BIG STEAMER'S PLIGHT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13393, 29 May 1914, Page 8

BIG STEAMER'S PLIGHT.

" » ArDRIFT IX THE PACIFIC. WITH^A BROKEN TAIL SHAFT. t SYDNEY, May 18. Crippled beyond repair* on the high sea B with, a broken tail-shaft, and drifting helplessly at the mercy of the wind and sea is the terrible plight of thef tramp :>teanier Gairnhiil, bound from Nauru- Island, m the Pacific, to Germany. . . News of the perilous position of the -. Cairnhill was brought to Sydney on Saturday by the N.D.L. liner Prinz Sigismund, which arrived from the East via the German possessions m the Bismarck Archipelago. There wero on board the Prinz Sigismund 12 of the crew of the steamer Cairnhill,, who after a desperate struggle m boats extending over a week or more had reached Rabaul, German New Guinea, leaving the captain, chief engineer, second mate, fourth engineer, and chief steward still aboard the vessel. THE BREAKDOWN . . The Cairnhill is a steamer 400 feet long, of 4981 tons gross. She was burilt i.nV-* \\vo years ago. She left Nauru on .March 27 for Stettin, Germany, with a <:j.t^o of 8400 tons of phosphates. Captain J. Moodie was m charge, and fov four days the vessel made good headway, running practically along the Equator,, and steering for An jer Point, •lava, where she was to receive orders whother to make the voyage via Suez Canal or to take the longer but cheaper ijuto round .the Cap© of Good Hope. Thou the ta.il shaft broke, and, deprived i-i the use of her propeller, the Cairnhill lay helpless. For nine .days the engineers* tried every expedient they could devise to repair the damage. * Their efforts were futile, and 'the ship was drifting eastward about 15 miles a day. It was finally decided to send boats to try to reach Rabaul. Tlie captain hoped by this means to secure help for the ship, and m any case to give the crew a better chance of safety than they. -would have by remaining' on the drifting steamer. Three boats were got ready, only the captain and his' four companions staying behind.

LEAVING THE CAIRNHILL.

The ship's company totalled 39, of whom there were 19 Chinese firemen. The steamer was left on April 9 at a point about 150 miles north of New Mecklenburg (New Ireland), the exact location being . Lat. Odeg. 31min. Si, Long. 152deg. 47min. E. This spot is right m the track of steamers travelling bet-tfeen Sydney and Yokohama. The chief mate (Mr Oulloden) was m charge of one lifeboat, the third mate (Mr John Walker) of the other lifeboat, and the boatswain (Mr A. Hohn) of a smaller open boat. Each lifeboat carried 14 men, and the small boat 6. The Chinese, who w,ere panic-stricken from the stai't, were divided between tlie boats. A lifeboat was left on the Caimhill. It was intended that the three 'boats should stick together, bnt on tlie night of April 11, after being a day out, they were separated. Next day a fearful storm sprang up.

CHIEF OFFICER HAS ROUGH TIME. /■' In the chief officer's boat two barrels of water Sprang a leak, and became mixed with brine, leaving only one cask fresh enough to drink. Everything got soaked with salt water except the tinned meat. The Chinese, frenzied with, fear, had to be i kept m the bottom of the boat lest m their panic they might do some harm. The white men struggled on wearily, and at the end of two days, when the storm subsided, they were weak and exhausted. They were on short rations for a couple of more days, when they reached Seeah, m New Mecklenburg. They were given some roots and cocoanuts by the natives. They sailed 30 miles to another village, and then, guided by a black boy, walked another 30 miles to Clarissa, where they arrived on the point of exhaustion. The mate made this last stage of the journey m a cutter belonging to a Chinese trader. From Clarissa to Rabaul is only 38 miles, and the mate made strenuous attempts to get across m the cutter, but failed, and eventually did the trip m a motor boat.

MEAT ON THE TROUBLED WATERS

Tho bosun and his party had an even worse time. In their little boat the white men were baling throughout the storm, keeping an oar ready all the while to smash the skull of any Chinese who became too troublesome. They found tho only way to get satisfaction out of the weather was to open the tins of meat and throw , the fatty contents on ib* water. * This acted like oil, and m th'i opinion of the bosun it was the only ti'.Mia that kept them afloat. But when the storm subsided they had nothing left to eat but . a 61b. tin of .beef. They managed to live on it for the next five days, and at the end of a week from the time they left the steamer they crawled ashore on Nissan I -land. They, stopped there f for three days, waiting for a favorable wind '. carry them to New Mecklenberc. The Swedish settler on the island gave them what food he could spare, but he was short himself, so on tlie fourth day, no wind having sprung up, they set out to row to New Mecklenburg. The task occupied four days, the sea • being as calm as a millpond-all the way. Thej reached a native villag-3, where the inhabitants, who had been taught the value of money, charged them Is each for cocoanuts, and five marks (about 4s 3d) for a small chicken. The bosuns party squandered £3 5s among the natives — and got very 'little for it. They spent the next five days coasting round to Clarissa, where they joined the chief mate's party.

A WEEK WITHOUT SLEEP. The third officer and his mien spent eight sleepless days and nights m their boat. They were wet through. most of the time, and the terrified Chinese had to be watched incessantly. Most of their bread and biscuits were washed away, and they landed lean' and hungry at Papiro, New Mecklenburg. They had some tobacco left, and the natives eagerly traded cocoanuts for'it. On this slender diet they marched 25 miles to Labor, crossing a mountain 2000 ft high, and there they fell m with a Chinese trader who owned two small boats. In these they were taken to Mioko Island, where a large picnic party fvom Rabaul was spending the day. The picnickters took them to Rabaul. Here they were joined by the chief mate and the bosuns crew, who all came from Clarissa m a motor boat. UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH POR CAIRNHILL. At Rabaul the little German steamer Siar and another steamer were chartered to search for the Cairnhill, but* after a hunt of ten days,- the vessels returned unsuccessful. Tho crew remained at Rabaul for a week. With the -exception of the chief piate, who stopped there to carry on the search for the Cairnhill, the white men then joined tho Prinz Sigismund, leaving the Chinese behind. They carried letters addressed to the shipping authorities m Brisbane, but as the Prinz Sigismund was not allowed to land passengers at Brisbane, all hands had to come on to Sydney. _____________