A Tale of the Sea.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8055, 2 November 1897, Page 4

A Tale of the Sea.

By the arrival at Liverpool of the second officer, Mr J. F. Snape, of the ship Kinkora, particulars have been obtained of some marvellous expeiiences of shipwrecked mariners. The Kinkora, a large iron sailing vessel, sailed from Vancouver for London with timber on .March '2.^. She sprung a leak, and on April '27 the men told the captain that they would not pump any longer, as the water gained three or four inches an hour, and they were exhausted. The captain made for Clipperton Island, on which three men wore living. All the 20th the vessel was manoeuvred, in the hope of finding anchorage. Air Snsipe and four hands got ashore, swimming through the surf from the lifeboat, which capsized. One of the throe Americans offered to pilot the Kinkora, but when she got under way she was caught in a current, and before long Mas bumping on a reef. The island belonged to the Oceanic Phosphate Company, of San Francisco, and was all sand, without a trace of vegetation. Stores were got ashore from the Kinkora, and it Mas hoped the shipwrecked mariners would ere long get away r in a schooner that the Americans expected, but after IS days' slay the latter said it might bo September before the schooner arrived. To remain there so long would have meant starvation, though they caught fish. At last the first and second mates and six seamen started oil in an open boat for Aeapulco, 700 miles distant, and this place they reached in 15 days, after an unpleasant passage, having heavy tropical rains for six days and nights. They never saw a sail, and arrived at Aeapulco on June .'!. A telegram was sent to England, and Her Majesty's ship Conius called at Clipperton Island and took oft" Captain Mc.Murty and the remaining 14 men, who had been on the island 40 days. A Naval Court investigated the circumstances at the British Consulate, San Francisco, and reached the conclusion that the vessel was lost through excessive leaking, but they could not decide the cause of the leak ; that it M-as sheer exhaustion thai- caused the men to refuse to continue I |i:un]MMu, ,u i<l under (he cii ctiiii--t:uices the | Court did not consider (heir conduct deserved | censure. The master appeared to have navigated his vessel in a seamanlike and proper manner.