Arrival of the Penguin at Auckland with the SUrVivors of the Raft.

Colonist, Volume XLVI, Issue 10568, 17 November 1902, Page 2

Arrival of the Penguin at Auckland with the SUrVivors of the Raft.

Auckland, November 15. When the new came that H.M.S. Penguin was returning ta Auckland with the survivors on the.: missing raft, thousands of people , awaited her arrival eager to know who were aniong the saved. When the Penguin steamed into Waitemata boats and launches put off in , shoals 1 and the wharves were lined - with thousands of people, among whom were many who had f riends and relatives' reported as missing. There was little for these anxious, people to see or learn. The mail- ! o'-war lay out in the . stream, and? only those priviledged to board" her :could witness 'the pathetic- scene , with the nien..who had suffered the agony and privations of nearly five days on a partly submerged raft without foodj without water, who . had seen more than half of their company die before their eyes, and ~ who had given up hope themselves. Only one of the survivors-, Mr Neale, was visible on deck. He rerclined in a wioker-chair in the shelter of the bridge— a strong man done almost jto deatji by hunger anifc thirst and exposure. Mr Neale was a passenger. He had seen his wife and child, safely into the boat soon after the Elinganiite .struck,: -and had then plunged overboard, "and reached the raft which, with seventeen people on boa«ra,\ drifted out 1 under that fatal mist. Fifteen I men and one woman (Miss McGuirk, stewardess) 1 were adrift on the mere-: framework" bf boards with .two apples among them for food, one oar;one rowlock, and one broken pad- v . die with which to fight against the . winds and tide that bore them re- ! lentlessly from the land. , Mr Neale lay feeble and worn ana scarred en the deck-chair, white seven other men were lying on pal. '" lets in the chart, roam, these eight being the sole survivors of the sixteen, who had found, as they; thought, a haven on the raft. The picture; of that chart roonv was on© not easily forgotten. In subdued, light those seven men reclined in different positions, each one , showing plainly marks of terrible ' suffering, their skin burnt and hi is- : tered on their faces, their eyes bloodshot or stained with brine and long gazing over the empty sea for succour that was so long in com-. ing. Their feet and legs-, so tender arid raw from exposure to salt water and sun as hardly to bear tfra weight of their coverings .were visible, and it made people shiver to . look at them, and to thus realise ■-..■ what agony these men must have ■-„. endured. It was pathetic to witness the., meetings between these poor sufferers and their old comrades'. One great strong man knelt down by a pallet and held a mate by the wrist and sobbed as he ■ endeavoured ta' tell the poor sufferer the grim tiding,* of those who had- gone dawn for ever. The second mate of thp Elingamite stooped over: Mallin, wjho was in an emaciated condition and Mallin feebly asked questions as to those, who were saved and those who were lost. One stalwart fel- • low, now so weak' that ihe cooild scarcely, move, asked eagerly for news. The Penguinjs doctor, however, sternly forbade too much con- , versation, for the starved and wain men were not in a .condition ta. talk much, and afterward^ all the- . visitors we've ordered- to leave the . . chart room. ...'.].:". The story these poor fellows haa... ; to tell could never be expressed in words, for they had passed through " agony too. great for language. They had seen eight of their comrades ', perish,- some mad - through tiiirst>' some utterly exhausted lay, suffer, 7 ings, and their- experience was^siin- : , ply an example of marvellousi endur- . ; ance under fearful cdnditdpns. : .--. They could fell in brief words,. _ : how one after another of their cora- : . v rades died, and how each death ligh .< teried ' the half-sunken- raft. -The? -,,, stewardess, Miss McQuirfc,; the only , ; • : woman on raft- died on ; Wednesday night, and was- buried -at sea on Thursday morning. The won- : ; ; • der is that the poor woman could ; have lasted so long under such try- ~ ing conditions . Some of thps© : who died were not" even known by name. Some, terrible to relate, _ died raying mad, plunging into- - sea to ericl their sufferings: All the horror 'of those helpless 1 days of exp,osure : oh the open ocean will v never be Teally known. •• : ; On the deck of the Penguin, lash- ■ ed to ■"■'the port bulwarks, was "the - J raft which 1 had carried- the people; t on their terrible v voyage;' '■? The^ : ?;-i structure was? abqut-12ft;long; by 7 * or 8 feet jride, J consisting' of ; narrow oi-r, wooden batiks nailed longitudiiialily between two long roynU canvasi . • ■ covered floats. It did not require

much imagination t»- imagine thet ccn'dition of sixteen people on thatfrail raft. They must have been half submercea nearly all the time, with no shelter from wind or rain or sun. Every wave must have wash ed them, every motion of' the evermoving plat-form must have buried them— "there could have been no rest on its narrow boards night or day, and in addition to this days and nights of hunger and thirst, of cold and fatigue, cf sickness and hopelessness. The story of their rescue by the Penguin is simply told in the ship's log. The s.s.. Omapere spoke the Penguin within cannon shot of the raft and turned from it in the hopelessness: of a search. The Penguin, however, went on, and. the pcrsir.tesice of her Commanaer in his humane search was rewarded. At 3.50 p.m. on Thursday a man at the Penguin's masthead espied the raft. It was then about 63 miles E.'N.E. off the Three Kings, where it had parted from the sunken Elingamite* and ] 40 miles northeast; of the North Cape. At seven minutes past four the Penguin was alongside the raft The sailors on board gave three cheers , when they saw tliat there were people still alive, anti the occupants of tjhe raft gave a feeble cheer in return. The raft and the men were hoisted .on board the war ship. The men were placed in chairs on deck whilst teas were being prepared for them in the ehartroom, and Dr McLean and others gave the sufferers) every attention that could fee given. The Penguin then headeU for Auckland and brought the survivors into the harbour as quickly as the vessel could steam. Tcrmorrow morning the survivors of the^vreck will be taken to the Auckland Hospital. Two of the unidentified men who died on the raft, are believed to he Henrickson, a young Aucklauder, and P. Danube Waihi. As it is possible that the missirg boat from the Elingamite went oast in the fog and then stood, fchelislitbouse-koeper requests passing vessels to keep a good look-ouh The Stirling has returned to Russell. She reports that she saw nothing of the missing boat.