MAROONED.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 October 1919, Page 5

MAROONED.

i TERRIBLE tale of ! HARDSHIPS, i ' | LORD JELLICOE'S SYMPATHY. ; A PRESENTATION FROM NATIVES. By Telegraph.—Press i«anCopyrleUt. Received Oct. 25, p.m. Famiiug Island, Oct. 24. The marooned men picked up by the New Zealand on Christmas Island are at present the guests of the Fanning Island cable staff. They are recuperating after 1 their terrible privations during the past year. They were left on the island by tlie.bssiw, father Rougier, in the middle of .Wit), with a scanty stock of provisions 9i:<l a. promise that a relieving ship would arrive within forty days. These men, with the manager of the Rougier* station, named English, a French youth, and a Tahitian were the only inhabitants, and | were almost desperate when the New : Zealand appeared. The landing party, which included Lord ; Jellieoe, ww held up by Mr. English, i who was elftd only in a tattered pair of ! shorts, patched with a rice hag. ! Lord Jellieoe was amused at the comical spectacle presented by the men holding up the warship with a revolver, though he took a personal interest in th 6 hardships suffered by the party, and had a long talk with English, Lady Jellieoe read his diary. The commander of the New Zealand had his officers working all night copying the charts, which had been executed with remarkable exactitude by English, and the meteorological reports made during the enforced stay on the island. The map showed the positions of various wrecks on Christmas Island, which is a veritable death trap of the Pacific. There was evidence oi eight wrecks, while millions of feet of lumber, mostly in good condition, were strewn along the shores. The irony of the marooned men's situation was the possession of three automobiles needed for traversing long distances between scattered cocoanut groves. The unfortunates thus had the means of travelling de luxe, yet were without clothes, food, or comforts. Rats swarmed everywhere at first, and had devoured pillows and blankets while the men slept. English said he would gladly have exchanged the automobiles for a clean shirt, trousers, and the means of shaving to enable him to welcome the distinguished visitors and life savers in some semblance of cleanliness, instead of a Robinson Crusoe-like attire and a revolver point. English kept a faithful diary during the whole time on the island. 1 This contained some entries which were pathetic in their hopelessness, day by day looking, longing and praying for a ship to arrive. Distress, ill health from exposure, and the wretchedness of the food nearly drove the men crazy, and they would not have been able to exist many more weeks. When Mr. English left the warship, Lord Jellieoe presented him with his photograph, saying: "Yours is the hardest time I've ever heard of. You must have some little souvenir." It was endorsed: "To Joseph from Jellieoe, Admiral of the Fleet." The natives at the cable station presented Lord Jellieoe with a shark's tooth sword. Lord Jellieoe wirelessed: "Thank the natives warmly for their kind gift, which I shall value exceedingly."