THE LATEST.

Colonist, Volume XLVI, Issue 10568, 17 November 1902, Page 3

THE LATEST.

Mere Graphic Descriptions of the Sufferings on the Raft. Auckland, November 15. Theodore F. Danielson, the only able seaman who was on the raft when she drifted away from the ship and from the islands, said to an interviewer :—" Of course there are many things which I cannot recall at once, and my memory is a trifle hazy, but as far as I can remember 1 will tell you what I can. I was below when the vessel struck, and the first intimation I with others below had. was hearing the look-out man cry out •All hands on deck.' We rushed up on deck, and while doing so, I heard a fearful crash below, which told us at once that the ship was gone. I rushed to the boats, and helped to launch two, and to put the women and children aboard. I then helped to launch two rafts, getting aboard the second. There were 19 on board that raft, but a boat came alongside, and took three off, leaving sitxeen. We were then terrible overcrowded, and our raft was very low down in in the water. The weather was foggy, and we could see but a very! short distance from us. We tried to make land, but could not do so. We had one sweep, one .scull, and only one. rowlock, but we made another out of the life-line surround ing the raft. Several time 3 we saw the island, and endeavored to reach it, but cur raft was too unweildy, and would not steer, nor were the oars sufficient to propel her in any direction. Through that night we vainly tried to make land, and next morning we tried to get up to the land, or to the boats, but without success. .We sighted Cape Maria Van Dieman light away to the south, and tried to make for it, but the tide changed, and swept us in a contrary direction. Finding that out efforts at making headway with the raft against currents and tides were useless, we dropped our sea aneho.r, which was a bag attached to a rope, overboard, and let the raft drift. We had no food on board with the exception of two apples, which Mr Weatherite had in his pocket. There was not a drop of fresh water aboard. A fair-sized breaker was aboard, but it did not contain - a single drop of water. During Monday night we sighted a steamer, we thought that she had observed us, for she stopped, and some of us thought she. put down a boat, which came towards us, but I did cot see the boat. - The steamer .then got under weigh again, and passed: out of sight. ;We were then bo terribly bvefloaded- that there was not sufficient room for us to. he down, and our weight was sufficient to sink the 7 deck of the raft below the surface of the water, so that we were wet the Iwhole time. Added to this, the sea was very rough, and-' we were deluged with the sea, "which swept : over, the raft; On Tuesday morning we toot to the oars again, and tried tc make for the North' Cape, steering by the: sun. Our efforts were of nc avails however, and as soon as the tide -changed we. drifted away, agair in. the opposite to that ir which we were found. That day we suffered terribly. from thirst, we. had not noticed it so ; muck on Monday, as the weather then was foggy an<] very cool, while our clothes bei.ne moist kept us. from feeling thirsty to the extent that-we did on Tuesday. On Tuesday the sun shone brightly, and :-itp,was very hot in the daytime. During' the evening we lost the firsi of our band, Mr Dickson, a passenger, his death being from exhaustion. / little later one of i the men iurnpet overboard,' and though we threw' hin a life-belt, he refused to take it, an<

sa n k out of sight in a few minutes. When the morning broke, two more of our party lay dead beside Mr Dickson, whose body we had kept' aboard in the hope of being picked up, or of making land. However, on Wednesday horning we were obliged to bury him along with the other two, whose bodies were gently pushed overboard. With four out of sitxeen gone, the raft lightened up, and her deck was out of water, and the sea calming down, we kept, a little drieiy^and were less uncomfortable. On Wednesday w« suffered terribly. .The last apple had been equally divided, but the portion of each was so : small that it was of little use, though we were devoutly thankful to obtain even so little. During that afternoon another man went mad and jumped overboard and at night still another slipped over the side and passed from sight, we suffered . terribly through the night, and before morning, Ellis, the second saloon steward, had died from exhaustion. In the mornitig early, Mrs McGui rk, the fore cabin stewardess, also passed away, dying quietly from exhaustion. She was very depressed and despondent for some time before her death. It is a marvel to me that these two latter managed to hold on to life so long, for they were so thin and emaciated. That afternoon, at about three o'clock we sighted a steamer. We had then been carried away to the north-east of the Three Kings, and we had almost given up hope of being saved alive. The sight of the steamer, however, gave us renewed hope., and I rigged up an improvised flag out of a shirt, tied on to an oar, which I held upright in the raft. We saw the steamer coming towards us, and felt sure that we had been sighted. She soon came lip close to us, a boat was lowered by her, and it came to take us off. The ship's doctor was in that boat, and he had | water, hot bovril, and brandy ready for us, giving each of us a small portion* We were then taken aboard the steamer, and we were treated splendidly by all on board. The doctor (this with the earnestness of conviction) is a thorough gentleman, and so are they all, everyone on board. They treated us with the greatest possible kindness, and 'supplied our every want. " In reply to a question as to the behaviour of the men on the raft, he said:— "As far as I saw they all behaved really well. Of course some of them Tdid peculiar things when their -sufferings drove them mad, but I can only say that I never saw anything wrong. " ■ The survivors from the wrecked s.s Elingamite's raft were tak'en to ' the Hospital this (Saturday) morning. November 16;

