A STORY OF THE SEA.

Patea Mail, Volume XXIX, 2 December 1907, Page 2

A STORY OF THE SEA.

THE WRECK OF THE DUNDONALD.

SURVIVORS CASTAWAY ON THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS.

HOW THEY LIVED FOR SEVEN

MONTHS,

The Hinemoa, which had on board the scientific expedition, on arriving at Port Ross at the Auckland Islands, noticed a flag flying half-mast at the Government depot. A boat was launched and on shore were found the survivors of the wreck of the barque Dandonald. G. Eyre, A. 8., one of the survivors, gives the following account of the wreck of the Dundonald ;

“ I signed on to the Dundonald in Sydney, the vessel being bound for Falmouth for orders. She was laden with wheat. The weather on the night of the Gth March was very thick and heavy. Suddenly at 12.30 a.m. on the 7th land was seen right ahead. We tried to wear the ship short round, but she would not stay and went stern first into a crevice in the cliffs. Orders were given to clear the lifeboats, but it was found to be useless, as there*was a big sea and rocks all round us. The steward gave up all hope of saving himself and said “Good-bye, boys; I’m too old to get ashore.” He went into his cabin and shut the door. Soon after the compressed air in the hold blew up the deck. The mate told ua to get under the forecastle head, as the ship might be dismasted. When we saw tho seas coming we went on the forecastle head, but were not there more than a couple of minutes when the water began to come right over. One tremendous sea washed clean over us, and although % we all managed to bane: on, the next one washed us all away. I don’t know what became of the others, but I was whirled, round and round, I caught hold of the foot of the forecastle, but was instantly torn away by the sea. 1 then caught hold of one of the shrouds and climbed up. John Judge followed me. We went on to the foretopgallant yard, as it was canted towards the shore. We then thought it was touching the cliff, but found it to be about sixteen feet away. About an hour before daylight we began to climb down to the foretop, and found about twelve men there, including the first and second mates. The mate told us to prepare for the worst, as tne mast could not stand much longer. Suddenly I heard a voice from the shore opposite, and found it to be Michael Poole, a Russian Finn. I cut one of the of the topsail bunt lines, threw it to him, and we made fast at botli ends. By this means we all managed to get ashore. The cliff was about 300 feet high, and at the point just above the mast was a very steep slope, which allowed us to climb up with comparative ease. Thera, were sixteen of us, out of 28 got ashore, which left 12 to be accounted for as drowned. They were washed away when tho big sea swept the ship. I now learned that ' the first man ashore, Walter Low, called out to pass a rope, but before this could be done he slipped over the cliff into the sea, and was never seen again. Later on we iliscovered that there was no depot on that island. This was a great disappointment to the mate, who, along with the second mate, bed been seriously ill from exposure. We never expected the , second mate to recover, but he gradually got better. The mate, however, after finding he was not on the main Auckland Islands, was disheartened. He sank rapidly, and died on the 12th day after the wreck. He was over 60 years of age. By this time we had discovered that we were on Disappointment Island. After the mate’s death we shifted over to the eastern side of the island. The first day after getting ashore we subsisted upon raw mollyhawks. The few matches amongst us were wet, and it was three days before we could gat them dry When we once got a tire going we banked it up and kept it alight for sevenmonths. We managed to scrape through the winter all right by living on seahawks, mollyhawks, and seals. We knew the depot was on the other island, which was about six miles distant, but we did not know how to get across. Three men built a boat of canvas and sticks. To do this we had to put in pieces of our clothes and blankets and sew them together. We did sewing by means of a small bone from one of the birds with a hole bored in with a little bit of wire we had. On the 31st July a start was made in the boat for the main island, which was reached all right, but as they could not find the depot they came back on the 9th August. They had six matches with them, and used four while over there. Then a second boat was built in September but the boat was smashed by the sea before it could get away. We built a third one in October, and started again with a party of four. We got over to the large island, but as we reached the shore we struck a rock, and the boat was smashed. We scrambled ashore again, but the mishap put out a fire which we had carried in the boat on a sod. We had carried the fire in order to save matches, of which we had only two. On the fourth after landing we struck the depot. There was a good boat at the depot, but uo sails, so we cutup our clothes to make a sale so that we could return to Disappointment Island for the rest of the crew. We had been seven months on Disappointment Island. You can imagine: our delight when the Hinemoa put in an appearance eight months after the day of our shipwreck. When we got to the depot we found only ships’ biscuits and tinned meat, no tea, butter, sugar or coffee. We found the door of the depot open, and it was evident that some of the stores had been purloined. We used roots qf a plant (stilbocarpa polaris) forvegetables, and it was not bad when> boiled. We also made coffee from sea biscuits by roasting them. We afterwards found a little tea at Enderby Island Depot.”