LIFE ON A RAFT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 456, 27 July 1915, Page 2

LIFE ON A RAFT.

THE STRATHCONA WRECK. STRUCK ON MINERVA . REEF. ]'re.t.i A/modalion. AUCKLAND, July 2(5. Further particulars of the wreck oi. the Strathcona, the Pacific Cable Board's schooner, came by mail from Suva to-day. At the lYTarine Enquiry in Suva the captain of the Strathcona- stated that ■the weJither for a day or two after leaving Auckland was bad; however, he di<l not ascribe his mishap to that, but to his compasses. At 7.20 o'clock on the evening of June 10 he had just worked out his position as 29 miles from Minerva Reef when the mate gave a sudden alarm and the vessel struck on what proved to be the Minerva Reef. i'They remained on board the ship on the top of the reef that night, and next morning dragged the boats a considerable distance over the reef into the lagoon. f Afterwards, said the captain, they built a large raft.,, on which they placed, a stove and erected a tent, and eight men took up their quarters there while the captain and ijpur men undertook a perilous voyage of some hundreds of : miles to the Ono Islands in a launch. They were picked up by the search steamer as already described, when returning from Ono in. a cutter. The eight other men spent an unenviable time on the reef, where they had plenty of supplies and fish. When the search steamer left the Strathcona was lying on Tier, side on the reef, and was likely to become- a total wreck.