PERILS OF THE SEA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 131, 26 July 1911, Page 6

PERILS OF THE SEA.

SUFFERINGS OF A CREW. Sydney, July 25. The Whangaroa’s crew have arrived here. They had a trying time. They got within two hundred miles of the New South Wales coast on June 19, but gales swept and knocked them about in an alarming manner. The deck load of timber was cut adrift, but still the ship was driven helplessly before the: waves, which made a clean breach over her.

The crew were working waist high in water and the pumps were kept going. She gradually settled down, however, and became waterlogged, the timber cargo keeping her afloat. The only place of safety was the top of the deck cabin, where the crew crawled and hung on by ropes.

The galley was.gutted, but the cook managed to save a tin of biscuits and a bag of potatoes, which constituted the only available food for nearly a week.

They hung on to their frail shelter, the gales still howling. The rain for three days fell in torrents, and when it ceased the water supply failed. This added to the buffering.

.; The Whangaroa was still drifting, and there was no chance to ascertain her position. All her instruments had been lost. At last the deck cabin was smashed, and the crew were deprived of their only shelter. Just after Lord Howe' Island was sighted, tiie men took a boat and reached the island in an exhausted condition.