BOOK OF THE WEEK

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

BOOK OF THE WEEK

SAILORS’ EPIC ENDURANCE

(By

U.S.)

“The Castaways of Disappointment Island,” by H. Eseott-Inman. Partridge, London.

No apology is needed for choosing a volume not newly published for this week’s review. For under this plain title and in a volume wholly inadequate in style and language there is told a story of the courage and endurance of shipwrecked mariners that has a thrill in almost every page.

Twenty-seven years ago yesterday the Government steamer Hinemoa drew into the wharf at Bluff with 15 men on board who had been rescued from the Auckland islands, those lonely and forbidding outcrops of rock in the fierce South Pacific. They were all that had been saved from a crew of 28, .12 of whom were drowned when the ship Dundonald crashed on “Disappointment Island,” the thirteenth man, the ship s first mate, having died on the island as the result of injury and exposure.

On March 6, 1907 the Dundonald ran ashore at Disappointment Island, an islet so forbidding that it was held impossible for any wrecked seamen to land there, and where because of that no depot of food and clothing for castaways had been established. The story of the wreck, told by Charles. Eyre, one of the survivors, has no word painting in. this book. As the ship was driving straight on to high cliffs she struck a submerged rock, sank, but in sinking heeled over so that her masts leaned against the cliff, and one or two men climbed ashore. Soon 16 "shivering bleeding castaways, standing on the edge of those black cliffs in the grey light of the morning, whilst below us the waves dashed, and the masts of our poor ship stuck up„like gravestones marking where she lay. . Still they were ashore, and believing they were on Auckland Island where there is a Government relief depot, they set off towards the north-east where they thought the depot would be found.. Winter begins early in those latitudes, and after toiling halfway up a mountainside mist prevented further progress. So a halt was called. The cold rain was pitiless, the men were faint with hunger and strain, most of them had little clothing and the majority were without boots, having kicked them off to secure .a last chance if they were cast into the sea. Hunger drove them to seek the nesting mollyhawks. It was not a hard task to get the birds, “but there was no way of cooking them, we could only skm them and eat them raw, tearing their warm flesh with our teeth like wild beasts.” The night was worse. I had naked feet,” states Eyre, “and I could have screamed with the agony of the cold in them. It was so bad that at last I tried to dig a hole in the ground with my nails, and, putting my feet into it, covered them with the muddy earth, and so got a little warmth into them. Morning came and with it the dreadful march, now travelling over sharp, rocky ground that cut and wounded naked feet until a trail of blood was left behind, then through long rank grass, sinking to the ankles in cold mud. Gradually the summit was reached, and with it bitterest despair. Auckland-Island was six miles away with an angry, .fierce running sea dividing the castaways from the succour of the depot and leaving them on a bleak, barren islet about three miles long and two wide. , „ . j For the moment it seemed that death in the waves would have been more merciful than a lingering death on that inhospitable peak, but courage returned and a search for fresh water began. The first pool found was brackish and bitter.. But the thirsty men drank it greedily, and suffered for their folly later. Then Eyre remembered he had some matches, a fire was started, and was tended for seven months. ' A journey back to the ship enabled two sails to be saved, and with thein and a wall of sods a rough shelter was built, the mollyhawks could be cooked and but for the lack of fresh water the second night would jiave been less agonising than the first. The next day saw the search for water renewed, and with success. This gave the foraging party courage to seek a better camping ground and they found a valley more or less sheltered and with wood and water near. There they dug holes and roofed teem with tussocks and so made rough dugouts” that gave some relief from the bitter exposure. The next piece of cheer was the discovery of seals on the beach, and of a rough pathway down from the cliff tha a sailorman could negotiate. The sealmeat gave more strength to the. men than a diet of mollyhawk and with it the desire to make some effort to reach Auckland Island depot. . By the end of July a canvas boat with timber from the twisted scrub for its framework had been made and three men set off in her for Auckland Island. The next day there was no sign of the promised smoke signal; so the three were accounted lost and the building o a second boat begun. A week later they saw smoke rising from Auckland Island and knew that their mates were abv®; Three days later they returned, to report that Auckland Island was more inhospitable than Disappointment. Eyre and others decided another attempt must be made, but all throug August the weather was rough and there was no chance of using a canvas boat. By the time September arrived starvation was threatening the camp. Supplies of birds and seals were going fast; and roots and grass formed a portion o- the diet. , , . On October 7 a successful journey was made, though the men landed with their boat wrecked, and fire, water and food all lost. They, had but two matches, both wet. and both failed. “That was the end of it; and, with the gloom which settled on the hut, a greater gloom, like the shadow of death, fell upon the souls of us castaways.” , . It proved the dark hour before the dawn. The next day they found the depot, and with its discovery most of the hardships were over. They sailed the boat found at the depot back to Disappointment Island and brought off their comrades. Life at the depot was dull but not uncomfortable. Wild cattle provided beef and on November 15 they were rescued by the Hinemoa. It is impossible to summarise the terrible experiences of those unfortunate seamen. They won through, and the regret one feels in reading this book is that the story of their courage has not been displayed at its true worth.

We suggest the following “Travel’ books for Christmas gifts. These are only a few titles from our very large and well selected stock. “Arches of the Years’’—Holiday Sutherland 7s 6d. A Time to Keep”—Holiday Sutherlands new book 12s 6d. “The Home of the Blizzard,” Sir Douglas Mawson 9s. ihe Flying Carpet”—Richard Halliburton Us 6d. “One’s Company,” (a journey to China) by Peter Fleming 10s. A. J. Fyfe Ltd. “The Book People,” New Plymouth. Next to “The Kash,” ’Phone 1397*