SUPPOSED tOSS OF BARQUE WITH ALL HANDS.

Colonist, Volume XLIX, Issue 12016, 17 August 1907, Page 3

SUPPOSED tOSS OF BARQUE WITH ALL HANDS.

Auckland, August lb. The Collector of Customs has received a communication from a resident at Awanga, Great Barrier, as follows :-— I have picked up several pieoes of wreck on the south-eastern side of Great Barrier. Some pieces of the timber were broken, with large letters. "When put together the pieces had on one side the words "Margarita. " land on the reverse side the words "Constance Craig." Also the leg of a table, and a chock tor holding a boat on deck, one fourteen foot paddle, and sundry other bits of timber ; also a piece of skylight^ This taken with the recent report that the Constance Craig's boat was found washed ashore at Hokianga, is regarded as retty conclusive proof of the vessel's wreck " A steamer is being despatched to search the Islands in the hope of finding the crew. . ?Re the barque Constance Craig the following wire has been received by Mr Chrisp, one of the owners of the vessel, at present in Auckland, from MrlMartin, harbourmaster and pilot at Hokianga:— "Barque was sighted on 26th July and reported as the Constance Craig. She was painted grey with black ports. No signals were exchanged. 1 know the old Margarita well, and as the Marjone Craig, the only vessel I could have mistaken her for, is here. Captain Campbell says that he did leave the Wade T on F that date andjjwas not within sixty miles of her until Saturday night last. I feel confident it was the Constance Craig I saw. If she has had the hard winds which have prevailed here, viz, southeast pnd east until August 8, westerly since then, she should have shown up againjunless the vessel has been disabled." Wellington, August 16. Schultz of the barquentme Mary. lsabel, now, in Wellington, was formerly master of the Constance Craig. He says the Captain of he lattter vessel was.Finlay Morrison, not Peterson; he was a native of Orkney Islands and leaves a wife and two children now in Melbourne. Gisborne, August 16. News has been received that wreckage has been found at Great Barrier belonging to 'the overdue barque Constance Craig, locallyowned. The wreckage includes a board with the name of the vessel, cabin fittings, and a skylight. It is feared that all hands have \ been lost. The vessel was owned; by Captain Kennedy and Mr E. J. Chrisp, of Gisborne. The Constance Craig's crew were:— Captain; Kiqlay Petersen (Sydney) ; E. Peterson, mate (Sydney); H, Lewis, second fc mate (Anglesey), aged 48; Mao Donald, A.8. ; H. Hansen (Brooklyn), aged 28; T. Brown J( Perth), aged 24; J. Nelson, sailor (Liverpool), aged 45; A. Stein; E. Eoberts; F. Mackm (cook and steward); A. Millar (Norway), aged|34. 'The vesselwas owned by the v stance Craig Ship Company. The Constance Craig was insured for £2500 in the North Queensland Office. "The loss to the owners; will probably be fully £2000 above that amount. When the vessel was last at Gisborne she was supplied 3 with a complete outfit of new sails, her old sails having suffered damage during a storm in the Bay of Plenty on the vessel's voyage from Newcastle, when she bada perilous experience. Mr Bridger, the chief mate, left the Costance Craig at Gisborne to go up for examination, and he was to join the barque at Hokianga. . ■ . . The Constance Craig was formerly known as the the "Margerita" The following men joined the ship at Gisborne to replace others transfered to the barquentine lima : Lewis, Miller, Hanson, Brown, Keogh, and Nelson.