Mr Arthur Robinson, a passenger by the s.s. Elingamite, who is in the Hospital, was also interviewed. He said:— l came from New South Wales with Mr Gordon, who is my mate. We booked for Lyttelton, and intended to go up the country when we arrived. "When I woke up on the memorable Sunday morning it was very foggy. I went on deck, and found that Captain Attwocd— who was the true hero of the whole affair, and used every precaution, and no blame can be attached to him in any shape or form— was on the bridge the whole time, and had a man on the lqbk-ont, and another man on the forecastle, but it was impossible for anybody to see ten yards in front of him. I think it was about eleven o'clock that I went to have a lie down in the cabin, and I 'had hardly gone down, when I heard shouting, and as I thought hurrahs. The people in the cabin imagined we had sighted land, and at the moment nobody, so far as I could see, realised that there was any danger. I went up on deck, and as soon as. l could make out the rocks, through the fog, I remarked to my mate (M Jordan) that it was all up, and he agreed with me.. After stating how he got on to the raft, Mr Robinson preceded: there were then 19 on the raft. We had two oars, but only one rowlock. We were immersed in the water, the raft being much too heavily laden, and it was hard work to do anything. About half an hour later we came across the other raft, and asked them to take two or three off our raft, and so lighten it. Mrs McQuirk, the stewardess, appealed to them to take her off, and those on our raft supported her appeal, knowing that we were in a terrible condition owing to being half immersed in water. The other raft did not come close enough just then, but soon after it came pretty close, and three of our number jumped off and swam to the other raft, and were pulled on board. We had a keg on board, which would have held about 30 gallons of water, but unfortunately it was empty. The only use we got out of the keg was to give it to the stewardess to sit upon, ana it kept her dry. After a time, however, the raft being very deep m the water, and weight being a great consideration, it was decided to dispense with the keg, and we threw, it overboard. Much has been said about our suffering from thirst and hunger, but I can honestly say that I did not feel in the least thirsty or hungry for the firat two days. I attribute that to the fact of being continuously saturated with salt water. A terrible thing connected with our voyage on the raft was that tons of wreckage were strewn over ten acres or more of the sea, including cases of oranges, apples, and such things, yet we could not get any of them, as we were unable to guide the raft in any direction. We could only pull, and when we got into stronger currents we could not even do that. Two apples were obtained, and each was divided into sixteen parts, on two different days. I don't want to say much about that, continued Mr Robinson, because (looking up, with a smile) what is the sixteenth part of a*smalli apple ? Anyway, I wish I had not had my share, because a piece of it stuck in my teeth, and the wretched thing tormented me. I think there is no doubt that some of those who jumped overboard did so through fear, and want ol religion. After we lost sight of the steamer that we thought was going 0 pick us up, one man turned to the others -on the raft, arid saia : "Where is your God now?" This being a reference to prayers that had been offered up earlier in the voyage. This was said by one or those who iafterwaras gave way to despair and jumped overboard. For my own part I never doubted our ultimate salvation until the morning of the last day. On that morning I took a turn with the others at the oars, there were then only four or iive of us capable, of doing anything at all. Mr Eobinson closed^ the interview by giving great credit to Mr Wetherill, to Mr Danielson, the quartermaster of the. Elingamite, who be said was a very brave fellow, and also to Tom Mallin (a fireman). AH those, he said, did great service in helping them to keep the raft afloat. v-v: •-■• i .-. .