TRAGEDY OF DORRIGO.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1926, Page 9

TRAGEDY OF DORRIGO.

TWENTY-TWO LIVES LOST. SURVIVORS’ GRIM STRUGGLE SURROUNDED BY SHARKS. TERRIBLE NIGHT ON A RAFT. Sydney, April 9. The foundering of the coastal freight steamer Dorrigo, of 715 tons, 70 miles north of Brisbane while on a voyage from Sydney to Thursday Island adds another to the long list of maritime disasters that have occurred off the coast of Queensland. The Dorrigo ran into rough weather ,took a list to port, and, battered by heavy seas, water by some means penetrated into the stokehold. The list increased and the Dorrigo finally went down by the stern. A lifeboat was launched, but after most of the crew had scrambled into it the boat capsized- The men, numbering 22, managed to cling to the overturned craft and wreckage, and that was the last the captain and his son, who had taken refuge on a piece of decking, saw of them. The captain and his son were rescued 34 hours later by the steamer Moruya, but despite a vigilant search by two other steamers the remainder of the crew were never seen, although the overturned lifeboat was sighted.

The disaster occurred at six o'clock on Good Friday morning. The first tidings of the wreck came late the next afternoon, when the Moruya signalled a shore station. A graphic story of the wreck was told by young Grey, son of the master, after his arrival in Brisbane. The cry of “Sire’s going over,” uttered by one of the firemen, woke 12 sleeping men in the forecastle head. Then ensued a scramble for life. Young Grey hastily pulled a pair of trousers over his pyjamas and hitched a belt round himself. Grabbing a lifebelt he ran on deck. Captain Gray, clad in his pyjamas, appeared on the bridge, and swiftly sizing up the predicament ordered the port boat to be lowered. CREW JUMP OVERBOARD The Dorrigo was slowly heaving over as the crew tried to launch the lifeboat. By this time the vessel’s list was becoming more and more hopeless. Cases of benzine rattled off the deck of the ship into the sea, to be followed by cases of fruit and beans. As the Dorrigo took another dangerous lurch the crew jumped overboard. Captain Gray remainecj with his ship. He walked along the starboard side and hung to the anchor as the vessel sank stern first. Meanwhile, young Gray had swum clear of the propeller, which was still churning and threatening to suck him under. One of the firemen was struggling desperately in the water. “Sling me a plank," he called out, and Gray pushed a spar toward him through the water. • The Pacific Ocean had closed over the Dorrigo, and from the spot where she sank logs shot out of the water like corks out of champagne bottles. Soon the sea was strewn with flotsam and jetsam, cases of apples and vegetables, and pieces of wreckage. Three engineers, an able, seaman and the second officer clung to some logs, which were lashed together and floated nearby. Eight others were on the overturned boat and several of the crew maintained a precarious hold on wood and spars. A stroke of luck saved the life of Captain Gray. As the Dorrigo went down portion of the after sun deck planking, covered with canvas, about 30ft by 10ft, rose to the surface underneath him. Only 50 yards separated him from the life-boat and young Gray, with a rope, set out to reach the sun deck, on which his father sat, but the rope was too short and the attempt to tie the boat to the sun deck had to be abandoned. Beans and apples were floating, and young Gray swam about gathering up as many as he could. He returned to the boat with them and then dived in again and collected more, which he brought to the sun deck. SURVIVORS DRIFT APART.

Captain Gray ordred his sob to deslrt from the dangerous task and the young man then remained with his father. A buoy and a floating log were bitched to the sun deck, and the apples and beans were placed in a bag. As the afternoon wore on, the three parties of survivor! drifted further and further apart. Toward the end of the afternoon the men on the logs could be seen waving. That was the last seen of them. As night closed in a school of sharks hovered round the sun deck. Rain pelted down on the piece of canvas. Squalls broke over them once or twice, but cleared away as the moon shone out. The circling sharks could be seen a few yards away. To the south a lighthouse gave an assurance that land was not far away. The log, which had been the mainstay of the sun deck, broke away and the planking began to break up. Daylight came on the rolling surface of the ocean, on which not a sign of smoke or sail could be seen. The sun beat down on the canvas, which afforded scant shelter for Captain Gray in his torn pyjamas, and the effects of the heat and exposure soon began to tell on him. They breakfasted, but the bag containing the beans and apples had broken, and the two men soon consumed what rs- v mained. THREE MONSTER SHARKS.

Most of the sharks left, only three huge monsters remaining. One of them settled down to wait under the sun deck, his head showing at one end and his tail at the other. The raft slowly drifted toward shore, and the two men held up the canvas as a sail. A thin, crayon-like streak in the sky announced the coming of the Moruya early in .the afternoon. The castaways waved wildly with the canvas and soon the Moruya was alongside. With difficulty. Captain Gray, assisted by two seamen, gained the deck of the rescuing steamer. The Moruya searched vainly for the remainder of the cijew aud then headed south for Brisbane. One man as least was lucky. He was Mr. A. S. Dixon, chief steward of the Dorrigo, who wishing to gain a billet which did not take him away from his home in Sydney for such long periods, signed off from the ship on Thursday morning, the day the Dorrigo sailed. He returned to Sydney by rail during the week-end ami woke up on Monday to read in the morning newspapers the tidings of the disaster.