A PERILOUS VOYAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 49

A PERILOUS VOYAGE.

The Cherry Farm wheat crop was more or less directly responsibly <^Eo,r a most trying experience in those "ocjastal days. Mr Jones entered into ax ontract with Mr Joseph by wMcft" tJH§*latter undertook to transport the T Mgg^ orf'wheat from Waikouaiti to Port for transhipment to the brig TKbmas and Henry. In the course of the transport of the wheat they left Waikouaiti on one occasion at midnight. In Blueskin Bay they were overtaken by a heavy northeasterly storm with a high sea. It was ebb tide when they reached the Heads and a tremendous sea was running. Mr Joseph squared away in order to try and make the entrance, but a big sea came on board, and they were in imminent peril of being swamped. In this condition there was no chance of entering the harbour, so they decided to stand out. They weathered the headland, and for a time stood' into the sea so as to enable them to lighten ship. Several bags of wheat and a bale of pressed hay were thrown overboard, and this enabled them to get at the water and bale out. The

craft was then headed southwards, and away she went before wind and sea. Unfortunately the boat's keg of fresh water had got capsized, and this Ted to serious trouble. Off Waikawa the Annie lost the wind. and foodless and waterless Mr Joseph and' his crew of two hopelessly drifted. After three days and three nights without a bite of food or a drop of water, a breeze came up, and early in the morning they made Bluff Harbour. A resident whaler named James Kelly saw them come in, and running down to the water's edge, made inquiries concerning them. Ascertaining their sad plight he ran back to his house and returned to the boat with a great teapot full of cold tea. Neither Joseph nor his mates had ever tasted anything; so supremely grand before. The next day their kind host killed a cow, and during their stay at the Bluff they were most hospitably treated. Regarding the killing of the cow, Mr Joseph says it was really murdered. It broke out of the enclosure in which it was penned and eventually succumbed to a series of axe-blows dealt it as it careered round the yard. In the meantime, at Port Chalmers, the gravest possible view was taken of the non-arrival of the Annie. Word had come down that Joseph and his crew had left Waikouaiti with a full cargo of wheat on the night of the storm, and as the days went by and there was no tidings the boat was given up for lost, with all hands. By some strange piece of good fortune the

news of the supposed loss of the Annie, with all .hands, was not communicated to Mrs Joseph, who was not in any way alarmed at the protracted absence of her husband, as he was frequently away for weeks at a stretch on his trips up and down the coast. Down at the water front, however, where the male portion of the community were wont to foregather, the disappearance of the boat was a fruitful topic for discussion, and Pilot Driver was one of those who held out no

hope for any trace of the absent ones being found, as he considered it impossible for an open boat to live in, suoh a se» as was running on the night of the run from Waikouaiti. Mr Joseph and his mates, quite unconscious of the stir their absence was creating, and' only too thankful to have got to some place where food and drink were procurable, remained at the Bluff until there came a favourable wind to bear them back to Otago Harbour. It so turned out that just a fort-

night after they left Waikouaiti they entered the harbour, and sailed up the channel to the wharf. There was much speculation as to what craft it was that was approaching. Some at once pronounced it to be the Annie, but they were silenced with the retort that the Annie was lost a couple of weeks before with all hands. However, the Annie it turned out to be, and a right good British welcome Mr Joseph and his crew got from the assembled townspeople.