TOTAL WRECK AT APIA

Otago Witness, Issue 3338, 6 March 1918, Page 40

TOTAL WRECK AT APIA

SCHOONER STRANDS ON REEF. The four-masted American schooner Mahukona, 750 tons, was wrecked at Apia on January 19, and has become a total loss (says the correspondent of the New Zealand Herald). The vessel, of which Captain Theodore Johnson, of San Francisco/ was in command, had loaded a cargo of approximately 900 tons of copra. When the schooner left her moorings there was a light easterly wind, and she had also the assistance of the motor sohoon'er Manua, with the pilot, Lieutenant Allen, in charge. The wind dropped, and the motor schooner lost command, with the result that the strong westerly set of the current carried the vessel on the western reef at the approaches to the entranoe of Apia. Every effort was made to save the ship, but within three hours the vessel's hold was full of water, and the hatches having burst open, tine cargo of copra commenced to float out of the hold. Nearly all the ship's gear was saved in a more or less damaged condition. The masts stood for fou* days, after which they disappeared, leaving only the stamp of the jigger-mast standhg. A few hours afterwards the wreck was sold by auction to Mr H. J. Moors for £4O. The salvage from the wreck is also to be sold. The night after the sale the vessel began to break up. Captain Johnson's personal effects, .the ship's instruments, and the crew's effects were rescued. An inquiry, lasting several days, was held. The evidence will be forwarded to the United States, where a further inquiry will be held, and a final decision will be given there. The reefs at the entrance to Apia are now marked by two wrecks, the Mabxikona, on the west, and the E. B. Jackson on the east, both of which have been destroyed within a year.- Such a sorry spectacle has not been witnessed in Apia since the disastrous hurricane of 1889. The value of the two vessels/ was 'approximately £BO,OOO.