THE STORY OF ANOTHER SURVIVOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2541, 26 November 1902, Page 28

THE STORY OF ANOTHER SURVIVOR.

Andrew Rossie, who was a passenger on the EHngamite, and is one of the eight survivors of the raft, was seen at the hospital. In telling his story, he passed over the incidents of the wreck itself, as being already well known, and started by relating Sunday** experiences. T ' On the raft, " he eaid, " after the wreck, we drifted round for an hour or two and tried to make the leeway of the island, where the ship struck, in order to get a landing, but we lost «igbt of the other raft, and though we pulled all the time we drifted further away. Then darkness set in, and we passed a miserable night. On Monday morning the eun was late in getting out, but we judged our position by the sun as coon as we could. We thought we might possibly meet some of the boate, and our idea was that we would make land east by south, but, as it happened, though we did not know it «t the time, we got right into the current which runs through between the mainland and the Three Sings, and getting into that current took us away to the east. We passed Cape Maria Van Diem en light about 9 o'clock on Monday night. When ■we sighted the light we were drifting very fast, About that time w© all thought we sighted a steamer, but I am not at all certain now that there was a steamer thera at all. We thought we were within 200 or 300 yards of the steamer, which seemed to me to have a white light and a green light. We all got up and shouted all we could. We thought we saw a boat lowered, but I doubt it very much now. Soon after that we got into another current, and our raft seemed to be going right round and round, the light appearing first on one side of us and then on the other. There was a fearful sea running then, and if you have seen our little raft, you may guess how hard it was to pull. As pulling was so hard. we dropped the sea anchor and let her drift a little. We than hauled up the sea anchor again and had another turn at the oars for an hour or two. trying to make for the light. Then Mr Wetherilt, whom we had elected captain prior io that, a*ked what we thought about it. He said: M think we had better let her drift, no doubt a boat has been Bent to pick us up, and they may get as in the morning.' Then." continued Roseie, "we decided to let her drift, and during that night we must have drifted a vast number of miles. In the morning (Tuesday) it was the same thing all over again, pulling hard for east, and being carried by current* round to west again. We pulled for hours, thinking we might be able to make land. ■We kept on pulling, but the current beat us, and we kept drifting backward and forward with the swing of the current, while the sea wns sweeping over u<» the whole time. Sometimes we felt like despairing, but on the whole all held up wpII. The first two i days were not sc bad, but at last we began i to get maddened. Damelson, Mallin. Robineon, Wetherilt, Job-en, and myself all pulled j as lonar^as we could every day. Danielson | „and llfllin stuck to it bravely, and were i both pulling up to within an hour of our-; being sighted by the Peuguin. We had an,| idea all the time where wje. were., but the .jnistake we made was. in keeping on steering* For the east. I- think we would have done :bebter- had- wo veered * little to the south, L jperhapH, every hour. We had- a watcb -going all the Hine.. Rossie said he could -not pretend to fix even the days on "which his eight fellow oa=«rtgers died.' The first death, -he. thought, wrs on Monday, .and they kept the body till Tueeday. Another died on* Yues- 1 dar morninsr, -and for several hours- they keys^ tbs hor'v. tonkin? th"y misrht be aT!s to mnke land. One of those days, eitl.er JklauiUv or Tuesday, there »vi3t have

been two deaths, for the first burial was on Tuesday, when three bodies were committed to the deep. That same night a fourth jumped into the sea, mad. The stewardess died on Wednesday, and two other passengers went mad from drinking salt water and jumped overboard. Ellis, the second steward, died on Thursday morning. Speaking of the time the party on the raft went without food, Rossie said it was really four days and eight hours. They had breakfast at 8 o'clock on Sunday ! morning on board the Elingamite, and they had absolutely nothing to eat or to drink except two apples until 10 minutes past 4 on Thursday afternoon, when the Penguin picked them up. Mr Wetherilt picked up one of the apples, and Rossie picked up the other and-gave it to Mr Wetherilt to divide all round. The first was cut up on Sunday night into 16 parts, and the second on Monday in the same way, both being divided before any deaths took place. Rossie then spoke of the difficulty in keeping some of those on the raft from drinking salt water. He said: "As far as I could see, all on the raft behaved well, and seemed inclined to do their best to help one another. They took their share of the work and their share of the apples without a murmur. Some of them went wrong in the head, and did not know what they were doing, but our chief trouble was keeping them from drinking salt water. Mrs M'Guirk held up wonderfully, but in spite of all we could do she drank a good deal of salt water. Only one irho drank salt water has survived —Jordan. He is the worst of the survivors. I told them repeatedly what would be the result, and I heard Wetherilt tell them; and Robinson, Mallin, and Danielson also told them. We had to watch them, for if they thought that they were not being watched, down would go their hands with a handkerchief in it into the salt water. We had to tear the handkerchief out of Jordan* hand after it had been soaked in salt water. One of the men who jumped off the raft threw up both his arms out of the water. We threw a lifebelt to him, but he pushed it away from him and went under singing. Ellis, the steward, who was the last to die, tried four different times to jump overboard. Pretty, who came from Melbourne, passed away on Wednesday night. Pretty had asked me several times to look after him, and Mallin and I were doing our best to see that he was cafe. He was lying by Mallin, and when the water was washing over the raft I asked Mallin, ' Where's Jack?' (Pretty). Mallin said, 'He is here, all right.' Just when it was half daylight and we went to look for him he was missing. Great credit must be given," continued Rossie, "to Daniolson, Mallin, and Robinson for the way they kept on rowing. The raft was really -water-logged, and we were wet all the time. We got no chance at all till the raft was lightened by the burial of the dead, when she rose out of the water, but at first, we had the life lines run round the raft and sat four on each side. Wetherilt, 1 Neill, a young fellow who was connected with the Steel Trust, and I were sitting together on one side. We never altogether despaired. When we got on the Penguin we were treated handsomely. We can never say too much about the treatment we had from Dr McLean and the officers and crew of the Penguin. You could hardly think it possible for men to treat men in a kindlier way than they treated us. We have got through it all right, and though we haye lost everything we had, I 6Uppoße we will get through that also."