AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE.

Colonist, Volume XXII, Issue 2551, 20 May 1879, Page 3

AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE.

Ok Sunday afternoon, a little sailing boat came into harbor, which, in the way of an eventful voyage, had accomplished fully as much as either of the boats of a similar size in which men have dared death by crossing the Atlantic from England to America. The boat referred to is 28 feet long, with a beam of 7 feet. Originally a whaleboat, she has been risen upon or built higher, by her owners arid decked so that fiom her deok to the floor is 3 feet. Laurence I Lenny and his son William, who although but 17 looks much older, had enlarged and rigged up their boat with the object of using her for fishiug, they intending to start * fishing station at Jackson's Bay, where they resided. On the 23rd April, they lett that place in thair boat, which they had rigged as a ketch, to proceed to Hokitika to obtain th* necessary appliances to enter upon their undertaking, and also to get their boat more properly1 fitted. For five days they experienced light variable weather, and finding their roughly decked craft took in water through the deck planking, and also that it was impossible7 to sit upright under it, they ran her ashore at a desolate spot called Pirriringa, where 'they spent seven' days,1 j occupied in further raising the after part of their deck so as to form asmall oabin and give them space to sit down in} and then, having origipally started with but ten days provisions, they set sail once more for Hokitika, but with'light winds they were not of that port till seten o'clock on the evening of the Bth May. They anchored outside the bar and rode there all night | the next morning the steamer, Waipara came out, and Captain Bignell Kindly offered, to take the men ashore, though rather than lose their oraft the; deolined his offer; but they gratefully accepted a loaf j and some mutten, for their provisions Were gone and they had had no fr**h #*ter siao* leaving PirHringai i Lattr in tha dar» the as* bessjuof hsavilj en the

bar, they were signalled to put to sea, and this they did with the loss of their anchor, and they ran for the Bullet. Ob Saturday morning, tho 10th instant, they were off the Westport bar,, but the sea web so rough, and they were making water eo fast, some four or five inches an hour, that they were compelled to keep running before the S.W; gale.- In time they reached Cape Farewell, and on Sunday they rounded the Cape and stood for Nelson, but calmß prevailed and , they made no headway. >; On the 14th instant They got as far as the Tata Islands, and there they went ashore and where most hospitably entertained and supplied with provisions by Mr Organ,, and the ketch Argus, .waiting thereifor a fair, wind and bound to Nelson, lent them a kedge anchor. Last Friday, they left, the ,Tata Islands, and arrived as above. As may be imagined the men, who were accompanied in-their perilous trip by their dog, were completely exhausted by their exertions and from want of food, for, till they were relieved by Mr Organ, they had nothing after parting with Captain Bignell beyond what they then received from him, but a few 'mussels, which, fortunately, had been left in the bottom of the boat, and all that time they had no water and _, were compelled,to resort to the expedient of placing pieces of mussel shell in their mouths to somewhat allay their thirst. The men are staying at the Custom House Hotel, and express gratitude.. to ;Mr Osborne for his kind treatment of them; and their boat may be seen lying alongside the Corporation wharf, opposite the gas works.