habitation, and fell in with a Maori settlement, where they were_ treated with great hospitality. We remained at Prenia harbour till the following day, when we were rowed into El&islie's place, where we were picked up by the Aurora— all in the best of spirits, everything considered.

August 12th. The cook of the Queen Bee was brought last night in the Lady Barkly, into which he was transhipped from the Lyttelton, which found him in a [little nook at D'Urville Island, in a very faint condition. A ccoey was heard, and a boat sent ashore, when he was found in an exhausted state, having hud down to die. He was on the cliff, and saw the .others taken by the Manawatu, but failed to make himself heard. The Lyttelton remained searching for the third mate.

Several thousands of people assembled at the Port this afternoon to meet the Naval Brigade boat Aurora, with Mr and Mrs Maunsell and family, two Misses Fosbe/rys, and four of the crew. The Volunteers mustered in force, and there was a perfect storm of cheers from the crowds thatlined the sideas the Aurora pulled up the harbour, the Band playing " Home, Sweet Home." The passengers seem little the worse for their adventure. The Maori boat with the other passengers has not yet arrived, but is expected to-night. The following is Captain Da vis's account of what occurred :— After the passengers left the ship, which they did in defiance of my orders, as I wanted them to remain alongside, we set to work acd constructed a raft, as I thought we should be too many for the only boat that was left, and we finished it about 4 p.m. At this time the sea was becoming rougher, and the wind was blowing very hard from the W.N. W., and increasing in force. Such a sea was rolling in that we could not get anything into the boat but a bottle of water, a tin of biscuits, and two tins of meat, the latter of which were washed overboard in beaching the boat. I was frightened to bring her close alongside lest she should be stove in, or I voulrt have put more provisions on board. Eventually we contrived to scramble on to her and the raft by watching our chances, nine getting into the boat and six on to the raft, which we towed aftsr us. It was then blowing hard from the same quarter, and ju3t before dark, finding that it was impossible for the men to remain on the raft all night, we got under her lee and took them in. The Tvhole night it was blowing frightfully, and how we escaped with onrhnatso heavily laden is to me a perfect miracle. Ididnotkuowwhereweweregohig.and all I cuuld do was to keep her head to sea. At daylight we saw Stevens and DTJrviile Islands some six or seven miles distance, and as we got closer we saw several little bays as they appeared to be, and these I tried to make for. but could not on account of the currents. All this time the boat was leakinsr badly, and we had all we could do to keep the water down by baling, and finding that she must sink if we remained at .sea, I determined to beach her. At f.vd o'clock I saw a small indentation in the coast line where the mountains were very precipitous and the base of them only about 40 feet from low water mark. There wae a fearful surf on, but there was nothing for it but to make the attempt, so we ran in. A tremendous sea caught and lighted the boat right en end, bow downwards. We were thrown ashore, and the boat turned right over, keel upwards, and in two minutes she was smashed to atoms. On mustering our numbere we found that the carpenter was missing, and he must have been drowned shortly afterwards. One of the men started r,ff of his own accord over the hills, and was followed by Mr Hilliard, who, in climbin" tho hill, fell down the side of the cliff and hurt his feet very severely. We made for the snuggest quarters we could find, and tried to obtain some rest by lying down on the stones, but the tide came over us at high water and we had to get as far back as we could, but even then could scarcely get out of reach of the water. We passed a miserable night. No deep, roihing to drink, and nothing to eat. The next morning th<=> uteward procured a box of matches which he had saved, but tnoy were saturated with water. However, the mate fortunately ha<l a burning- art as* with him, and hy 'its aid we ignited <.<.<> of the matches, and lit a fire with w«nedrif.-wood that was lying about, and dried the rest of the matches We spent the whole day on this little patch of land, which was certainly not two yards in length. We were fortunate enough to find water, but lonked in vain for birds or fish of any kind. We could see \e.<*>h in the distance, but i.on« noticed mir •smoke tliuiti'^ the day. Mr Mason, the third mata, who is now missing, went over the hills. We s.-\w no more of him. Thursday night was a repetition .if the previous one,' and a wretched time it was ; but there was this in our favourthat the weather was fine. On Friday morning it came on to rain and blow. We saw one or two vessels, and a little later » steamer (the Lytfcextoi.), which was dodging about at some

distance from the land. By her movements we f ult sum that she was looking for us, and in desperation we set fire to the bushes and everything we could find about to create a smoke to attract her attention, but all in vain. Just then (about 2 p.m.), to our intense delight, we saw the Manawatu rounding the point about a mile away. She saw cur smoke, and to our great joy we saw her hoist the ensign in response" The captain speak 3in high terms of the kindness received on board the Slanawatu.

Auckland, August 9th. The South British policies on the Queen Bee amount to L 12.000, reduced by re-insurances to LSOOO, or possibly L3OOO.